May 2021 Summaries

As a primarily JavaScript/Node developer, Moriel Schottlender was curious about serverless applications and Jamstack, but wasn't convinced that her dynamic tools fit the use case. However, she explored further and discovered the benefits of serverless architecture, including encapsulation of business logic, reduced overhead in managing servers, and simplified architecture. She eventually decided to migrate her tools to Netlify's serverless architecture, which eliminated most extra overhead from her tool development workflow, allowed her to focus on features and behavior rather than environment and external services, and enabled her to buy random domains for one-off tools without worrying about hosting maintenance. The migration was seamless, and Moriel plans to migrate all her tools to serverless applications on Netlify in the future.

Netlify's Jason Lengstorf discussed the Jamstack, a decentralized architecture that enables building dynamic applications on static sites. The Jamstack allows for decoupling of front-end and back-end code, making it easier to deploy and manage applications. CDNs are resilient against DDoS attacks, as they cache content and reduce the load on servers. Serverless functions can be used for tasks like websockets, real-time notifications, and GraphQL subscriptions, but not for complex tasks that require a backend server. Netlify's On-demand Builders feature speeds up builds of large sites by only rendering necessary pages at runtime, reducing build times. The feature also allows for caching and automatic deployment of changes. Jason demonstrated the use of serverless functions on Netlify to quickly set up an API for grabbing DEV posts with the DEV API.

### LaunchDarkly with React: A Step-by-Step Guide` The article guides users in setting up LaunchDarkly, a feature flagging service, with their React applications. The user starts by creating or initializing a new React app and installing the LaunchDarkly React SDK. They then create a feature flag in the LaunchDarkly dashboard and add it to their React app using the `withLDProvider` HOC. This allows them to toggle features on or off for different environments, such as production, testing, or staging. The user can also use the `withLDConsumer` HOC to consume the feature flags in their components. The guide emphasizes the importance of setting up different flag values for different environments and provides a more fleshed-out example of using LaunchDarkly with React.

Netlify has introduced collaborative Deploy Previews, allowing developers to share preview URLs with reviewers who can leave detailed feedback directly from their browser. Reviewers can use tools like marked up screenshots and recorded videos to provide visual feedback, which syncs into GitHub and other development productivity tools. To get started, reviewers need a Netlify account or sign up for a free Reviewer seat. The review process involves finding the Netlify drawer in the bottom-left corner of the browser window, signing in, and submitting comments with notes, tags, and images. Best practices include keeping each comment concise, being direct and specific, including steps to reproduce functional bugs, and making it clear whether feedback is blocking or non-blocking.

Netlify has introduced its next-generation Deploy Previews feature, which includes powerful collaboration tools to help teams manage feedback and deliver better web experiences. The new offering is made possible through the acquisition of FeaturePeek, a startup that provided technology for the collaborative feature. Deploy Previews enables reviewers to comment, screen record, and annotate directly from the actual preview link, without needing new tabs or tools. The feature allows project managers, product designers, marketers, and SREs to provide high-quality feedback to their teammates, while also integrating with popular productivity tools like Clubhouse.io, Linear, and Trello. With this update, teams can communicate more effectively, gather better feedback, and deliver outcomes faster.

The Headless Commerce Summit 2021 is a free, virtual event that brings together digital agencies, e-commerce brands, and technology vendors to discuss best practices and chart the future of e-commerce. The summit will focus on the Jamstack web architecture, including headless e-commerce platforms, APIs, and modern development workflows. Keynote speakers include Netlify co-founder Chris Bach, who will talk about incremental migration strategies for adopting Jamstack workflows in e-commerce. Other speakers will share their experiences with scaling to over 6 million stores using Netlify and Jamstack, implementing a best-in-class search and discovery experience, caching strategies for large e-commerce sites, and supercharging the restaurant industry with Netlify and the Jamstack. The event aims to provide insights and actionable information for web development leaders interested in learning about headless e-commerce and modern development workflows.

The StepZen plugin enables developers to build a unified GraphQL API that combines data from multiple sources into a single endpoint, making it easier to power dynamic applications on the Jamstack. With StepZen, developers can unify data from various backends, such as REST APIs, databases, and cloud services, into a single query, unlocking faster delivery of experiences. The plugin is designed to be used with Netlify builds, allowing developers to deploy their unified GraphQL endpoint seamlessly within their build process.

Netlify has introduced a feature that allows users to configure their build plugins based on specific deploy contexts, such as production, deploy previews, or branch deploys. This means that users can now define which plugins run in certain contexts and even apply context-specific settings to those plugins. To achieve this, users need to edit their `netlify.toml` file, where they can specify different build configurations for different contexts. The new feature aims to save time and reduce noise by allowing users to customize the behavior of their plugins based on the specific deployment scenario.

We're excited to announce enhancements to make managing and troubleshooting serverless functions on Netlify easier, particularly with improved function logs. The new features include a pause button to stop auto-scrolling, color coding to visually isolate important details, text and log level filtering to refine log outputs, and a date and time selector to view logs within specific timeframes.

You'll need to add a netlify.toml file at the top level of your Next.js project to configure build settings. You can customize the build command and publish directory, but these steps are optional depending on your project's needs. Netlify automatically installs Essential Next.js Build Plugin for new projects, which enables server-side rendering and other features. If you don't have an existing Next.js project, you can use a starter project provided by Netlify to get started.

The Jamstack, a technology that has evolved significantly since its inception, can handle large sites and enterprise applications, challenging the misconception that it's not suitable for such experiences. To leverage the Jamstack for enterprise projects, one must first make real architectural assessments, solving issues like long build times by splitting large sites into microsites, generating only necessary pages at build time, or using incremental builds. Integrating or migrating from legacy stacks can also be done gradually and with a lower cost. Additionally, personalization is possible through various models, including universal content, localized content, targeted category content, and individually personalized content, all of which can be achieved with the Jamstack. By adopting the Jamstack, enterprises can improve performance, security, reduce costs, and enhance user experience, as seen in numerous companies that have successfully migrated to the platform.