umBristol

We've got another fantastic lineup of talks for you this month, hosted by true. Refreshments will be provided for the evening.

This month is an Umbraco backoffice UX special! And the event is timed to tag onto the end of the Umbraco Cloud Roadshow event hosted by Umbraco HQ. Feel free to attend either one (we won't judge!) or both. Sign up to the Roadshow separately.

The talks for the evening will be:

• "SkrivLet" by Matt Begent
  SkrivLet is an alternative Rich Text Editor for the Umbraco backoffice. Umbraco is a powerful tool, however, the backend can end up being a complicated place giving users too many options with input boxes for days. Sometimes users just want a distraction-free environment so that they can concentrate on writing a news or blog article without having to think about how the system works or what the options available to them do. SkrivLet is an alternative Rich Text Editor for the Umbraco back office aiming to make it easier for users just to write. This talk is about the journey of why and how we made it.
• "How to Make Umbraco Truly Friendly!" by Owain Jones
  Umbraco is often called "The Friendly CMS," but I believe "The Potentially Friendly CMS" is more accurate. While Umbraco provides the foundation and tools for a friendly user experience, it's up to us as developers to fully utilize these resources. In this talk, I'll explore how we can leverage Umbraco’s built-in features and community packages to create a CMS experience that our Content Editors will love.
  This presentation was inspired by a call with a prospective client who expressed frustration with their Umbraco 8 site, describing the backoffice as confusing and difficult to use—a stark contrast to the Umbraco I know. After discussing their concerns, it became clear that the developers who built their site completely overlooked the importance of the Content Editor's experience. So let's ensure we don't make the same mistake.

Agenda (subject to change):

• 17:00 - Arrivals welcome, friendmaking with Cloud Roadshow attendees
• 18:00 - Meetup kickoff!
• 18:15 - Food and drinks
• 18:30 - Welcome and the news
• 18:40 - Talks commence
• 20:00 - Socialising/decamp to a bar

Hope to see you there!
The umBristol team

We've got another fantastic lineup of talks for you this month, hosted by Gibe in their new office. Refreshments will be provided for the evening.

This month is part of the .NET Conf Local Events series and will be modern .NET themed.

The talks for the evening will be:

• "Releasing HybridCache into the Wild with Umbraco" by Lotte Pitcher
  Lotte will join us live and in-person to share her talk from the main .NET Conf event.
  In November 2024, Microsoft unveiled the highly anticipated hybrid cache feature, and at Umbraco, we couldn't have been more excited. Our close alignment with Microsoft’s release cadence allows us to strategically incorporate the latest MS roadmap features such as tag-based eviction and the new MapStaticAssets middleware into our sprint planning. And on this occasion, the hybrid cache and other features provided us with a unique opportunity to innovate. Join Lotte as she takes you through Umbraco’s development in sync with Microsoft’s vision. She will showcase how Umbraco's approach has enabled them to swiftly integrate cutting-edge capabilities, culminating in the implementation of the latest features in .NET 9. Discover how Umbraco’s agile alignment with Microsoft’s evolving technology landscape drives forward-thinking solutions that keep Umbraco ahead of the curve.
• "System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null. Parameter name: sessionTitle" by Jason Elkin
  The inventor of the null reference calls it his “billion dollar mistake” and for years we’ve suffered crashes, vulnerabilities, and wasted so much time debugging the dreaded null reference exception. Modern C# has a solution to this problem, one of my favourite features: nullable reference types.
  In this talk, we'll explore how nullable reference types can enhance the resilience and expressiveness of your code, helping to significantly reduce the likelihood of null reference exceptions - potentially eliminating them altogether!
  We’ll look at the often misused null-conditional, null-forgiving, and null-coalescing operators with real-world examples of how best to use them in an Umbraco project. Finally we’ll look at some strategies for introducing nullable reference types to your codebases, and your teams, in a way that increases code quality and improves your team's performance.

Agenda (subject to change):

• 18:00 - Meetup kickoff!
• 18:15 - Food and drinks
• 18:30 - Welcome and the news
• 18:40 - Talks commence
• 20:00 - Socialising

Hope to see you there!
The umBristol team