April 2020 Summaries

In May 2020, the Gatsby team launched the second series of their free video livestreams, Gatsby Web Creators, aimed at teaching creative web fundamentals to people aged 13 and up. Building upon the first series that covered HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, this series, starting May 8, focuses on advanced topics such as artistic scripting with browser JavaScript, utilizing web APIs, and introducing server-side Node.js, along with React.js and Gatsby for building modern web applications. The livestreams, which occur every Friday, are available on Twitch with archives accessible on YouTube, offering an ambitious yet engaging learning opportunity for viewers to gain skills in modern, accessible web scripting. Marcy Sutton, a lead DevRel/Community Software Engineer at Gatsby, authored the announcement, highlighting the ease of participation and providing resources and schedule updates on the Gatsby Web Creators page.

Josh Comeau discusses the advancements in static site generation, particularly through the introduction of incremental builds on Gatsby Cloud. This approach addresses the challenge of long build times by allowing for partial recompiles, meaning only the pages affected by content changes are rebuilt, thus significantly speeding up the process. This innovation transforms an O(n) problem into an O(1) problem, making it feasible to manage sites with large volumes of content, such as online magazines or e-commerce platforms, without lengthy downtimes. Gatsby Cloud’s solution involves intelligent caching and parallelization, optimizing the build process through deep integration with specific CMS providers. Although the feature is currently exclusive to Gatsby Cloud, there is a push to ensure Gatsby projects build quickly across all platforms. The development marks a significant step toward the future of static site generation, enabling more dynamic and expansive web applications to be served efficiently from CDNs.

Serverless.com partnered with Codebrahma, a San Francisco-based development firm, to revamp its website using the React-based Gatsby framework, aiming to mirror the sophistication of their services and new brand identity. The decision to adopt Gatsby was influenced by its seamless integration with the existing site architecture, particularly its capability to efficiently handle Markdown files and enhance user experience through prefetching, which drastically reduces content load time and increases user engagement. With a tight ten-week deadline, Codebrahma's two-person team quickly adapted to Gatsby, benefiting from its comprehensive documentation and built-in features that accelerated the development process, allowing them to complete the project in two months instead of the anticipated three and a half months. The relaunch resulted in significant performance enhancements, with a 2x boost in site performance and a 10x increase in page load speeds, leading to decreased bounce rates and higher conversion rates, thus driving better customer engagement and lead generation for Serverless. The success of this project has encouraged Codebrahma to prioritize Gatsby for future ventures, particularly for e-commerce sites, due to its potential to significantly improve conversion rates through its robust plug-in ecosystem.

Gatsby has transformed the portfolio-building process for developers Tiffany White and Nathan Leon, enabling them to create visually appealing and high-performing portfolio sites with ease. Traditionally, building a portfolio was a slow and tedious task, often resulting in bland designs, especially for those without a design background. However, Gatsby, a static site generator running on React, offers extensive plugins, components, and features like hot reloading, which streamline the development process and optimize performance. Both Tiffany and Nathan praised the platform for its comprehensive documentation and ease of use, which allowed them to quickly build and deploy their sites, enhancing their job search efforts. Tiffany highlighted Gatsby's compatibility with Contentful CMS, which facilitated faster development without lengthy command-line interactions, while Nathan appreciated its fast load times and smooth integration with familiar tools like Emotion. Ultimately, their Gatsby-powered portfolios not only showcased their skills but also significantly contributed to their career advancements, with Nathan securing a front-end engineering position at Tagflix, thanks in part to the standout quality of his portfolio.

Virtual Gatsby Days, an online event focused on Gatsby, has extended its deadline for speaker proposal submissions to May 1st, 2020. The event will be live-streamed on YouTube on June 2-3, 2020, due to the shift to a virtual format prompted by current events, and it seeks speakers of all experience levels to share their insights on the platform. Selected speakers will receive a $500 stipend from Gatsby. Participants are required to have a computer, a stable internet connection, and a basic microphone and camera setup. More details about the event and how to submit proposals can be found on Gatsby's website.

