Cogblog:

The official Cogworks blog. A place for news, thoughts and insights on strategy, design and build.

  • 6 Tips for Better Software Documentation in Agile Teams
    Strategy

    6 Tips for Better Software Documentation in Agile Teams

    Sure, we get that software documentation is crucial for project success, but how do you ensure your docs aren't putting everyone to sleep? PM Kas has some quick tips to spice up your documentation game.

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  • Umbraco and Azure Empower FeedInfo Users with Data Visualisation Platform
    Build

    Umbraco and Azure Empower FeedInfo Users with Data Visualisation Platform

    Discover how Cogworks utilized Umbraco to create efficient publishing workflows and enhance Data Visualization experiences for the global news service FeedInfo.

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  • Why you should use Modular Monoliths with Umbraco
    Build

    Why you should use Modular Monoliths with Umbraco

    Streamlining development practices with Umbraco never looked so good...

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  • 5 Tips to Keep Your Zoom Call Secure
    Strategy

    5 Tips to Keep Your Zoom Call Secure

    As a Cyber Essentials Plus partner, our priority is to protect our organisation online. These 5 tips will help to keep your Zoom conversations safe and secure.

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  • Keeping Up With Digital Transformation
    Build

    Keeping Up With Digital Transformation

    Is Digital Transformation ever complete? To understand, we look at trends that have come, gone and firmly stuck.

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  • The CTOs Guide to Modernising Legacy Systems
    Build

    The CTOs Guide to Modernising Legacy Systems

    This straightforward guide on modernizing legacy systems can assist you in sussing out your current setup and evaluating what steps to take next.

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  • No Search Is Better Than Bad Search
    Strategy

    No Search Is Better Than Bad Search

    UX matters in today's search. Good User Experience finds relevant information fast. Here's why we trust Azure Cognitive Search to give users great experiences, and why no search might be better than a bad one.

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  • Umbraco Release Version 13: Here's What You Need to Know
    Build

    Umbraco Release Version 13: Here's What You Need to Know

    Umbraco Version 13 introduces .NET 8 and webhooks; here's why there's an easy upgrade path for you, no matter the version.

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  • Redefining Outsourcing: Canopius' Voyage to a Paperless Insurance Platform
    Strategy

    Redefining Outsourcing: Canopius' Voyage to a Paperless Insurance Platform

    Outsourcing has a new look. Here's how Canopius borrowed our cohesive Cogworks team to build and ensure total ownership of a pioneering digital product for the Marine Insurance sector!

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  • What’s next for Umbraco? News from the Umbraco UK Partner Summit 2023
    Strategy

    What’s next for Umbraco? News from the Umbraco UK Partner Summit 2023

    A glimpse into the Umbraco UK Partner Summit reveals exciting developments and achievements for 2023/2024.

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  • A Snapshot of Umbraco’s Role in a Headless and Composable World
    Strategy

    A Snapshot of Umbraco’s Role in a Headless and Composable World

    Umbraco is a great CMS at the centre of streamlined business workflows (and better user experiences)

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  • Quick Guide to Running Sub-Workflows With GitHub Actions
    Build

    Quick Guide to Running Sub-Workflows With GitHub Actions

    Automation wizard and Cogworks developer Adrian Ochmann talks about two strategies that can help you run effective sub-workflows using GitHub actions.

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  • Using TeamCity for continuous integration with NodeJS and Grunt
    Build

    Using TeamCity for continuous integration with NodeJS and Grunt

    Warren Buckley documented what we currently use for our front-end build processes and took us through installing all those crazy tools!

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  • Umbraco UK Festival is back: Cogworks speaker spotlight
    Strategy

    Umbraco UK Festival is back: Cogworks speaker spotlight

    The Umbraco UK Festival is BACK! Finally, after four years, it's almost time to reunite with the best community! In this year's event, we'll learn from the people who make Umbraco one of the leading CMS solutions (and, of course, share what we know in our projects).

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  • Understanding Architecture: Reasons to Build a Modular Monolith First?
    Build

    Understanding Architecture: Reasons to Build a Modular Monolith First?

    It may seem controversial, but it's not always as simple as [this] VS [that]! Unlike traditional monoliths, modular monoliths can be an excellent way for your application to grow .NET Developer Adrian shares his thoughts 💭

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  • Data Visualisation: Behind Bestinvest’s Grow My Money tool
    Build

    Data Visualisation: Behind Bestinvest’s Grow My Money tool

    Here’s how we transformed a complex financial data set into a fast, responsive, accessible graph that helps users make the next smart move with their finances.

