January 2018 Summaries

Server-side rendering has gained popularity in recent years, especially with the adoption of frontend libraries like React. Trey Huffine from Postmates discussed their decision to remove server-side rendering and its impact on the company. He highlighted the benefits of using React, including improved performance and ease of development. However, he also mentioned that removing server-side rendering had some drawbacks, such as increased complexity and potential security issues. Overall, the conversation revealed the trade-offs teams must consider when deciding between server-side rendering and frontend libraries like React.

Netlify Identity is a free, open-source service that allows users to manage and authenticate on websites without requiring them to be users of Netlify or any other service. It uses JSON Web Tokens (JWT) to secure user management and access control. JWT offers a secure method of sending user role information using a shared secret, allowing different routes to require different roles with redirects to other pages when authentication fails. Netlify Identity can be set up on websites in minutes with minimal headache and is also quite extensible with built-in event handlers for custom actions and a JavaScript object available with information about the currently logged-in user. The service allows users to gate content using a _redirects file, which can be used to restrict access to certain routes based on user roles. Netlify Identity integrates well with other services such as Netlify CMS and Git Gateway, making it easier to add multiple editors to websites without requiring GitHub accounts.

Preact is utilized to achieve React-like component architecture with a smaller bundle size, which is particularly beneficial for applications like Netlify's embeddable identity-widget. To work on UI components in isolation using Storybook, which is primarily built for React, developers can employ the preact-compat library that bridges Preact with React's API. By configuring Webpack to replace React and react-dom with preact-compat, developers can set up Storybook with Preact-based projects. This involves installing necessary dependencies, setting up Storybook's configuration files, customizing Webpack to resolve React imports to preact-compat, and writing component stories. Once configured, running Storybook allows developers to view and test Preact-based UI components independently, which simplifies handling error paths, validations, and edge cases.