Nearly a year ago I re-launched montemagno.com with the goal of creating a website rich of developer content, powered by Ghost a great CMS system, and with beautiful branding and theming that was mobile responsive.

Monthly Newsletter

Something I have always wanted to have was a newsletter that would allow me to have a closer relationship with my readers than just back and forth on Twitter. That is why I am pleased to announce that I am starting a monthly newsletter that is completely free (I promise NEVER to spam you and will NEVER sell or rent your information to anyone). Each month the newsletter will feature my favorite articles around the community and commentary from me of what is happening in the world of technology and development.

You can also get blog notifications by subscribing via RSS at montemagno.com/rss or follow on Feedly!

Enhanced Search

One of the first features I added last year was a simple Search mechanism powered by ghostHunter. I have since updated to the latest and greatest version that has smarter fuzzy-logic serach and on type results:

Prettier Code

Part of owning my own blog and customizing it was to ensure that the content I could create and the code I was sharing could shine. I integrated Rainbow to stylize code, but it wasn't perfect. I have updated to the latest and greatest version and also spent some time optimizing the style and colors to be closer to Visual Studio. Check it out:

// Here are some comments!
public class Grouping<K, T> : ObservableCollection<T>
{
    public string Hello = "World";

    public K Key { get; private set; }

    public Grouping(K key, IEnumerable<T> items)
    {
      Key = key;
      foreach (var item in items)
        this.Items.Add(item);
    }
}

Tons of Tweaks

There are several little tweaks and UI optimizations around the site that I think everyone will enjoy. I have also reduced the overall number of advertisements (which help me pay for hosting) and am working more closely with developer specific advertisers so the ads themselves are better for everyone. On this week's Merge Conflict I chatted with Frank about my move to Ghost and how I used Handlebars, Gulp, Sass, and VS Code to make updates to the site. Give it a listen:

It has been over 15 years since I started blogging on the internet and nearly 5 years since I started my dedicated development blog, MotzCod.es, focusing on cross-platform mobile development with Xamarin and C#. I have loved each and every moment of running my blogs and being able to write about my true passions in life. Throughout the years the number of blog posts I generated grew, readership grew, and I have also grown a lot in life and my career. With all that growth, I knew it was time for a change. That is why I am so incredibly excited to introduce the next evolution of my blogging life on the internet with Montemagno.com.

I have actually owned this domain for over 12 years at this point and never put it to good use until now. Montemagno.com is your one stop for everything James!

Is there still code?

Absolutely! The blog and all of its content can now be found here with all images and source code intact, and with proper redirects from the old website. The blog itself is my main focus, and that is why it is on the front page of the site. While I may still talk about travel or video games from time to time, you will find a large portion of my blogs focusing on mobile development with Xamarin.

Even better is that you can now find things easier with a more awesome search, tags, and great recommendations on the bottom of each post. Looking for other code-related things I am involved with? Then checkout all of my awesome podcasts that I release weekly and also take a look at upcoming conferences I will be speaking at in the near future.

Under the Hood

You are probably thinking, "Wow, This website looks great! How was it built?". First, you are correct it does look great, runs great, and the content really shines. That is becuase it is all powered by the most awesome blog platform in the world, Ghost. I was an original Kickstarter backer and have been waiting to make the transition away from Tumblr for some time now. With the release of 1.0 I finally jumped ship and spent a lot of time putting polish onto every little element on the screen.

Some large perks came from this move. The code highlighting is much improved, all images have been uploaded to Ghost servers for super fast caching and viewing around the globe, and I love supporting awesome open source projects. I also figure that if Ghost is good enough for Troy Hunt, then it is good enough for me!

Many Thanks

I want to first thank you, my loyal reader, who keeps coming back to my blog, leaving comments, and reaching out to me on Twitter for even more.

Today not only is the relaunch of this site, but an entire launch of a lovely branding and styling update for me! I worked with my goods friends over at Cinder Design Co. over the last serveral months to craft an identity for the label, site, and content that you see all around here and soon out in the wild.

If you know me, then you know I am a C# developer and know very little about this crazy world of javascript, css, and all the crazy stuff in that world. That is why I asked my good friend Luke to help me out and crush some code around the site. A lot of the customizations were done by him and he tought me how to get Ghost, Gulp, Grunt, NPM, Node.js, and just about every other framework up and running on my local machine so I could finely tweak the layout to my liking!

I hope that you love the new Montemagno.com just as much as I do and keep coming back for more awesome blog posts.