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  • Cloud scalability: Azure’s new cost-saving features explained
    Build

    Cloud scalability: Azure’s new cost-saving features explained

    We recently attended an Azure Meetup where we chatted about an interesting autoscaling feature that could help to cost-effectively manage fluctuations in user demands.

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  • How to Publish Npm Packages with GitHub
    Build

    How to Publish Npm Packages with GitHub

    Creating packages is fun...but sometimes we need help to manage them! In part one of the GitHub series, Cogworks Dev, Adrian Ochmann, takes us through a step-by-step set-up of GitHub packages and gives us the low-down on all the benefits.

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  • The Carbon Neutral CMS: Umbraco’s Endeavor to Create a Better Planet
    News

    The Carbon Neutral CMS: Umbraco’s Endeavor to Create a Better Planet

    Following Umbraco’s first-ever impact report, we think every one of our clients should hear about their efforts to create a better planet.

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  • 7 Most Common Accessibility Issues (And How to Fix Them)
    Build

    7 Most Common Accessibility Issues (And How to Fix Them)

    We have a duty to be responsible and inclusive with accessibility. Mateusz reveals the top 7 mistakes and what to do about them :)

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  • What We Know About Umbraco Following Codegarden 2023
    News

    What We Know About Umbraco Following Codegarden 2023

    Among other stuff, we're talking Umbraco V12, headless, improvements in Umbraco cloud, sustainability, web components, MACH, debugging and the Royal Navy!

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  • Mach Architecture. Buzzwords, Trends and Benefits
    Build

    Mach Architecture. Buzzwords, Trends and Benefits

    In this 5-minute read, digital experts Cogworks put techs' latest buzzword in the hot seat.

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  • Cypress vs Playwright. A QA Teams Quest to Find the Best Tool
    Strategy

    Cypress vs Playwright. A QA Teams Quest to Find the Best Tool

    Come and be a warmly welcome fly-on-the-wall at our weekly QA leadership meeting!

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  • We’ve Revamped Our Internal Hackathon and Teams Are Embracing It
    Strategy

    We’ve Revamped Our Internal Hackathon and Teams Are Embracing It

    Our side-project day is being embraced with open arms. Let’s have a look at our latest and greatest creations.

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  • What it Means to be an Umbraco Gold Partner
    News

    What it Means to be an Umbraco Gold Partner

    Explore our contributions to the Umbraco project and learn about being one of the original Gold Partners...

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  • Is AI Calm and Stable? Unpacking the Hype Cycle
    Strategy

    Is AI Calm and Stable? Unpacking the Hype Cycle

    The Hype Cycle isn't a crystal ball but a good place to start.

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  • Content and Personalisation. What Can Be AI-Powered?
    Build

    Content and Personalisation. What Can Be AI-Powered?

    Now is the perfect time to embrace AI and introduce AI-powered features into your solutions.

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  • A World Without Software Documentation
    Strategy

    A World Without Software Documentation

    Have you ever taken something for granted and only realized its value when it's gone? Here's what'd happen if Apple, Walmart and our banking system lost access to software documentation.

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  • How to Declutter Your Workflows With Trello
    Strategy

    How to Declutter Your Workflows With Trello

    Here's how a digital spring clean changed our project workflow with just a few simple changes to Trello 💮

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  • Why Documentation Is the Key to Happier Clients and Teams
    Strategy

    Why Documentation Is the Key to Happier Clients and Teams

    Writing and contributing to documentation is the key to happier clients and teams.

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  • How to Set up a Private Nuget Feed With Azure or Any Service Provider
    Build

    How to Set up a Private Nuget Feed With Azure or Any Service Provider

    A new way to set up a NuGet feed with Azure, Docker or any service provider.

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  • Meet Cogworks .Net Software Developer Adrian
    Build

    Meet Cogworks .Net Software Developer Adrian

    We're talking tips for software developers; Britians got Talent and Artificial Intelligence!

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  • How to Test Accessibility With Axe in Cypress
    Build

    How to Test Accessibility With Axe in Cypress

    Aga, a QA professional at Cogworks, discusses the significance of web accessibility in software development testing and suggests the ideal tools to commence with.

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  • From Manual to Automated Testing With Cypress - Our Story
    Build

    From Manual to Automated Testing With Cypress - Our Story

    Automating processes doesn't happen overnight. It's a journey, but it doesn't have to be complicated. Discover our story...