Incremental Builds have been introduced on Gatsby Cloud, offering a transformative advancement in static site generation by allowing updates to be made with remarkable speed and efficiency. This new feature rebuilds only the necessary components of a website following data changes, reducing build times to under 10 seconds and providing up to a 1000x improvement over traditional methods that require complete site rebuilds. This innovation addresses the long-standing challenge of slow build times which have historically limited the use of static site generators like Gatsby. It promises to bridge the gap between developer preferences for static architecture and marketers' needs for dynamic content management systems, potentially redefining how the web operates by combining the benefits of both static and dynamic site models. The release follows years of development and is now available in public beta, marking a significant step forward in real-time web deployments while maintaining the simplicity and robustness of static sites.

Paul Scanlon, a React UI Developer and UX Engineer, embarked on the #100DaysOfGatsby challenge to enhance his skills and share his knowledge about the Gatsby ecosystem. Despite initially finding the challenge redundant to his previous experiences, he utilized the opportunity to develop various projects and plugins, such as Skin UI, gatsby-theme-terminal, and gatsby-mdx-embed, which showcase Gatsby's capabilities beyond traditional blogs by integrating features like client-only routes, GraphQL, and MDX. Throughout the 100 days, Scanlon also contributed to open source projects, experimented with innovative concepts like gatsby-plugin-prop-shop, and explored the potential of Gatsby Themes. His journey not only deepened his understanding of JavaScript and Gatsby but also allowed him to engage with the community, highlighting the flexibility and scalability of Gatsby in creating SEO-friendly and customizable web applications.

Gatsby's recent survey, integrated into its command-line interface, aims to gather insights from users to inform product priorities and improvements based on their real-world needs. The survey, which is prompted every three months, asks users how disappointed they would be if they could no longer use Gatsby, who they think benefits most from it, the main benefits they receive, and how Gatsby can be improved. Results indicate that a significant portion of users, referred to as "high expectation users," would be very disappointed without Gatsby, valuing its fast and easy workflow for optimized site development. The survey also highlighted the need for improvements, notably around clearer error messages and faster build times, with users suggesting enhancements like more tutorials, better documentation, and TypeScript support. Gatsby encourages community participation in usability testing to refine error messaging and plans to publicly share survey results to track progress and address user concerns effectively.

Gatsby Recipes is a new tool introduced by Kyle Mathews to automate common site-building tasks in the Gatsby ecosystem, enhancing the developer experience by simplifying the process of adding features like TypeScript, plugins, and themes. This tool operates from the command line interface (CLI) and allows users to execute pre-defined or custom tasks, known as "recipes," through a combination of Markdown and React components. Gatsby Recipes aims to make web development more accessible by providing human-readable, executable instructions that guide users through various setup processes, reducing the need for manual intervention and enhancing productivity. The initiative draws inspiration from literate programming and infrastructure-as-code paradigms to create a seamless, interactive workflow for developers, facilitating the growth of an extensive library of user-contributed recipes. Future plans include expanding automation capabilities, translating tutorials into recipes, and developing a desktop GUI to further integrate these functionalities into the Gatsby platform.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Gatsby, a community-centric platform, has urged its members to transition from in-person gatherings to virtual events to ensure safety and continued engagement. With the support of various online tools like Lightstream Studio, Zoom, Glitch, and FindCollabs, Gatsby encourages hosting webinars, live pair programming, and interactions on platforms such as Twitch, YouTube, and Discord. The community is also invited to participate in Virtual Gatsby Days scheduled for June 2nd and 3rd, while Gatsby's social media channels provide ongoing updates and announcements. The emphasis is on maintaining community spirit and connectivity through digital means until it is deemed safe to resume physical meetings.

