January 2023 Summaries

Netlify has integrated its platform with PlanetScale to enable users to easily deploy complex and data-intensive applications without worrying about underlying infrastructure or data scalability issues. This new integration allows users to connect their Jamstack sites and apps to a production-grade data backend, handling tasks such as inventory management and user data storage. With this integration, users can leverage the recently launched PlanetScale API and OAuth applications to closely integrate PlanetScale branches and deploy requests into their existing workflow. The integration also enables fluid and functional support with data backends, leading to more automated processes and powerful workflows for users running web apps and SaaS on Netlify. To use this integration, users must create a PlanetScale account and database, establish a connection in the Netlify UI, and then trigger calls to their PlanetScale database from their code using the `withPlanetscale` function. The integration also enables seamless insertion of a connection into database calls, allowing users to easily deploy requests and passwords into their existing workflow.

Storybook is a frontend workshop for building UI components and pages in isolation, allowing developers to compose sections and pages independently, test them independently, and ensure consistency. It's an open-source tool that thousands of teams use for UI development, testing, and documentation. Netlify uses Storybook to build reusable "components" and pages, and has implemented a strategy that includes automated visual regression testing (VRT) using Chromatic, which takes screenshots of stories and compares them to the expected results. This allows developers to test their components in isolation, while also ensuring consistency across the entire app. By using Storybook, Netlify's team can write stories for every component or page, regardless of how complex they are, and use a strategy that balances coverage with cost. The tool has become an integral part of Netlify's development process, empowering everyone to be involved in changes large and small.

Netlify is introducing a new environment variable experience that includes stronger encryption, scopes to limit data availability, and contextual values for better flexibility. This improved system will be available on all sites starting February 20, 2023, with migration for existing teams beginning in early March, and Enterprise plan customers able to defer the change if needed. The update aims to provide better security and flexibility for developers, with minimal disruption to users, who can access their variables through Site Settings or Netlify CLI. While some changes are required, such as switching to new endpoints, most users won't need to take any action, and support will be available in case of issues.

The Netlify team has introduced several updates to the Netlify Drawer, including a new Conversation pane that provides a chat-like interface for discussing deploy previews, live refresh changes that notify users of new deployments, and improved integration with third-party issue trackers. The drawer's UI has also been updated to make it easier for teams to collaborate, with features such as dockable functionality and keyboard shortcuts. These updates aim to enhance the user experience and facilitate more effective feedback and collaboration within teams.

The Netlify Drawer has been enhanced to enable teams to collaborate directly on branch deploys, providing a more stable URL for stakeholders, including quality assurance (QA) teams. Developers can now share their site's staging branch with stakeholders using a long-lived subdomain, such as `staging.example.com`. To get started, update the Netlify Drawer settings at Site Settings > Build & deploy > Collaboration tools in the Netlify app, and follow the steps to set up branch deploys for your specific use case. With this feature, developers can collaborate on changes, make suggestions, file issues, and share deploy logs and function logs with their stakeholders, using features like third-party integrations, screenshot or video recording, and issue tracking.

The Netlify Email Integration is now generally available, providing a streamlined workflow for developers to configure email triggers and edit templates. The integration connects Netlify sites with popular API-driven email services, allowing users to manage version-controlled email templates alongside their project code. Users can generate email function handlers that populate custom email templates and send emails using specified email providers such as SendGrid, Postmark, Mailgun, and others. The feature supports a range of new capabilities including sending attachments, responsive templates with MJML, test email functionality, environment variables experience, and a wider range of frameworks. This integration is free for all plans at the moment but may have paid options in 2023 for heavy users. Users can provide feedback on the Netlify Email Integration in the forums.

The Navan company, a worldwide software firm valued at over $9 billion, recently migrated its corporate site to a Jamstack architecture built with Netlify and Next.js. The decision was made to free up engineering time for better marketing sites and improve the user experience across all stages of the buyer journey. With a new stack that includes Netlify, Next.js, and Contentful, Navan aimed to balance finding tools suitable for both development teams and marketers. The requirements included localization, high performance, usability across teams, and easy incremental migrations with Netlify. By choosing Netlify, Navan was able to streamline their work, reduce server issues, and enable marketers to make updates without developer assistance. The new stack also supports multiple frameworks and allows for easy deployment of projects from Git.