The Blog Is Dead, Long Live the Handbook

We have run a blog at Edmonds Commerce for a long time. Historically it has been a repository of useful bits of information that we wrote up when we had the time.

However, these days we hardly ever update the blog. The reason, simply enough, is that we have found a much better way of doing things.

Enter: the Edmonds Commerce Handbook

What is the Handbook?

The handbook is not a blog, instead it is much more structured by categories and page level topics.

Updates are not sorted in chronological order at all, it is entirely by topic. This makes it much easier to find what you are looking for and also encourages more granular updates. You do not have to have something that is substantial enough to warrant an entire blog post, it can just be an extra sentence added to an existing page.

The handbook is built using a great package called mkdocs along with a nice material design theme

Where did it come from?

Initially the handbook was something internal and private, however we found that it started to become something that is probably useful for the wider world, so we decided to publish it.

Granted, we had to redact some of the information because it has no public benefit and is really only for our internal use. However, I hope you agree, there is a lot of information in there which is generally useful.

Why did we do it?

One of our primary motivations for releasing the handbook publicly was so that developers with whom we are talking about joining our team could have a look through it and get a fuller understanding of what we are about and also get a head start on learning some of the many skills that we use day to day.

For example, we have a great page which purely lists useful links for developer who are learning Magento 1 and possibly studying to become a Magento Certified Developer. All of our developers gain this qualification. It is certainly not an easy one and so the more help we can provide the better.

Is the blog really dead?

I am sorry to say that I believe it is. We liked the blog, but then we liked the handbook better and so the blog got neglected.

Now I think it is time to say goodbye, we had a good time, it isn’t you, it’s us.

long live the Handbook


Tags: bloghandbook