E11 | A Conversation about Rich Text Fields, HTML, JSON and Markdown | Chris Towler

In this episode, I have a great conversation with Chris Towler, a nano tech engineer and front end developer, all about Rich Text Fields, HTML, JSON and Markdown and how and when to use them in Contentful. ******************************* Questions Asked ******************************* Tell us about your background. What is nano scale technology? What got you interested in programming? How did you get into Contenful? Please define JSON? What does "stringify" mean from a development's perspective? Why is it important to stringify data? What is HTML formatting? What is markdown and how is it different than HTML? Why would people use markdown over HTML in their textfield? Explain the difference between a rich text field, a long text field and a short text field in Contentful? What are validation values differences between the 3 types of text fields? Give us the details of a Rich Text Field in Contentful. What are node types in the RTF field? Why is it important to have the formating separate from the content itself in a RTF field? How are node types in Rich Text Fields rendered into HTML? Can you extend the native Rich Text Fields to add your own formatting options for authors? Tell us about how you use custom content types to extend the formatting options of a Rich Text Field? How can custom content types to extend the RTF field help design systems? Can you limit the formatting capabilities an author has in a Rich Text Field? What's the difference between a link, embedded and inline entry in Rich Text Fields? Tell us about content previews and how they can be used to see what the content in an RTF field looks like? What are some best practices for pasting content into an RTF from Microsoft Word or Google Docs? Should we only use Contentful's RTFs over the long text fields? ******************************* Reference Links ******************************* Chris Towler’s Website (https://www.christowler.nyc/) Chris Towler’s Twitter (https://twitter.com/heyitstowler)