Being new to the Wildbit team, I was curious in learning how my new teammates use Beanstalk. At Wildbit, we use Beanstalk’s version control tools to ship every single one of our products. I also wanted to hear how my coworkers are using it for their own personal projects.
Myself, I have a run of the mill use-case for Beanstalk. I keep my personal website hosted in a Git repository and use our deployment tools to be able to update my site. It’s fantastic not having to use an FTP Client or copying/pasting files to my server.
Chris Bowler
In Chris’s introductory blog post Shane mentioned Chris’s love for Nacho Libre GIFs. In the best way possible he doesn’t disappoint in his usage of the GIFs, he has one for every situation. Chris uses Beanstalk’s Git tools to keep his Nacho GIFs in version control and tracked. He uses Beanstalk’s deployment tools to deploy the GIFs to Amazon S3. Using S3 lets him upload the files to a public location where he can have the GIFs use his custom URL for them. To take things to another level, he also uses TextExpander to create snippets to send reaction GIFs when appropriate.
He also uses Beanstalk’s Git tools help to maintain his personal website and blog. He uses Kirby, a flat file CMS to be to write posts locally. Using Kirby allows his blog to live in a Beanstalk repository. With a brilliant collection of Hazel, Transmit, and Automator he’s able to publish his blog. Hazel helps him automate his file tagging, remind himself if there’s a blog post he wants to write, and create the folder structure for his blog post. With Transmit and Automator he’s able to automate sending his files to his server to have them posted.
Natalie Nagele
Natalie loves our code preview tools to review our user guides which we keep in a Beanstalk repository. Wildbit has a fantastic writing process for editing and creating the necessary illustrations. The wildcard everyone in development can relate to is: how do all the pieces look when it’s live?
Since our guides are in version control, we can use Beanstalk’s preview feature. Our preview tools allow you to see what a web page looks like in the browser, including HTML, CSS, and Javascript, all within Beanstalk. It’s extremely convenient! Previewing the guides lets us see how the guide looks when it will be live on our site.
Eugene Fedorenko
Our talented front-end developer and designer uses Beanstalk to keep his dot files under version control. Since he sometimes works on different Macs, keeping his files in version control is ideal for him. He can make a change on one computer and push the changes to Beanstalk. When he’s on his other computer, he can pull down the most recent changes. If a config file has an undesired change, it’s a Git rollback away from being in the previous state.
Ashley Harpp
Ashley has a great use of Beanstalk! Along with her husband, they run a free summer technology program in the Atlanta area. The program is called TechPath (Formerly, Camp Basic). They teach the basics of HTML, CSS, and design. TechPath has a goal of mentoring students on technology or introducing students to coding.
They use Beanstalk to teach the kids fundamentals of using version control in software development. When teaching, they’ve found two skills to help advance their students: sharing knowledge to build the learners confidence and always having patience. Patience is key as a student might have little tech knowledge and feel discouraged, and sharing knowledge helps them get over that hump.
Artem Chistyakov
One of our great developers, Artem, surprised and impressed me with how he’s using Beanstalk. Years ago, he developed a Beanstalk extension for Sublime Text 2. If Sublime Text 2 is your text editor of choice, you have to check this out!
From within Sublime Text you can run three different commands: View the file in your web browser with Beanstalk, preview the file using the before mentioned Beanstalk preview tools, and view the blame output for the file. Our blame output allows you to see which users modified a file, on which line they modified the file, and which revisions the modifications were done on.
What about yourself?
If you have an interesting use of Beanstalk, we would love to hear it!