## Minor Changes and Mini Life Update 
I have delved into learning more technologies since the last blog update. I have started learning more about noSQL databases (specifically MongoDB) and have been slowly improving on my state management and integrating more React Hooks when developing apps on the front-end side.

I have started developing a full stack application with MongoDB as my database and hope to release the website in a month or two.

## Learning About React Component Libraries
While learning these technologies and expanding my skill set, I have delved into learning more about Component Libraries in React such as Material-UI and Chakra-UI. So far, I prefer CharkaUI for their clean documentation of their custom components as compared to Google's Material-UI. 

Chakra-UI has better theme customization as compared to Material-UI and is not as confusing. Integrating light mode and dark mode for this website has been somewhat a breeze thanks to Chakra and will definitely be using it more for my other projects.

Learn more about [Chakra-UI](https://chakra-ui.com "chakraUI link").

## What Has Not Changed?
I have continued to use NextJS and Contentful to manage my website. Being more experienced with NextJS, I was able to complete the new website within a week. The progress made is a small achievement for me. It was also a good practice to test my technical skills as a developer.

If you would like to see the previous website design do check out the GitHub repository.

Click here to see the [GitHub Repo](https://github.com/CippyLOL/portfolio_website_next "GitHub source code").


New layout of the website and using a UI component library, Chakra-UI.

New Update on Website

## Choosing NextJS over ReactJS
To address this, let me share a bit more of what NextJS is and what it can do. NextJS is a new React framework that thrives in ensuring fast loading static websites and hybrid static and server rendering. Since my website is a static one and does not need to be updated frequently, I choose it over React.

Other than NextJS's speed, it also has great built in functions on top of React such as routing easily, inserting links and media such as images. NextJS also thrives in creating websites with the best SEO.

Learn more about [NextJS](https://nextjs.org "nextjs link").

## Frontend of Website
For the frontend, I used NextJS to set up the basic layout of the pages, such as a the Home, Works and Blog pages. With regards to the blog of the website, I have used NextJS's dynamic routing that enables me to create dynamic pages that is linked to my backend, in this case - Contentful. I also used addtional packages such as framer-motion to animate the svg elements in the homepage and footer.

Learn more about [Framer Motion](https://www.framer.com/motion/ "framer-motion link").

## Backend of Website
As for the backend, I have used Contentful, which is a headless Content Management System (CMS) so I can quickly deploy and access my database with much ease. Creating dynamic pages for each blog post is easy as the headless CMS creates a REST API with a JSON formatting that can be used and accessed and also altered with the Contentful application.

Learn more about [Contentful](https://www.contentful.com "contentful link").

Click here to see the [source code](https://github.com/CippyLOL/portfolio_website_next "GitHub source code").


I go through my process of creating my portfolio website that also includes a blog, using ReactJS, NextJS and Contentful as my headless CMS.


My Blog

New Update on Website 18.10.21

Creating My Portfolio (Archived) 24.05.21

My Blog

New Update on Website.css-18j379d{font-family:var(--chakra-fonts-heading);font-weight:var(--chakra-fontWeights-bold);font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-xl);line-height:1.2;} 18.10.21

Creating My Portfolio (Archived) 24.05.21

New Update on Website 18.10.21