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  • PCUK Win Two Drum Awards for Its 30s Risk Checker Challenge
    News

    PCUK Win Two Drum Awards for Its 30s Risk Checker Challenge

    The award-winning, innovative Risk Checker is just one of the many impactful tools on the PCUK website. This feature has received endorsement from NHS England and has saved thousands of lives. Find out why.

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  • Mateusz Joins the Cogworks Quality Assurance Team!
    News

    Mateusz Joins the Cogworks Quality Assurance Team!

    As per usual, we enjoy getting to know each other! This is what we discovered when we temporarily took Mateusz away from project work for 5 minutes

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  • 14-Point DevOps Best Practice Checklist for High-Performance Teams
    Build

    14-Point DevOps Best Practice Checklist for High-Performance Teams

    Level up DevOps best practices in your development team in 14 easy steps.

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  • How to Run An Agile Client Retrospective
    Strategy

    How to Run An Agile Client Retrospective

    What should be done when errors occur? Conduct a client retro. And when things go smoothly? Client retro!

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  • Delivering Days Out With The Kids
    Build

    Delivering Days Out With The Kids

    Discover how our health check operates and how it aided in enhancing the user experience for both content editors and users on the UK's largest website for family attractions.

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  • Getting Days Out Guide Back on Track With an Umbraco Health Check
    Strategy

    Getting Days Out Guide Back on Track With an Umbraco Health Check

    Days Out Guide, owned by National Rail, provides 2-for-1 tickets for various major attractions throughout the UK when traveling by train. Learn how we brought their website back on track.

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  • 3 Ways to Win Consumer Trust With Your Website
    Strategy

    3 Ways to Win Consumer Trust With Your Website

    Our team of strategy, design, and build experts has assembled the top 3 ideas to help you sustain trust in your digital services!

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  • Why Side Projects Are Part of Our Process
    Strategy

    Why Side Projects Are Part of Our Process

    We have been adding side projects to our process for many years to improve our knowledge and become better at what we love. These projects can be personal or with others, and having the choice to pick leads to lots of new ideas!

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  • Why Integrate your Document Management System With Azure and Umbraco?
    Build

    Why Integrate your Document Management System With Azure and Umbraco?

    Find out how we joined Umbraco and the DotApprove Document Management System to improve compliance for Canada Life!

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  • Website Security Checklist: The 4 Basics
    Build

    Website Security Checklist: The 4 Basics

    These crucial tips should cover the basics for in-house monitoring of solutions to prevent any pesky issues!

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  • Azure Resource Naming Tips 2022
    Build

    Azure Resource Naming Tips 2022

    HowToEnsure-your-azure-portal-resourcesareWELLNAMED

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  • Powerful Content Automation Solutions for Better Web Editing
    Strategy

    Powerful Content Automation Solutions for Better Web Editing

    Content automation has the potential to resolve numerous publishing difficulties, but it doesn't need to lack personal touch!

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  • Managing Our Minds at Work
    Strategy

    Managing Our Minds at Work

    To mark #WorldMentalHealthDay, our team share how they find calm in between looming deadlines and working from home.

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  • Could Website Downtime Be Prevented?
    Build

    Could Website Downtime Be Prevented?

    Cogworks CTO, talks about three common ways development teams are protecting companies from digital disruption.

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  • A Frontend Developers Perspective on Headless Architecture
    Build

    A Frontend Developers Perspective on Headless Architecture

    Is headless really that straightforward? Let’s take a look at some pros and cons of headless or decoupled approach from the frontend perspective

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  • How to Automate Performance Testing in 5 Hours
    Build

    How to Automate Performance Testing in 5 Hours

    Learn about the inspiration and tech stack behind Wojciech's creation, Performeter; a tool for performance testing.

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  • How to Setup a Private NuGet Feed in Azure DevOps Pipelines
    Build

    How to Setup a Private NuGet Feed in Azure DevOps Pipelines

    Developer, Greg shares his 4-step process on how to set-up a private NuGet feed in Azure Devops Pipelines

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  • How to Use Google Chrome Lighthouse for Better Web Performance
    Build

    How to Use Google Chrome Lighthouse for Better Web Performance

    Performance is always crucial. Fortunately, there's Google Chrome Lighthouse!

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  • Should Developers Embrace Low-Code and No-Code Technology?
    Build

    Should Developers Embrace Low-Code and No-Code Technology?

    Are there any good reasons to embrace low-code and no-code development?

