Community Spotlight #4 - Ryan Belke

Strapi is and wants to be open source. Anyone today can take a look at the source code of Strapi. We love this approach and try to reiterate it for each project we create such as Buffet.js, our Foodadvisor official demo or more recently our community content Github repository (from our Write for the community program) on which anyone can request tutorial topics, update existing tutorials or offer to create some! In short, everyone can participate.

This strapi content creation hub allows us to engage our community in order to provide as much educational content as possible, whether it be articles, tutorials, starters or videos.

This idea of such a ​​repository did not come out of anywhere. Indeed, it was by realizing that members of our community were able to generate qualitative content that this project took shape.

Today we highlight one of these members who is none other than Ryan Belke. He is the creator of the Cooking a Deliveroo clone with Next.js tutorial which is one of our most popular tutorials. He also took the time to offer a new version of it using React Hooks: Create a food ordering app with Strapi and Next.js.

This community Spotlight is dedicated to Ryan. I'll let you learn more about him:

What was your educational background and what are you doing for a living?

I received a degree from an American university with a concentration in Finance and a minor in Accounting. Today I work full time as a Software Engineer in Austin, Texas in the U.S. after self-teaching myself programming.

When did you start using Strapi and why?

I started using Strapi about 2 years ago after seeing some of the great content and tutorials being posted on the site. It was clear that a fully-featured, open-source and headless CMS like Strapi was going to be a great resource in any developer toolkit. The ability to remove a lot of the redundant backend developer work and to create secure by default API's, with an admin interface pre-built is a no brainer. Once you've created your own backend CMS and used then Strapi there really is no question how much time Strapi saves you. My initial curiosity was sparked by the potential Strapi looked to provide to replace the bloated, pop-up filled WordPress admin panel. It's great to see people looking to migrate their projects from WP to Strapi and the community guides supporting this.

What is the thing you built with Strapi that you are most proud of?

I am most proud of the tutorial I wrote to create a full-stack mock food delivery application which you can view here (updated for React Hooks)! https://strapi.io/blog/nextjs-react-hooks-strapi-food-app-1 Today I still receive messages on LinkedIn of people thanking me for the tutorial. That is a great feeling as it took several months to complete.

The tutorial you made is one of the most popular tutorials on our blog. Why is it important for you to share your knowledge?

I believe anyone can make it in software with enough persistence and curiosity for building. The software provides such a unique opportunity where tutorials, documentation, open-source projects, and the knowledge of how to achieve the desired outcome is largely available for free that anyone can access. With no gatekeeper to the knowledge and success you can attain in this field, great things happen and that's what makes it special for me. That's why I enjoy contributing back to the ecosystem of makers by writing tutorials and helping any way I can. A great tutorial goes a long way in learning a new skill or framework, to which I still utilize regularly.

What will the future look like for you and will Strapi be part of it?

Absolutely, Strapi is the first thing I think of when scoping out and planning a new project. The question I always ask myself is: Can I build this with Strapi? So far it's been a resounding yes every time. It really does save countless hours of development time, giving you back that time to focus on your product growth and increasing your chance of success. I believe that is a part of the Strapi magic, as a startup/bootstrapped company the more time you spend in over-complicated development can have a direct impact on your success. You need to be nimble and agile enough to redirect the course at a moment's notice. Knowing the in's and out's of Strapi pays dividends in your ability to do that successfully 10 fold. I have demoed Strapi countless amounts of times at this point!

I've got more than a few projects in mind that could definitely use a headless CMS like Strapi! I am working to take some time to write more tutorials as well. Stay tuned!

Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn.