We're back on track with the JAMstack

We are back

And with a new dev stack, called the JAMstack. I’ve been using a similar approach using Contentful for a client, Vogelvrij. But this current setup is perfect for home project which require a fast time to market: Easy setup, fast deployment, fast site loading time, free ‘til a certain point. G R E A T ! 🤠

The JAMstack stands for Javascript, API’s and Markup. And that’s exactly what it is.. a static site jammed up with those three ingredients. And it tastes good. 😋

Netlify, Netlify CMS and Gatsby

The blog part of this site got easily created with Gatsby, a static site generator which uses React.

I’ve decided to write all blog posts in markup. Which is a common way to store blog posts in:

• It makes it easy to change your stack. As markup is a widely accepted way to write blogposts in, it doesn’t require you to map from one blogging framework or library into another once you change tech stack. This is a pain, I’ve been there… 😢

• It allows you to easily add a CMS on top. In this case I’ve used the open source solutions initiated by Netlify, called Netlify CMS. Which give you a little CMS, created with React, on top of your static site. You can upload images, and write your markdown pages inside the CMS.

How it works

There’s a github webhook triggering a Netlify deploy at each push to master. Netlify then triggers a new build of the site: converts the markdown files into static html pages. And hosts the complete site on a blazingly fast CDN. It’s all a matter of minutes: Creating my new post in the Netlify CMS client (hosted on this site after an /admin page), pushing the ‘Publish’ button, and seeing my new article live.

Back to blogging

Whoppa, this was my first small blogpost. Goal is to create more of these very small posts..with things that keep me busy, things I’ve learned… Give me a thumbsup, or thumbsdown to show if you appreciate this or not. If there is no thumbsup/thumbsdown button, that means I have not yet implemented this feature…yet. 🙃

Written by Jonathan Dierckens who lives and works in Ghent, trying to build useful things.