Gatsby Days 2020 in Los Angeles featured a series of eleven videos capturing the key insights shared at the event, particularly focusing on web accessibility, as presented by Yuraima Estevez, a senior software engineer tech lead at the New York Times. Estevez emphasized the importance of making websites accessible to people with disabilities and offered a streamlined approach to achieve this by using semantic HTML, ARIA attributes, and keyboard navigation capabilities. This method not only enhances accessibility but also optimizes the use of extensive documentation, ultimately supporting the development of empathetic, universally accessible web experiences. The event highlights the significance of building accessible components in enabling assistive technologies and encourages participation in future Gatsby events, with the next one scheduled as a virtual gathering.

Virtual Gatsby Days, scheduled for June 2nd and 3rd, will be an online event focused on the future of modern website development and the latest advancements in web technology. This event replaces the traditional in-person Gatsby Days conference and will feature sessions from 9 a.m. to noon PST, including a Q&A with Gatsby creators Kyle Mathews and Sam Bhagwat, as well as talks from other core team members. Participants can connect with the Gatsby community and stay updated on speaker announcements by following Gatsby on Twitter. Additionally, the event is still accepting speaker submissions until May 1st, providing an opportunity for individuals to contribute to the conference discussions.

Gatsby Days 2020 in Los Angeles featured a series of eleven videos capturing the insights from the February community gathering, offering an alternative for those who could not attend in person. One notable presentation was by Daniel Kim, a master's student at the University of California, Davis, and founder of Bit Project, an organization aimed at making technical education more accessible. Bit Project, which has over 70 developers and has reached more than 3,100 students, launched a five-week course on beginning web development, opting to use Gatsby instead of React due to its features like hot reloading, routing, and themes that are more conducive to teaching. Daniel's presentation explained how Gatsby was integrated into each week of the course to impart essential web development skills. The event also encouraged attendees to follow Gatsby on Twitter for updates on future events and registration details.

Gatsby Days 2020 featured a series of videos from a community event in Los Angeles, highlighting how Gatsby, when paired with a headless CMS, can empower content creators and developers alike. Josh Comeau, a Gatsby software engineer, addressed the challenge of creating websites that are both high-performing and easy for content creators to manage without technical skills. He proposed Gatsby as a solution, showcasing its ability to blend the flexibility of developer tools with user-friendly interfaces for content creators. The content mesh approach allows for integrating best-in-class capabilities, while Gatsby Preview enables real-time updates for content creators as they make changes. This setup aims to balance the needs of developers and content creators, ensuring both can deliver exceptional user experiences.

Joel Varty describes the process of transitioning the Agility CMS website to a JAMstack architecture, specifically using Gatsby to build a new homepage while maintaining the existing ASP.NET Core framework for other pages. He emphasizes the benefits of using a headless CMS, which allows for content reuse and zero downtime during the transition. The project involved creating new modules and leveraging Agility CMS and Gatsby's capabilities for hot reloading and content synchronization. Varty outlines a step-by-step approach, from local development in Gatsby to deployment on platforms like Netlify and StackPath for CDN and edge routing. He highlights the flexibility and efficiency of the JAMstack approach, encouraging others to adopt similar strategies for their web projects, with additional support available through Agility CMS and Gatsby.

Gatsby Days 2020 featured a series of videos from a community gathering in Los Angeles, aiming to engage and inform the Gatsby community. Among the speakers was Gatare Libère, a software engineer from Burundi and co-founder of Sewilio, who became involved with Gatsby after earning swag through Hacktoberfest. Inspired by a podcast on Syntax.fm, Gatare began using Gatsby for projects and eventually started speaking at events across East Africa, where he encountered developers eager to learn about building fast websites and web applications with the framework. The video blog encourages viewers to explore the experiences and motivations of developers in East Africa and highlights the growing interest in Gatsby in the region.

