August 2021 Summaries

Git has revolutionized how developers collaborate on software, but its potential extends beyond the development world. A Git-based Content Management System (CMS) allows content editors to leverage the power of version control systems, enabling collaborative workflows and flexible editorial processes. This approach addresses the limitations of traditional CMS platforms by providing a unified workflow between developers and editors, ensuring tight collaboration and reducing errors. With features like branching, pull requests, and visual editing, Git-based CMSs offer a more intuitive and efficient way to manage content, empowering teams to work together seamlessly. By utilizing the benefits of version control systems, these CMSs aim to transform the way content is created, reviewed, and published online.

The author has created an Angular template for building Shopify stores using the Storefront API, which allows developers to build e-commerce sites with a single set of serverless functions. The template uses NgRx to manage the state of the cart and products list, and includes features such as product variants, taxes, and shipping calculations. The project is built on top of Netlify Functions, which provides a way to interact with Shopify via GraphQL, and allows developers to use one set of serverless functions across multiple frameworks. The template also includes a demo and is available for download, providing a starting point for building e-commerce sites.

The Jamstack Conference, also known as Jamstack Conf, is a virtual event that brings together the Jamstack community to discuss its growth and future developments. The conference will feature three tracks with various speakers, including industry experts and community members, who will share their experiences and insights on the ecosystem. The theme of this year's event is "Jamstack: How it started, how it’s going," which explores the evolution of the Jamstack and its current state. Attendees can expect to learn about new technology launches, witness live demos, and engage with the community through interactive sessions, including a special edition of Learn with Jason. The conference also includes workshops, award nominations, sponsorships, and opportunities for attendees to share their own "how it started" stories.

The Essential Gatsby plugin is now available in General Availability on Netlify, offering auto-detection of the framework and installation with zero configuration. This saves developers a round trip to the build plugins library and enables features like Gatsby Functions, Incremental Builds, and Image Caching. To get started, create a new site from Git and let Netlify do the rest. However, users who have been using the old Gatsby cache plugin should uninstall it as it is now officially deprecated. The plugin has rolled in all of its goodness along with new support for Gatsby Functions.

The author migrated their dynamic tool `neutrality.wtf` to a serverless architecture using Netlify, resulting in a 7x performance improvement. The new architecture is loosely coupled and decoupled, allowing for easy maintenance and updates of the microservice and UI separately. The use of caching and On-demand builders further improved performance. The author notes that the Jamstack approach has made development easier and more sustainable, with features such as a consistent development environment, staging servers, and standalone npm libraries.

Machine learning can be added to a Jamstack site using various methods, including TensorFlow.js, ml5.js, Netlify Functions, APIs from AI solutions providers such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, and small utility packages written in Node.js. These methods provide flexibility and accessibility to machine learning capabilities for developers. For example, using TensorFlow.js allows for pre-trained models, transfer learning, and creating custom models on the client-side, while Netlify Functions can run serverless functions with a longer execution limit. Additionally, APIs from AI solutions providers offer an easy-to-use solution for content moderation and other applications. By leveraging these methods, developers can add machine learning to their Jamstack sites in a relatively short amount of time, making it easier to create intelligent and interactive web applications.

Netlify Dev is a powerful tool that helps developers reduce round trips to the browser, increase productivity, and improve collaboration. With Netlify Dev, users can deploy their entire project with one command, run serverless functions, manage environment variables, integrate with VSCode, support multiple function types, and reuse open browser tabs. By leveraging these features, developers can streamline their development process and work more efficiently.

Netlify's zip-it-and-ship-it tool handles the process of finding all files used by a deployed function, including those referenced with dynamic expressions, by recursively marking each required file and discarding any unused ones. To make this work, Netlify has integrated esbuild's plugin API to intercept and transform references with dynamic expressions, allowing for zero-configuration deployment of functions that reference external files based on runtime conditions. This can be achieved through manual configuration using the included_files property in netlify.toml or by opting-in to esbuild's bundler for automatic inclusion.

The Jamstack community is coming together to celebrate innovative projects, new products, and community organizers who are pushing the Jamstack ecosystem forward through The Jammies awards ceremony at Jamstack Conf. Nominations for all award categories are now open until September 3rd, with top nominations selected and then put up for community voting. The winners will be announced live in October, along with some fun prizes and plaques. This year's awards have expanded to six categories: Social Impact Award, Outstanding Community Meetup, Jamstack Project of the Year, Ecosystem Innovation Award, Jamstack Agency Of The Year, and Community Creator Award. Register for free to attend Jamstack Conf and celebrate the winners live.

Netlify's data team successfully migrated their data stores from Databricks to Snowflake, a complex effort involving over 500 dbt models, dozens of Mode reports, and re-engineering of Airflow data ingestion pipelines. To manage the migration, they broke it down into bite-sized chunks, prioritized tasks based on dependencies, and maintained open communication throughout the process. The team utilized checklists to track progress, relied on each other for reviewing PRs and resolving data discrepancies, and shared knowledge to overcome challenges in SQL functions and analytics logic between Databricks and Snowflake. The migration required adapting to differences in SQL dialects, data types, and timestamp handling, but ultimately resulted in a smoother transition with improved performance and reliability.

The Netlify CLI allows users to manage multiple accounts with ease, enabling them to run a local development server and deploy their sites across different accounts. To switch between accounts, users can connect the CLI to each account and use the `netlify switch` command in their terminal. This feature allows developers to work on separate projects or teams without having to log out of their main account. By following these simple steps, users can quickly and easily manage multiple Netlify accounts.

The Netlify team recently shipped numerous product updates, new tutorials, and celebrated the growing Jamstack ecosystem with their quarterly Partner Kickoff. This quarter's updates include enhancements to e-commerce sites using Shopify's Storefront APIs, improved Deploy Previews with a new GitLab integration, better caching for Yarn workspaces, and support for monorepos. Additionally, Netlify has introduced features like Astro, a hot new framework that allows building wicked fast sites, and easy access to environment variables through Netlify Dev. The company also deprecated open proxies due to abuse concerns and improved support for large netlify.toml files. These updates aim to enhance the developer experience, improve site speed, and simplify content management with the new Contentful integration.

Netlify has introduced a new feature called Collaborative Deploy Previews, which allows GitLab users to create issues and file bugs directly from Deploy Previews. This feature simplifies the process of gathering reviews from stakeholders by providing a convenient tool for feedback. Reviewers can leave detailed feedback directly from their browser, and feedback syncs into GitLab where it can be viewed, commented on, and marked as resolved. To use this feature, users need to connect their Netlify user account with GitLab, which enables them to submit feedback authenticated as themselves directly from a Deploy Preview. The new feature also includes tools for developers to troubleshoot issues, such as accessing deploy logs and seeing reviewer activity in the Netlify Platform UI.