Heather Floyd
Independent Umbraco Developer
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Heather Floyd is an Umbraco & .NET Developer based in New York and primarily serving North America. She has been involved in website and software development for over 20 years and developing with the Umbraco CMS since 2006. She specializes in information architecture and development efficiency. Heather is also an organizer of the NYC Umbraco Meetup group, an Umbraco MVP, contributor of articles to Skrift and 24 Days as well as a member of the Umbraco USA Festival planning committee.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Improving the Architecture of an Existing Site
Over time, Umbraco websites can morph into “frankensites” as developers come and go, adding on new functionality and abandoning old content. These sites can become fragile, overly complex, and less efficient.
Whether you have just inherited a long-running site, or take responsibility for the overgrowth yourself, undertaking a clean-up project can pay dividends in increased developer and operational efficiency. Heather will share her experiences of a decade of working with shifting inherited sites towards better architecture through simplifying and consolidating Datatypes, Content Types, and Templates. She will also discuss ways to avoid future “junk buildup” by thinking about content architecture separate from visual design.
Takeaways:
- How to use an “upgrade” as an excuse to clean out accumulated cruft
- Tools to help identify areas for safely trimming
- Why developers can get psychological relief from a clean-up project
Bringing “Open-Source” Out of Software and Into the World
My experience with the Umbraco community over the last 20 years has shown me that open-source principles and values translated into the structure and operation of IRL communities and organizations can be powerful and beneficial to all involved.
I have observed how Umbraco HQ’s initiatives in tandem with community culture have resulted in valuable work getting done and meaningful interactions among those involved. Values of Transparency, Participation, and Win-Win Thinking have emerged as translatable tools which can be applied to other types of communities and organizations to achieve similar successes.
Takeaways:
- Examples of Transparency, Participation, and Win-Win Thinking I have seen in the Umbraco community
- Ways to bring those values into other environments to increase engagement and achieve organizational objectives
- The mindset shifts needed to have successful “open-source style” initiatives
Developers + Content Editors + Umbraco Deploy = ❤️
If you have a serious web project, you will have at least 2 environments running - your live site plus a development / testing space. Umbraco Deploy (a core feature of Umbraco Cloud hosting, as well as a stand-alone product) is a key part of a smooth, efficient, and confident deployment process for Umbraco-based websites.
Over the years of working on multiple Umbraco Cloud projects with different types of clients, Heather has put together some Umbraco Deployment best-practices to share with you. And, with a look towards the present and future of Umbraco Deploy, there are some exciting new tools available to talk about.
Key Takeaways
- The human and technical sides of deployment: understanding and creating an effective workflow
- Current Umbraco Deploy features and a look towards the future
- A demo of an external open-source package which works in conjunction with Umbraco Deploy to get a better overview of the Content/Media differences between your various environments
We All Belong in Tech
Why do so many developers suffer from “Imposter Syndrome”? Why do so many talented people shy away from pursuing a tech career – even if it intrigues them? Partly to blame is the mythical geek origin story of a kid (probably a privileged white boy - à la Mark Zuckerberg) who is a natural computer or math genius and goes on to found a hot startup. The truth is that a rewarding tech career is open to all of us, regardless of background. This talk will share 4 things I’ve found over my own career to be essential to success – and within everyone’s reach.
Separate Schema from Design Using Theming and Content Blocks
Website visual designs inevitably change every few years, but if your Umbraco architecture is “design-agnostic”, a new layout doesn’t mean a full website rebuild.
You will learn how to recognize a “design-oriented architecture”, why this is inherently limiting, and how you can move away from it. Heather will demo the Theming system she developed and share some ways that a modern Umbraco Content Block architecture can give your site editors more freedom, while developers control the design aesthetic.
Takeaways:
- Problems with a “design-oriented architecture” – and alternatives
- How to use Theming for maximum flexibility and control
- Cool things to do with Content Blocks and Data Lists!
DXP for Any Size Organization
"DXP" (Digital Experience Platform) is marketing-speak for what most developers would call an "Integration" - sometimes with a third-party SAAS provider, sometimes with databases or other systems developed and used internally.
Though it sounds very "enterprisey" (and it can be), DXP is really for everyone, and Umbraco makes it possible to integrate with practically anything.
The presentation will include an overview of the various integration points built-in to Umbraco along with tips for choosing the best ways to manage different use-cases.
The Evolution of Gridded Content in Umbraco
Since the development of CSS-based grid systems, Umbraco developers have been working on ways to allow Content Editors to manage grid-layout content in user-friendly ways. Fortunately, that effort has contributed to the flexible and structured Data types now available in Umbraco’s core.
Heather will review how website design trends have changed the way we think about constructing a content page and a brief history of “grids” in Umbraco, since version 7. We’ll also look at the advantages inherent in using Element types to organize otherwise “unstructured” pages.
Takeaways:
- Content Blocks and Block Grid today: different ways to think about grid content.
- Ways to make the user experience of adding grid layout pages easy for Content Editors.
- How to give your Editors power over the layout without them having to understand the grid framework CSS
TechBash 2023 Sessionize Event
Codegarden 2023 Sessionize Event
Umbraco US Summit 2022 Sessionize Event
Umbraco Codegarden 2022 Sessionize Event
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