October 2016 Summaries

Our CEO Matt Biilmann discusses the importance of public key pinning in securing HTTPS connections, highlighting that it's crucial to get certificates right to prevent potential security vulnerabilities.

The OpenSauce project is a community-driven open-source initiative that aims to create a decentralized, blockchain-based platform for creating and sharing content. The platform's focus is on providing a secure and transparent way for creators to monetize their work. Brian Douglas, the founder of OpenSauced, explains how this platform can help artists, writers, and musicians to gain more control over their intellectual property. By using an open-source approach, the project encourages collaboration and participation among developers, designers, and content creators.

This tutorial provides a step-by-step guide on how to host static sites or single-page apps on Netlify, leveraging its continuous deployment feature. By setting up an existing GitHub repository on Netlify, developers can automate the publishing process, ensuring high-octane speeds and impenetrable security for their sites. The tutorial covers the necessary steps to launch a new site, link it to GitHub, authorize access, select the repository, configure settings, build the site, and deploy it, making the process quick and easy.

Our CEO Matt Biilmann on public key pinning. HTTPS is important, but make sure to get your certificates right.` This emphasizes the significance of HTTPS in securing online communication and highlights the need for accurate certificate management. The importance of public key pinning, a security measure that helps prevent man-in-the-middle attacks, is also mentioned. Furthermore, this article appears to be part of a series on security and HTTPS, with previous articles covering threats, risks, and security on the composable web, phishing attacks, and secure serverless applications. The author, Eli Williamson, provides insights into the topic, sharing his expertise as CEO of Netlify, a platform that enables developers to build fast, scalable, and secure websites and applications.

Netlify has introduced the Netlify Playground, a single-page application that allows users to test configuration rules for their sites, including redirect rules, with confidence. The playground was built using Elm, a statically typed language that integrates well with other frontend tools and Webpack, making it easy to deploy on Netlify. The platform is open-sourced, allowing developers to contribute and provide feedback on GitHub. With the Netlify Playground, users can validate their configuration rules before deploying to production, ensuring a smoother deployment process.

This article builds on the previous part of a series on building a microservice in Golang, creating a simple REST API that uses JWT tokens for authentication. The API is built using the echo project and adds middleware to handle logging, error handling, and JWT token validation. The article also covers implementing a custom error handler and testing the server using a TestMain strategy. Additionally, it discusses interacting with JWT tokens, including generating and parsing them, and touches on the topic of TLS encryption.

At Netlify, the company believes in the simplicity of the JAMstack and is thrilled that developers are contributing to its success. However, issues with site builds can arise when a developer's carefully crafted development environment isn't compatible with Netlify's build system, which clones the repository, sets up a Docker container, downloads cache from previous successful builds, and runs specified build commands in a recent version of Ubuntu Linux. To debug these issues, developers can use Netlify's CLI, which should run their build nearly-identically to the original build process, allowing them to identify similar error messages and potentially resolve the issue by specifying the correct versions of build tools, such as Node.js, Ruby, Python, or PHP, and configuring access permissions for private repositories.

Our head of infrastructure Ryan Neal writes that a properly configured DNS setup can significantly improve website performance. A well-configured DNS (Domain Name System) is crucial in ensuring fast and reliable internet connectivity, which directly impacts the overall user experience. Proper DNS configuration can help reduce latency, increase page load times, and prevent common issues such as DNS resolution timeouts. By optimizing DNS settings, developers and site owners can improve their website's responsiveness and competitiveness.

Brian Douglas, the founder of OpenSauced, joins Rafael Conde on JAMstack Radio in episode 3 to discuss his experiences designing and coding for the modern web. They explore how rapidly both web design and code are evolving, driven by advancements in build tools, frameworks, and languages. The conversation also touches on the resurgence of old technologies being reimagined as new solutions, highlighting the dynamic nature of the web development landscape.

The text discusses the creation of a serverless website using the Serverless Framework, which utilizes AWS services such as DynamoDB and Lambda functions. The site features a rating system that allows users to rate beers and view the average rating for each beer. To achieve this, two Lambda functions are created: one for adding ratings and another for retrieving ratings. The website is built using Hugo, a site generator, and uses jQuery and a plugin to render a "Star Rating" system. The serverless.yml file is used to configure the AWS services and Lambda functions, and the deployment process involves linking the GitHub repository with Netlify. The article provides an in-depth look at the creation of this serverless website, covering topics such as DynamoDB setup, Lambda function configuration, and front-end development using Hugo and jQuery.

Netlify provides a comprehensive developer API that enables developers to build integrations and services on top of its platform, allowing users to authorize third-party applications to operate on their behalf. The typical OAuth2 flow involves the user clicking a link, visiting a Netlify page for authorization, receiving an access token tied to their account, and using this token to make requests to Netlify's API. This process can be implemented with minimal complexity, making it suitable even for single-page applications without server-side code. Netlify also offers various integration examples and resources, including a sample project demonstrating the Implicit Grant Flow and Authorization Code Grant, as well as tools and guides to help developers get started with integrating their own services on top of the platform.

At Netlify, we aim to simplify the process of building and deploying modern websites by providing continuous delivery and one-click setup for TLS certificates. However, configuring DNS records remains a challenge for many users. To address this, Netlify is introducing its new Domain Dashboard with DNS integration, allowing users to easily manage their domain settings with just one click. The new feature enables users to switch their domain host's name servers to Netlify's custom NS1 names servers and add custom DNS records, as well as create branch subdomains that can be accessed via a unique subdomain. This move aims to reduce DNS confusion for users and provide a more streamlined experience.

Netlify allows users to add environment variables to their builds, which can be defined through a user-friendly interface. However, this approach has the limitation that these variables cannot be accessed in local development environments. To overcome this, developers use a configuration file, such as `[environment_name].config.js`, to store sensitive information like secret keys. This file is then loaded using Webpack's `DefinePlugin` and allows for dynamic access to environment variables based on the current build configuration. Additionally, users can bypass the need for a separate Webpack config by passing variables directly through the `npm start` command, making it easier to test their site locally with different variables. By utilizing this approach, developers can ensure that their application behaves differently in development and production environments.

We recently migrated our web UI from Angular 1 to React, driven by a desire for better architecture and performance. We initially considered a gradual migration approach but ultimately decided on a full rewrite due to the complexity of our existing architecture and the need for a fresh start. The transition was challenging, but with a clear Redux-based architecture and a modern build pipeline, we were able to onboard new team members quickly and efficiently. Our experience highlights the importance of considering the overall system architecture when making technical decisions, rather than just focusing on component-level changes. With our new architecture in place, we feel well-positioned for future growth and development.