*This is a submission for the [KendoReact Free Components Challenge](https://dev.to/challenges/kendoreact-2025-09-10).*

## What I Built

**If you've been following my [blog](https://dev.to/dlseitz), you know I'm a big believer in building things the hard way to truly understand them.** From my own Gitea server to the backend systems for my website, I'm logging the entire process of building a full digital ecosystem from scratch. As promised in an earlier blog post, I decided it was time I develop my own tool to manage the blog itself. The KendoReact Free Components Challenge was the perfect spark to the fire.

I built the **Campfire Logs CMS**, a personal [Content Management System](https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/content-management-system) Dashboard and Editor designed specifically for my blog series, [_"Campfire Logs: The Art of Trial & Error"_](https://campfire.dlseitz.dev). This is a private dashboard that provides a clean, efficient interface for content creation and management, without the complexity of public user management systems. As Phase I of IV (the website, backend, and database are coming soon!), it’s a purpose-built tool that lets me focus on the writing.

## Demo
**Live Project:** https://campfire-demo.dlseitz.dev
**Repository:** https://gitea.dlseitz.dev/dereklseitz/campfire-dashboard

### Key Features:

- **Secure User Login**: For the private login page, I kept the interface clean and simple with KendoReact's `Input` and `Label`, using the `Notification` components to provide clear feedback on success or failure.

![A demonstration of the animated login page of the Campfire Logs CMS application.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/07qxh0aq5j6hvm9p5g5d.gif)

- **Clear Dashboard Navigation**: To avoid stumbling around the metaphoric campfire (it's dangerous!), I built a straightforward navigation system using KendoReact's `AppBar` and `PanelBar`. This makes it easy to jump between managing posts, checking drafts, referencing external sources, and getting right into the editor.

![A demonstration of how the navigation panels work in the Campfire Logs CMS application.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/u0169nsqq0pahx1ia10t.gif)

- **At-a-Glance Post Organization**: For a quick visual overview of my content, I used KendoReact's `GridLayout` and `Card` components to create a clean grid of published posts and drafts.

![A demonstration of blog post cards, organized in a grid in the Campfire Logs CMS application.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/janncg2bpctjrsuwmy80.png)

- **A Writer-Focused Editor**: Because I switch between [Markdown](https://www.markdownguide.org/) and a visual editor a lot when writing content, I used KendoReact's premium `Editor` and `Splitter` to create a toggleable dual-editor experience that supports both formats, with automatic image processing for (almost) effortless [asset management](https://www.unifiedinfotech.net/blog/explained-what-is-asset-management-software/).

![A demonstration of the interactive dual-mode text editor in the Campfire Logs CMS application.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/bq3t4tbsah2bgayn7aqc.gif)

## KendoReact Components Used
For this application, I used 18 Free Components and 3 Premium components (with the help of KendoReact's Trial License). **Just like my other projects, this was an exercise in learning by doing.** I also used the [KendoReact ThemeBuilder](https://www.telerik.com/kendo-react-ui/components/styling/theme-builder) to design a cohesive, campfire-inspired theme that fits the brand of my blog. The free layout components were the backbone of the dashboard's structure, while the premium Editor was key to creating a great writing experience.

### KendoReact Free Components Used

* @progress/kendo-react-buttons (1 component)

    - Button
* @progress/kendo-react-layout (11 components)

    - Card
    - CardImage
    - CardBody
    - GridLayout
    - PanelBar
    - PanelBarItem
    - AppBar
    - AppBarSection
    - AppBarSpacer
    - Avatar
    - Breadcrumb
* @progress/kendo-react-inputs (1 component)

    - Input
* @progress/kendo-react-labels (1 component)

    - Label
* @progress/kendo-react-notification (2 components)

    - Notification
    - NotificationGroup
* @progress/kendo-react-common (2 components)

    - IconsContext
    - SvgIcon

### KendoReact Premium Components Used

* @progress/kendo-react-editor

    - Editor
    - Splitter
    - SplitterPane

## [Optional: Code Smarter, Not Harder prize category] AI Coding Assistant Usage
<!-- If submitting for Code Smarter, Not Harder prize category, describe how you used the AI Coding Assistant -->
While I **did not** use the **KendoReact AI Coding Assistant** and am therefore unable to enter into this category, I do find it very important to give credit to the AI tools that helped me on this journey and because all AI tools are not created equal:

* **KendoReact ThemeBuilder's AI Theme Generation Tool** - for helping me design the perfect color scheme to use in my project, especially given the need for cohesion between KendoReact components
* **Google's Gemini** - for helping me brainstorm the features and functionalities I wanted in this application, verifying component eligibility (exactly what qualified and what didn't), and answering questions whenever I got stuck figuring out underlying structures in the components
* **Anthropic's Claude (via Cursor)** - for helping me clean up comments and debugging component layout quirks that gave me fits during the development process
* **Venice.ai** - for giving final feedback on this submission post and for being linked in the External Links of the dashboard

## [Optional: RAGs to Riches prize category] Nuclia Integration
*[Leave this section blank if not applicable]*

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