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  • Creating a Dynamic ecommerce Website With Umbraco and Vendr
    Build

    Creating a Dynamic ecommerce Website With Umbraco and Vendr

    Here’s what happened when we united Umbraco and its customisable ecommerce counterpart, Vendr.

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  • The Importance of Modern Web Performance Testing
    Build

    The Importance of Modern Web Performance Testing

    Cogworks CTO, Marcin explains why performance testing is so important in a project and how we can apply best practice.

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  • How to Publish NuGet Packages with GitHub
    Build

    How to Publish NuGet Packages with GitHub

    In part two of the GitHub series, Developer Adrian shows us how to publish a NuGet package.

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  • The Quick Guide to Visual Regression Testing With Cypress
    Build

    The Quick Guide to Visual Regression Testing With Cypress

    A quick guide to visual regression testing with the popular end to end testing platform, Cypress.

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  • 6 Reasons Why Your Business Should Migrate to The Cloud
    Strategy

    6 Reasons Why Your Business Should Migrate to The Cloud

    Cogworks CEO & co-founder Adam explains the business benefits of migrating to cloud hosting.

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  • Getting started with visual regression testing and WebdriverIO
    Build

    Getting started with visual regression testing and WebdriverIO

    Improve your visual regression testing using Webdriver with these tutorials, tips, and tricks from front-end developer, Arek.

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  • 5 Tools for Effective Communication in Remote Teams
    Strategy

    5 Tools for Effective Communication in Remote Teams

    Our top 5 apps that get you talking...

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  • Integrate Netlify With Cypress: A Quick Guide
    Build

    Integrate Netlify With Cypress: A Quick Guide

    Developer Grzegorz whizzes through a quick way to integrate Netlify with Cypress so you can power-up modern automation testing in your projects.

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  • 5 Ways to Ensure Your Financial Services Website Stays Ahead in 2021
    Strategy

    5 Ways to Ensure Your Financial Services Website Stays Ahead in 2021

    Remaining at the forefront of the competition requires being responsive to shifts in customer behavior. The following are five tactics that financial services companies can employ to communicate effectively with first-time and returning customers via their website for a sustained impact.

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  • How to Use Tailwind With BEM
    Build

    How to Use Tailwind With BEM

    Merge the King of Utility with the best of Modular CSS to create a brilliant combination for your projects.

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  • Reasons to Replatform
    Build

    Reasons to Replatform

    A replatforming project for your website should consider every one of your users for years to come; that’s content editors, stakeholders and browsers of your site.

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  • Contribution Is King
    Strategy

    Contribution Is King

    You may already know we're an Umbraco Contributing Gold Partner...but we're part of a much bigger community too; open source.

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  • Working with an Agile Driven Agency
    Strategy

    Working with an Agile Driven Agency

    What to expect from working with Certified Scrum Professionals and Certified Scrum Product Owners

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  • Generate Free SSL Certificates and Bind It to Azure Webapp With Devops
    Build

    Generate Free SSL Certificates and Bind It to Azure Webapp With Devops

    A mini Cogtutorial for those who have multiple Azure Web Apps with custom domains and would like to automatically bind SSL certificates to their Web Apps domains (for free).

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  • How to Simplify Azure Search Implementations
    Build

    How to Simplify Azure Search Implementations

    If you have ever struggled with implementing Azure Search on your projects then you’re not alone. Find out how we solved this with a simple package, the Cogworks.AzureSearch.

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  • 5 Ways our Support Plan Can Help Your Umbraco Website Grow
    Strategy

    5 Ways our Support Plan Can Help Your Umbraco Website Grow

    An Umbraco support plan should work around the clock to keep your website safe...

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  • How to Build a Desktop Application With Electron and Vue
    Build

    How to Build a Desktop Application With Electron and Vue

    Front-end Developer Wojciech works with American actor, Chuck Norris, to demonstrate how easy it is to create a desktop app with Electron and Vue.

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  • Umbraco v8: How to Pick a Block Style Editor
    Build

    Umbraco v8: How to Pick a Block Style Editor

    An in-depth review and quick comparison of the currently available block style (grid-based) editors for Umbraco v8.

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  • 6 Reasons Why Manual QA Testing Is Here to Stay
    Strategy

    6 Reasons Why Manual QA Testing Is Here to Stay

    Cogworks QA Testers, Kasia and Marcin, share why they think manual QA testing is sure to be sticking around for years to come.

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  • 7 Front-End Tools For Productivity
    Build

    7 Front-End Tools For Productivity

    When you’re repeating similar front-end tasks daily, let tools be your friend. Here are seven essential front-end development tools that are time-saving and a pleasure to use. Cogworks have even created one from scratch.

