September 2018 Summaries

Gatsby, a framework aimed at creating highly performant websites and apps by integrating data and code, now supports native querying of third-party GraphQL APIs with its 2.0 release. This update introduces experimental schema stitching, simplifying the process of incorporating external GraphQL APIs into Gatsby's internal schema, which previously required custom source plugins. The new gatsby-source-graphql plugin allows easy connection to any GraphQL API through straightforward configuration in the gatsby-config.js file, eliminating the need to prefetch data and enabling on-demand data queries. This development aligns with Gatsby's vision of facilitating seamless integration of diverse data sources, as more services are adopting native GraphQL APIs. The enhancement not only streamlines workflows but also opens up new possibilities for plugin authors to create advanced GraphQL functionalities.

Lullabot, an international strategy, UX design, and development agency, featured an interview with Kyle Mathews, the founder of Gatsby, on their podcast. The episode delves into the inception of Gatsby, a tool designed to enhance website performance by employing techniques such as code splitting and lazy loading, which ensure that only the necessary JavaScript for a specific site section is loaded, resulting in faster website performance. Mathews explains the motivation behind creating Gatsby, focusing on making high performance a fundamental aspect of web development frameworks. The podcast also explores the history of Gatsby, its best use cases, and the process for developers to get started, offering insights into how Gatsby can produce a fast, React-like development experience while delivering high-speed websites.

Gatsby 2.0.0 marks a significant update to the popular modern website and app generator, renowned for its speed and efficiency in creating diverse web projects. This release, a product of collaboration among 315 contributors, emphasizes performance enhancements and developer experience improvements. Key updates include a 75% reduction in build times and a 31% decrease in JavaScript client runtime, achieved through upgraded dependencies like webpack 4, Babel 7, and React 16. The release also features improved accessibility with the switch to @reach/router, experimental GraphQL stitching support, and the removal of the special layout component in favor of <StaticQuery /> for data queries in components. The community around Gatsby has grown significantly, with increased contributors and more plugins, alongside the establishment of a company to support Gatsby's open-source software and cloud tools. Additionally, Gatsby has launched an e-commerce store for branded merchandise and continues to refine its documentation architecture, enhancing user engagement and ease of use.

During a team gathering in Portland, Gatsby Inc. engaged in an in-depth process to define their mission and values, marking their first opportunity to focus on long-term goals rather than immediate product releases. The distributed team, typically communicating via Slack and GitHub, took advantage of being together to discuss philosophical questions about the company’s identity, using anonymous feedback to identify themes which were then refined into eight core values. These values emphasize trust, transparency, setting clear expectations, thoughtful planning, prioritizing user experience, embracing growth, fostering experimentation, and inclusivity in the open-source community. Gatsby is committed to integrating these values into their everyday operations and decision-making processes to ensure alignment with their aspirational company identity.

In the blog post by Nader Dabit, readers are guided through the process of deploying a Gatsby site to AWS using AWS Amplify, a versatile platform that combines a client library, CLI toolchain, UI components, and CI/CD hosting capabilities. The article begins with creating a Gatsby project and progresses to setting up hosting on AWS by pushing the project to a GitHub repository and managing deployments via the Amplify Console. Amplify streamlines the deployment process with built-in CI/CD and allows for automatic new builds when changes are pushed to the master branch. The post also suggests exploring additional features like authentication and GraphQL APIs through Amplify's CLI and client libraries, and offers resources for managing multiple environments or teams.