Engineering

19 May 2026, BST · 9 min read

Scheduled publishing in Astro on Netlify

A date-aware filter, a scheduled function, and a daily build hook — no CMS needed

How I automated future-dated post publishing on this Astro blog: a central isPublished() helper that gates on both draft status and pubDate, a Netlify scheduled function that triggers a site rebuild each morning, and the one setup step required in the Netlify dashboard.

15 May 2026, BST · 6 min read

Sending new post notifications with Resend

A Node.js script that reads frontmatter, previews the email, and broadcasts to subscribers

How the post notification script works — reading frontmatter without a full Astro build, building an HTML email, sending a broadcast via the Resend Broadcasts API, and the safeguards that prevent accidentally emailing draft content.

14 May 2026, BST · 6 min read

Deploying an Astro blog to Netlify

Build config, functions, cache headers, environment variables, and deploy previews

How this blog is deployed on Netlify — the netlify.toml build configuration, the functions and edge-functions directories, cache control headers, required environment variables, and the deploy preview workflow with passcode-gated draft visibility.

8 May 2026, BST · 4 min read

Page history and credits on a static blog

Transparent revision logs, attribution as a first-class concern, and why both matter

How this blog handles two small but deliberate editorial features — a page history log that surfaces meaningful revisions, and a credits section that attributes cover images, libraries, and inspirations. Both are schema- validated optional fields in the content collection.

5 May 2026, BST · 5 min read

Building a share widget with the Clipboard API

LinkedIn, Reddit, email share URLs, async clipboard write, and accessible feedback

How SharePost.astro works: constructing LinkedIn, Reddit, and email share URLs from the post title and canonical URL, using the async Clipboard API to copy the link, and providing text feedback that degrades gracefully without extra dependencies.

1 May 2026, BST · 5 min read

Breadcrumb navigation with Schema.org markup

Auto-generated crumbs, BreadcrumbList structured data, and accessible aria markup

How Breadcrumb.astro works — auto-generating crumbs from the URL path, rendering Schema.org BreadcrumbList structured data inline for search engines, and marking up the current page correctly for screen readers.

28 Apr 2026, BST · 4 min read

Adding an RSS feed to an Astro blog

Content collections, draft filtering, and what an RSS reader actually expects

How to add a proper RSS feed to an Astro content collections site — using the official @astrojs/rss package, filtering out draft posts, generating absolute URLs, and validating the output before deploying.

23 Apr 2026, BST · 4 min read

OpenGraph, Twitter Cards, and article metadata in Astro

Canonical URLs, OG images, article:published_time, and why it all lives in BaseLayout

How this blog handles social sharing metadata — OpenGraph tags, Twitter Card markup, canonical URLs, and article-specific fields like published_time and tags — all centralised in a single BaseLayout component with typed props.

22 Apr 2026, BST · 12 min read

Playwright E2E testing AI skills: JavaScript London talk

Using Playwright and the playwright-explore-website skill to test real user journeys

Companion post for my JavaScript London talk at NewDay on 29 April 2026, covering how Playwright and the playwright-explore-website skill support E2E testing, exploratory QA, and browser debugging.