BuildSix Platform

BuildSix is a documentation platform designed to track the journey of building 6 software applications by 2025. The platform itself is the first project, serving as a demonstration of building in public, sharing both successes and challenges along the way.

Background

The idea for BuildSix emerged from the challenge of building multiple software projects while maintaining a structured way to document the development process and share knowledge with others. By building this platform in public, I aim to provide an authentic look at the software development process while creating a valuable resource for other developers.

The challenge is to build and ship 6 complete software projects by the end of 2025. Each project will be:

• Publicly documented from start to finish
• Solve a real problem for real users
• Ship as a complete, usable product
• Contribute to my growth as a developer

This platform is Project #1 of the 6-project journey.

Timeline

Below is the development timeline showing key milestones and progress: (this is a sample timeline for showing what the timeline will look like, actual timelime in this project is only a couple of hours)

Week 1: Project Setup and Repository Configuration

• Initialized Jekyll project with base configuration files (Gemfile, _config.yml, .gitignore, README.md)
• Set up GitHub repository and GitHub Actions workflow for automated deployment
• Configured custom domain (buildsix.com) with proper DNS records and SSL

Week 2: Design System Implementation

• Integrated Tailwind CSS with Jekyll for dark mode styling
• Created base layout templates and core style components (head, header, footer includes)
• Implemented reusable UI components inspired by Shadcn UI (buttons, cards, badges, etc.)

Week 3: Core Site Structure

• Created main navigation and pages (Home, About, Projects, Contact)
• Implemented homepage with roadmap/timeline visualization
• Set up SEO metadata, favicons, and social sharing configurations

Week 4: Project Pages and Timeline Implementation

• Created project collection with structured data models for project metadata
• Implemented project overview templates with header and summary components
• Built timeline visualization with status indicators for tracking progress
• Added color-coded status badges to indicate project phases

Week 5: Blog Post System

• Configured blog post collection with proper URL structure and pagination
• Implemented specialized templates for different post types:
  • Project introduction template
  • Weekly update template
  • Technical challenge template
• Set up code snippet highlighting with enhanced styling

Week 6-12: Advanced Features and Final Setup

Currently working on:

• Implementing search functionality for projects and posts
• Adding social sharing buttons to content pages
• Creating system for embedding interactive demos
• Ensuring mobile responsiveness across all components
• Testing across browsers and optimizing performance

Technical Challenges

Throughout the project, several technical challenges were encountered:

1. Jekyll and Tailwind Integration: Getting Tailwind CSS working smoothly with Jekyll required custom configuration and PostCSS setup. The challenge was in setting up the build process to properly generate optimized CSS while maintaining the flexibility of Tailwind’s utility classes.

2. Dynamic Content Generation: Creating a flexible timeline component that could handle various types of updates required careful liquid template development. The solution involved creating a data structure that could be passed to components and rendered correctly.

3. Dark Mode Implementation: Ensuring a consistent dark mode experience across all components while maintaining readability and accessibility. This required careful color selection and contrast testing.

4. JSON Processing in Liquid: Jekyll’s Liquid templating system has limitations when working with complex data structures. Creating arrays of objects required creative string manipulation and processing techniques.

Next Steps

The focus for the coming weeks will be on completing the remaining tasks:

• Implementing search functionality with proper indexing and results display
• Adding social sharing buttons with open graph metadata support
• Creating system for embedding interactive CodePen/CodeSandbox demos
• Ensuring mobile responsiveness with dedicated mobile navigation
• Testing across different browsers and devices
• Optimizing performance metrics and SEO
• Creating comprehensive documentation for future content creation