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  • 7 Tips for More Effective Code Reviews
    Build

    7 Tips for More Effective Code Reviews

    Developer, Marcin, reveals his top tips for effective code reviews and explains how you can apply them to your working environment.

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  • Updating Cogworks Umbraco Find and Replace: V7 to V8
    Build

    Updating Cogworks Umbraco Find and Replace: V7 to V8

    I Initially thought it would not be too hard a task, unfortunately I was wrong...

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  • Introducing Nuxt.js: Why We Love This Framework
    Build

    Introducing Nuxt.js: Why We Love This Framework

    Wojciech and the front-end development team share their experience of using Nuxt.js in a recent web project and share some handy tips they found along the way.

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  • Avoiding Inherited Project Horrors
    Build

    Avoiding Inherited Project Horrors

    Ever taken on a project from someone else and uncovered some unwanted skeletons in the closet along the way? We share our top tips on avoiding this nightmare!

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  • 5 Inspiring Companies That Use Digital Solutions to Save the Planet
    News

    5 Inspiring Companies That Use Digital Solutions to Save the Planet

    It's #EarthDay2020 today. We’re celebrating with a round-up of brilliant, environmentally conscious work being carried out in digital right now!

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  • Umbraco VS Wordpress: Which is the winning camp?
    Build

    Umbraco VS Wordpress: Which is the winning camp?

    They are both easy to use CMSs, they are both Open Source and are both used by millions of people and businesses across the globe. So, which one is the best – pound for pound?

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  • Top 6 Apps and Tools for Productive Remote Working
    Strategy

    Top 6 Apps and Tools for Productive Remote Working

    Cogworks team share their top 6 apps and tools for distributed teams and home working.

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  • How We Overcame Multilingual Struggles in Umbraco v8
    Build

    How We Overcame Multilingual Struggles in Umbraco v8

    Umbraco v8 introduced a new way of managing multilingual content and at first glance everything looked great...but the devil was in the details.

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  • Process Mapping & I, a love story
    Strategy

    Process Mapping & I, a love story

    This is a short story about how I became enamoured with translating almost every aspect of my job into a ‘structured series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end’.

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  • Umbraco Festival Design Evolution
    Design

    Umbraco Festival Design Evolution

    We delve into the depths of our design archives to revisit the Umbraco UK Fest designs over the past 7 years.

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  • UX Design Through Creative Sprints
    Design

    UX Design Through Creative Sprints

    The point of UX design is its dedication to listening to other people.

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  • Embarrassing Content
    Strategy

    Embarrassing Content

    Don’t worry, we’ve seen it all before…

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  • Codegarden 2018 Roundup
    News

    Codegarden 2018 Roundup

    Super Tak, Super Skål and everything in between

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  • Showcase: Storm's Social Reach Feature
    Build

    Showcase: Storm's Social Reach Feature

    As #LFW fills up our social media feeds, we’re taking a look at our most fashionable project yet.

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  • Time for an Umbraco Upgrade?
    Build

    Time for an Umbraco Upgrade?

    Cogworks’ give you the lowdown on why you should be updating your installation of Umbraco.

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  • Introducing the Meganav Package
    Build

    Introducing the Meganav Package

    A flexible, draggable link picker for constructing site navigation menus in Umbraco 7

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  • Top 3 Reasons to Involve Your Content Team Early
    Strategy

    Top 3 Reasons to Involve Your Content Team Early

    Here's why you should get your content team involved early on in a project.

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  • One Media Indexer to Rule Them All
    Build

    One Media Indexer to Rule Them All

    A reboot of the CogUmbracoExamineMediaIndexer package.

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  • Running Agile Retrospectives
    Strategy

    Running Agile Retrospectives

    Cogworks favourite Scrum meeting - the retrospective.

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  • Umbraco, CMS of Choice for Content Editors
    Strategy

    Umbraco, CMS of Choice for Content Editors

    The best content editing features in the Umbraco CMS.

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  • Five Umbraco Sites Making the World a Better Place
    Strategy

    Five Umbraco Sites Making the World a Better Place

    Take a look at Umbraco users who are making a real difference with the World's friendliest CMS.

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  • Find and Replace Package
    Build

    Find and Replace Package

    How we created the Find and Replace Umbraco Package.

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  • How Umbraco Changed My Life
    Build

    How Umbraco Changed My Life

    Have you ever stopped to imagine the way the software we use could change a life?

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