April 2021 Summaries

StrapiConf 2021 successfully concluded with nearly 5,000 participants from 112 countries, offering a day of learning, collaboration, and networking for Strapi users, contributors, customers, and partners. The event featured 30 talks and workshops across three tracks, catering to various levels of expertise in Strapi and JAMstack architecture. The conference highlighted Strapi's evolution from a small project to a crucial component in diverse industry stacks, showcasing its impact on the modern web as Headless CMS becomes a standard. The event's success was supported by sponsors and featured a diverse panel of speakers, with video recordings of all sessions soon to be available on the Strapi website. Victor Coisne, Strapi's VP of Marketing, emphasized the vibrant ecosystem and community that has developed around Strapi, reflecting his extensive experience in open-source and developer communities.

Strapi v3.6 introduces a highly anticipated internationalization (i18n) feature, enabling users to create multilingual websites or apps by managing content in multiple languages and locales without limitations. This update allows for content personalization and localization, with the ability to customize messages and content according to different target audiences' languages and geographical locations. The new feature facilitates efficient publishing workflows by allowing users to browse and switch between locales easily, set default locales, and manage content that remains consistent across all locales. The integration of granular permissions ensures secure collaboration, while the API has been enhanced to support fetching content by locale, adding a localizations field to every content type. Strapi continues to grow through community contributions, with recent updates including a Starters CLI release, a Sentry plugin, and SSO Authentication for the admin panel.

Strapi has released a new template designed to work seamlessly with Vercel's Virtual Event Starter Kit, allowing users to easily set up Strapi projects for virtual events. Initially developed for StrapiConf, the template offers enhanced customization and functionalities such as downloadable promotional cards for speakers and sponsors, a fully customizable navigation panel through the Strapi admin panel, and global page settings for SEO. Strapi chose this approach over other platforms like Hopin and Bevy due to cost considerations, closed-source limitations, and a desire to dogfood their own product. The template is open-source and encourages community collaboration, reflecting Strapi's commitment to open-source and customizable solutions. Additionally, instructions are provided for local installation and deployment on various platforms, ensuring users can tailor the setup to their specific needs.

This tutorial by Osmar Pérez, part of the Write for the Community program, provides a comprehensive guide on implementing a local authentication system using Strapi, Next.js, and NextAuth.js. It begins with setting up a project structure, creating a PostgreSQL database, and installing Strapi using a custom configuration. The guide then explains the use of JSON Web Tokens (JWT) for secure authentication and the different methods of token storage, emphasizing the advantages of using cookies to mitigate security risks such as XSS and CSRF attacks. By integrating NextAuth, the tutorial provides a streamlined approach to authentication, using hooks to manage user sessions and JWTs. It covers creating a login interface, a protected page, and configuring the NextAuth provider for session management, all while emphasizing security best practices. The tutorial concludes by guiding users on testing the setup and accessing JWT tokens via a Strapi endpoint, with the complete code accessible on GitHub.

StrapiConf, Strapi's first global user conference, is set to take place on April 22nd, offering a virtual experience with over 4,000 registered attendees and 19 sponsors. The event will feature a range of presentations, including deep dives, lightning talks, and case studies across three tracks: Adopt, Build, and Integrate, covering how Strapi can be utilized in various innovative ways. Notable sessions include discussions on integrating Strapi with other technologies, the use of Strapi in content management and Jamstack architectures, and insights into headless commerce. Attendees can connect via Discord for networking and engage with sponsors at their virtual booths. The conference will also include workshops on topics such as monitoring, debugging, deployment, and data migration. Strapi co-founders and engineering leads will present the latest features and improvements, alongside special guests from the Strapi and Jamstack ecosystems, ensuring an educational and engaging experience for all participants.