X Games

Status: Active

Categories: API Integration, WordPress, GSAP

This was a fun project I got to work on while doing contract work for HDC. Their team was working on a second phase for this project, bringing in some new blocks, pages, and functionality. There were a few things that were especially fun to work on with this project.

API Integration

The site was already pulling in some scoring and result data from an API, but there were new endpoints to integrate. This work involved pulling in Team data and storing it in the CMS as a Custom Post Type so that it could be easily reviewed or edited. It also pulled in rankings for each team, which needed to be displayed as a leaderboard. This opened my eyes to some nice ways to actually use the WP CPTs for “caching” on an API where the data doesn’t change very often.

GSAP

I got to work on some cool scroll effects, including a section that horizontally stacked carousel items as the user scrolled down the page. I love animations like this, and I hope to use an effect like this on my own projects in the future.

Tere are many mega menu plugins for WordPress, but they often feel messy and confusing to implement. Instead, we created a CPT for Mega Menus, and allowed it to be edited in the block editor. Then, when a Mega Menu item appears in the main menu, a custom walker was used to display the menu. This allowed for very familair editing, and it felt more seamless than other options. Messing with navigation Walkers can be super useful.

In Review

It was cool to work on a big-name project like this and see some of the data come through during their live events. The “personality” of this brand also allowed for some fun designs, and I had a good time implementing them.