For any small business need

The CodeStitch Advanced Starter Kit - Main Branch

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    LESS/SASS

    Both preprocessors, alongside vanilla CSS, all available under one kit

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    Optimization

    Get better Pagespeed scores, quicker, with automatic critical CSS inlining, minifiction and asset optimization

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    eCommerce

    Create the fastest of eCommerce stores with a seamless Shopify integration

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    CMS

    Free time and empower your clients with a Decap content management system

How it works

What makes this kit special

Behind the kit is careful management of the file structure, such that all shared code lives in the "main" branch. Each feature then lives on a separate branch, allowing you to choose what capabilities the project requires.

Some files, namely "package.json", "package-lock.json", ".eleventy.js", and "_includes/base.html", require additions to them when merging new branches. Cloning the repo from a template loses all commit history, so conflicts will arise in these files. These can be resolved by ensuring all unique code is merged into the project.

As such, a basic knowledge of Git is required before using this kit, with a solid grasp of how to resolve merge conflicts strongly advisable. You are welcome to merge in feature branches at a later date, after building the project up, but this may result in more complicated merges.

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Just a few steps before

How To Get Started

As this kit relies on merging different branches to get started, we'll need to do a few things first to ensure this happens smoothly and nothing gets missed.

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    1. Merge Branches

    Merge the branches you need for the project via the CLI, using "git merge [BRANCH] --allow-unrelated-histories". Resolve any conflicts.

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    2. Install Dependencies

    Run "npm install" to install all the packages and plugins needed to make your super awesome website.

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    3. Check Off Todos

    Search the project for any instance of "CS-TODO". We've marked any actions that need to be taken to get your project up to speed ASAP.

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    4. Get Developing!

    If using the sass/less branch, you can move over the starter styles to get a headstart. Otherwise, clear all page data and styles, and begin!

CSS, LESS and SASS

Your favourite CSS syntaxes - all under one roof

  • CSS

    If you prefer vanilla CSS, everything has already been set up for you. You shouldn't need to merge in the SASS and LESS branches, and the ./starter-styles folder can be deleted.

  • LESS

    If you want to use the LESS preprocessor, make sure the "less" branch has been merged to include the LESS processor. When all branches have been merged, you can find the kit styles in ./starter-styles. Copy these over to /assets/less, or delete them to start from scratch.

  • SASS

    Same as before - merge in the "sass" branch to include the SASS processor. Delete the ./starter-styles folder or copy over the SASS styles into /assets/sass to get a headstart on the project

meeting

To minimise the number of merge conflicts, vanilla CSS for these introductory pages are supplied in /assets. Should you wish to carry over the starting kit styles, LESS and SASS versions are supplied outside of ./src

Building a better website, together
Help & Support

Guidance every step of the way

Outside of a cool new feature, each branch comes with an introductory landing page (just like this one) and a branch-specific README. The landing page gives you a quick overview of the branch, with the README providing more technical details should you wish to expand.

Additionally, all project-critical actions that need to be taken have a comment containing "CS-TODO". After merging in your branches, you can search the codebase for "CS-TODO", find the most important changes that need to be made, and action them effortlessly.

Finally, if you are still stuck or find a bug in the kit, you can use the CTAs in the header to get directly in touch with the kit creators, or reach out to a community of hundreds of other developers.

The kit continues to be supported going forward, with a complete set of tutorial videos and additional feature branches planned in the very near future. Follow our subreddit to stay up to date!

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