Kathleen McMahon, a senior front-end software engineer and tech lead for O'Reilly Media's Design System team, led an initiative to enhance the documentation of their design system's component library. The team aimed to make the documentation process more user-friendly and accessible to encourage contributions and broaden user engagement. They integrated Gatsby with MDX into their documentation tools, allowing for customization through various Gatsby plugins. This approach helped reduce contribution barriers, lower maintenance burdens, and create a more inclusive documentation environment. Insights from this initiative were shared during the Gatsby Days 2020 event, part of a series of videos from the Los Angeles gathering, where attendees could explore the implementation and potential applications of these technologies.

In a blog entry from the Gatsby Days 2020 event in Los Angeles, Greg Thomas highlights a presentation by Trevor Harmon, a front-end web developer at Shopify, on using Gatsby and Shopify to create fast e-commerce websites. The post underscores the importance of website speed in online retail, noting that even a one-second delay in load time can lead to a 7% decrease in sales annually. Trevor's presentation offers a comprehensive guide for setting up a Shopify store and integrating it with Gatsby to build quick-loading e-commerce sites, including steps to pull data into Gatsby, create pages, and implement a Shopify plugin for checkout management. The event, initially held in-person, is set to continue as a virtual gathering, allowing a wider audience to access the insights shared by experts like Trevor Harmon.

Tinder utilized Gatsby to create a new WordPress blog site using React, a task that initially posed a challenge for Tinder web developer Kyle Boss due to his lack of enthusiasm for PHP. Gatsby, serving as a bridge between WordPress and React, allowed developers to leverage React as the front end, thus largely avoiding PHP while enabling content creators to continue benefiting from WordPress's user-friendly interface. This approach not only satisfied developers by allowing them to use preferred technologies but also helped Tinder sidestep potential technical pitfalls, such as the so-called "succulent apocalypse" of 2019. Kyle's presentation at Gatsby Days LA 2020 highlighted how this integration facilitated a seamless development process, offering insights into the benefits of combining Gatsby with WordPress for effective site management and development.

Gatsby Days Virtual Edition is scheduled for June 2-3, 2020, and will be live-streamed on YouTube, focusing on the shared experiences of the Gatsby community. The event requires speakers to have basic tech equipment and offers a $500 stipend for participants. Proposals for talks must be submitted by April 24, 2020, with early submissions having an advantage as they are reviewed on a rolling basis. The event aims to leverage collective community insights and is organized by Laci Texter, a Senior Brand Marketing Manager at Gatsby, who encourages potential speakers to explore previous event details on the Gatsby website.

Gatsby, a popular technology to learn in 2020, offers a #100DaysOfGatsby challenge to help individuals explore its ecosystem, whether they are newcomers or experienced users. Challenge 15 of this initiative focuses on creating a Gatsby Theme, a way to package site development work for use by others, promoting sharing within teams or the open-source community. Participants are encouraged to utilize resources such as a free video course and a written guide, alongside exploring projects from the Theme Jam hackathon for inspiration. Assistance is available from the Gatsby community through various platforms, including Discord, Reddit, and Twitter, and participants are invited to share their progress on social media.

The Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit organization known for its annual Scorecard on State Health System Performance, partnered with Aten Design Group to revamp its traditionally dense reports into a more engaging and accessible format using Gatsby. The objective was to make the scorecard easier for non-experts to understand while still providing detailed data to inform government policy decisions. Aten's team, led by Ken Woodworth, faced challenges in data visualization due to the vast amount of data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. They chose Gatsby, a React-based framework, due to its ease of use and strong documentation, which allowed them to efficiently build dynamic, fast-loading pages using D3, GraphQL, and JSON. The redesigned scorecard was well-received, earning multiple awards for its data visualizations and visual appeal. Following the project's success, Aten plans to continue using Gatsby for future projects, expanding its application beyond healthcare to other industries, including aptitude testing, demonstrating Gatsby's versatility in the static site generator space.

