Lecture Notes: Building a Beginner-Friendly Landing Page with SvelteKit and Tailwind CSS

Introduction

• Presenter: James MacArthur
• Goal: To learn SvelteKit and Tailwind CSS by building a responsive landing page.

What You'll Learn

• SvelteKit basics (components, state, stores, routes)
• Global stores in SvelteKit
• Tailwind CSS for styling
• Responsive web design
• Handling props, styling, and more

Project Overview

• A home landing page with call-to-actions, reviews, features, FAQs, and a footer.
• Mobile responsiveness with a neat menu system.

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Initial Setup

Tailwind Installation

1. Initialize SvelteKit Project:
   • Use command: npm create svelte@latest.
   • Name: gy-app-landing-page.
   • Skeleton project, no type check, use ESLint.
2. Configure Tailwind:
   • Follow Tailwind CSS documentation for configuration.
   • Paste configuration commands into the VSCode terminal.
   • Create app.css in the src directory with Tailwind directives.

Font Setup

• Google Fonts: Add Open Sans and Poppins (all weights).
• Font Awesome: Use CDN for icons.
• Update app.html with the link tags for fonts and Font Awesome.
• Add body styles for base text and relative positioning.
• Define a background grid pattern in CSS for styling.

Project Structure

• src Directory: Contains main project files like lib, routes, components, and configurations.
• Component Structure: Create various components such as header, footer, hero, product, reviews, FAQs, conversion, and sectionWrapper for modular design.
• Run Project: Use command npm run dev to start the project and open it in a browser.

Building Components

Header Component

• Contains site title and menu button.
• Uses Font Awesome for menu icons.
• Conditional rendering for responsiveness.
• Button and link styling for boundary breakpoints.

Hero Component

• Includes header and main hero section with call-to-action buttons and introductory text.
• Uses dynamic classes and spans for styled text elements.
• Integrates reviews display inline with stars.

Product Section

• Dynamic product feature cards showcased in a grid layout.
• Configurable via JSON objects passed as props to sub-components.
• Featured images and text descriptions for each product feature.

Reviews Section

• Displays user reviews with collapsible/expandable interactive views.
• Global state management via Svelte Store for review limit toggle.

FAQs Section

• List of frequently asked questions with expanding segments for answers.
• Simple JSON object configuration for FAQs.

CSS Customizations

• Buttons: Custom classes like specialButton, hover effects, and media query adaptations.
• Background Patterns: Custom grid and button styles defined in CSS.
• Typography: Font settings for headers and body text incorporating Google Fonts.

Creating a Responsive Menu

• Menu Toggle: Uses Svelte store for global state to show/hide the menu.
• Beginner friendly with examples of opening/closing a modal menu based on screen size.

Deployment

• Deploying SvelteKit web app via Netlify using GitHub repository for project tracking.
• Steps for logging into Netlify, connecting GitHub repo, and setting custom domain names.

Final Touches and Testing

• Complete end-to-end walkthrough for responsiveness and interactivity tests.
• Ensure nav links correctly route to sections using IDs in section wrappers.
• Validate all features work across different devices and screen sizes.

Wrap Up

• Encouragement to customize and share own versions in the community Discord.
• Reminder to check additional resources like the James Web Development Roadmap.

Thank You Notes

• Thank you message for the viewers with reminders to like and subscribe.