Bob Davidson
Director of Development at Blend Interactive, OMVP, Web Developer, Tinkerer
Welcome
I'm Bob Davidson. I make stuff on the web. I also make stuff in real life, but that's not what this website is about. Below, you'll find links to some of the stuff I've put on the web, such as my YouTube videos, Github repositories, blog posts, and more.
Working in Seasons
I like to work in "seasons" as much as I can. This is what I mean by that.
SQL Profiling in Optimizely CMS 12
A relatively quick introduction to some simple tools to get you started in performance profiling in Optimizely CMS (or other ASP.NET applications).
Say hello to 2B2D
A quick introduction to 2B2D, my home-grown game engine, and the concepts contained there-in.
2B2D - My homegrown 2D game engine
2B2D is a very simple 2D-only game engine heavily inspired by Bevy, written in Typescript, rendered in WebGPU, with no dependencies.
Journaling as a Management Tool
How I supplement my workflow with a mix of technology, process, and habit through daily journaling.
Events and Scheduled Jobs in Optimizely CMS 12
A lengthy introduction to content events and building scheduled jobs in Optimizely CMS 12.
Working with Content in Optimizely CMS
An introduction to working with content objects, content APIs, and avoiding some common stumbling blocks for people who are new to the CMS platform.
Rendering Content in Optimizely CMS
A brief (hour long) introduction to several basic ways to render content in Optimizely CMS 12, including rendering pages via a controller, blocks via a controller, blocks via the template coordinator, and page partials via the template coordinator.
Content Modeling in Optimizely CMS
A discussion about what content and content modeling actually are from a conceptual point of view, followed by a brief introduction into making content types for the CMS.
Optimizely CMS Site Project Setup
I revamp my old series on building Episerver (now Optimizely CMS) sites from the ground up.
Content References in XhtmlString Properties
XHtmlString properties are more than just HTML, they include HTML, internal links to content, embedded blocks, personalization, and more. Here I take a brief look at the internals of XhtmlString properties and the fragments that make them.
Advent of Code
Another year, another failed attempt. Actually, I completed all of the puzzles this year, just a month and a half late. Like last year, I kept a dev diary of sorts. Unlike last year, I did all the puzzles in C#.
This Site (BobDavidson.dev)
If you're wondering how this site is built and deployed, wonder no more. I've published the source code on Github. There's not actually much interesting here (except maybe the Gulp file that builds everything), but perhaps someone will find something useful here.
Advent of Code 2020
Another year and another attempt at Advent of Code. Once again, I did not finish, though I made it slightly farther than before (day 15). And once again I tried it in Rust. You can read my development diary as I worked through the syntax and logic. I've not used systems languages much, but I've had much greater success with Rust than I have any other systems language. It's not quite ready to be a part of my day job, but I see why it has such buzz.
Playing with Godot Game Engine
I started playing around a bit with Godot, following some tutorials and building a very rough, proof-of-concept side-scrolling platformer. In the Github repo, you can find all my files and read through my development diary as I tried to figure out just what the heck I was doing. Overall, though, I'm extremely impressed with how polished Godot is, and how quickly a person can get up and running.
Episode 1 | On Page Editing Meta Properties
I show one technique to make metadata and otherwise non-visible page properties more user-friendly for on-page editing in Episerver.
Episode 6 | Encoding
I show one technique to make metadata and otherwise non-visible page properties more user-friendly for on-page editing in Episerver.
Episode 5 | Deconstructing Enumerators
In which we answer the questions: how do `foreach` loops work? How do `yield return` statements work? We look at the C# compiler actually generates (more or less) in these cases.
Episode 4 | Homebuilt CMS Deep Dive
In which we explore a home-built, makeshift content management system. Thanks to John for letting us examine and critique his code!
Episode 3 | Broken Keyboard Code Challenge
In which we solve a code challenge (being intentionally naive), and then refactor the solve.
Episode 2 | Gated Content Form
In which we look at a made-up gated content form controller in MVC.
Episode 1 | Comment Approval
In which we look at a made-up function that adds/publishes comments to a page in a Content Management System.
Bob Davidson | 2025 | RSS