Greg Thomas's blog post recaps the Gatsby Days 2020 event in Los Angeles, focusing on Zac Gordon's presentation about building dynamic WordPress sites using Gatsby. Gordon, a community builder at Strattic and an educator, emphasized the potential of the evolving content mesh to enhance WordPress and web development by leveraging advanced microservices. His talk explored various methodologies for integrating dynamic features like comments, forms, memberships, and e-commerce capabilities into WordPress sites, weighing the pros and cons of native, custom coding, and SaaS solutions. The blog serves as a comprehensive overview of these discussions, encouraging developers to explore innovative approaches in creating rich, interactive web experiences.

Gatsby Days 2020 in Los Angeles featured a series of presentations aimed at sharing insights and best practices with the Gatsby community. One highlight was Grant Glidewell's talk on improving website performance using Gatsby Builds, where he showcased how his team at Third and Grove significantly reduced build times for their image-heavy site from 40 minutes to just 8 by integrating Drupal with Gatsby. Glidewell emphasized the use of Gatsby's lazy load components to enhance performance without requiring excessive coding. The event, which also shared updates on upcoming virtual events and registration details, provided valuable resources for developers looking to optimize their Gatsby-based projects.

Gatsby, recognized as a top technology to learn in 2020, is featured in the #100DaysOfGatsby challenge, encouraging both beginners and experienced users to explore its features and ecosystem. Challenge 14 focuses on utilizing and creating Gatsby Themes, which function as customizable website kits that can be shared and combined to enhance site development. Participants are guided through the philosophy and practical use of Gatsby Themes, with resources including insights from experts like Kyle Mathews and Chris Biscardi, as well as examples from the Apollo team. The challenge provides a step-by-step guide on using themes with a "shadow and extend" approach, and offers community support through platforms like Discord and Twitter. This initiative is aimed at empowering users to leverage Gatsby's capabilities for building efficient and performance-optimized websites.

Gatsby Days 2020 in Los Angeles featured a series of presentations available through eleven videos, providing insights from the community gathering in February. Among the highlights is a live demonstration by Dustin Schau, Gatsby’s Head of Product, showcasing the platform's exceptional build-time performance and developer experience, which initially attracted him to Gatsby. The demonstration includes updating a website using Contentful’s headless CMS and deploying it via a content delivery network, emphasizing Gatsby's capability to create fast, inclusive web experiences. Gatsby Days are also set to continue as a virtual event, with updates available through Gatsby’s social media channels.

Kyle Mathews, founder of GatsbyJS, shares updates and future plans for the Gatsby framework during a community Q&A session held on March 6th, 2020. The discussion covers significant advancements in Gatsby's build process, including incremental and parallelized builds, resulting in substantial reductions in build times for large sites. Mathews emphasizes the importance of server-side rendering (SSR) for SEO and social media and outlines Gatsby's current focus on improving build-time SSR while considering runtime SSR for personalization and A/B testing. The integration with WordPress through WPGraphQL is highlighted, aiming to enhance the experience for content authors with real-time previews and rapid content changes. Ongoing improvements in Gatsby's ecosystem, such as better image handling, caching solutions, and accessibility enhancements, are also discussed, alongside plans to integrate native TypeScript support and achieve parity with Next.js in JavaScript bundle sizes. The community's role in improving documentation and the continuous development of Gatsby's features are emphasized, reflecting the company's commitment to creating a robust and user-friendly platform.

Gatsby Days LA 2020 featured a keynote address by Kyle Mathews, the co-founder and CEO of Gatsby, where he discussed the evolution and future vision of the Gatsby framework. The event, captured in a series of eleven videos, provided insights into the origins of Gatsby's development, which aimed to integrate static-site generation, content management systems, and React technologies to enhance developer experiences. Mathews emphasized Gatsby's current role in enabling the creation of fast websites and outlined future plans to expand the collection of Gatsby themes, aiming to speed up development by providing reusable building blocks. The framework's growth is supported by a vibrant community contributing themes, plugins, and documentation, and future Gatsby Days events, including a virtual one scheduled for June 2020, promise to continue engaging the community in the platform's development.