Issue #7 – JAMStacking for modern applications

Issue #7 – JAMStacking for modern applications

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<1/> Using JAMStack to build modern apps

In today’s climate, time to market is essential for any team building a solution. JAMStack was introduced to developers to help them build fast, safe and scalable applications. What makes it so popular is its ability to eliminate almost any backend work.

It provides a strong perspective for building web applications with the best tools available as a current development trend. Let’s look at some of the tools you would use if you had to get started today.

• Javascript, depending on what you are trying to build and what you care about. From optimised builds or a larger community. Frameworks like Svelte have been getting much attention but are still relatively new and still a little figured out. Angular is known for its high quality and structured code. React is the most widely used in the industry.

• APIs, content delivery and storage can all be performed with a CMS and with a wide array of open-source options, you have room to make it what you want. Whether you are going for an emerging one like Amplication or battled test like Strapi or Keystone.

• Markup, the options you choose to use for serving your apps depends on the framework you pick in the beginning. Most of the time, you will find what you are looking for, regardless of what choice you make.
• Additional, being a standard created by the founder of Netlify, there are a few delivery options you can use that was built for your JAMStack applications.

JAMStack isn’t the only choice for side project builders or technical leads choice, but it’s probably the most widely used, and so much value can come from learning how you can use this framework to build your applications. (For a more depth look check out the main the page).

<2/> GraphQL at PayPal

Currently, you come across a technology that makes life easier for developers almost all the time. You can argue that is what drives innovation to be so exciting, but what is more extraordinary is how the internet has made it possible to read about how other teams are innovating their products and services using those same technologies.

Paypal last month published a blog post detailing their adoption of GraphQL across most of their production applications. Here are a few key takeaways from it:

Success at Paypal. After already being used in their checkout experience, they were able to see the benefits (fewer DB calls, easier testing, data synchronisation) and boost in productivity that would come with using GraphQL in place of REST.

Introducing a new technology. You can read about how easy they made it for the engineering team to be in favour of the switch, provisioning resources, organising showcases and outlining a strategy:

• Establishing and documenting conventions
• Standard libraries for logging, operations, etc.
• Template sample projects for the backend and frontend
• Q&A and support channels

You can also read about the upside the change has brought in improving the quality of their codebase, team collaboration, simplifying unification, and picking a nifty technology that will attract talent.

<3/> Inside the console

AppSync is a managed service on AWS that helps developers get to where they want to get when it comes to building real-time API’s a lot faster and easier. AppSync streamlines the connection with your backend resources.

The idea is AppSync automatically generates your data sources (destination) and resolvers (operations for what to do with your data) that know how to handle GraphQL requests and fetch information from your AWS Resources (DynamoDB, Elastic Search, even HTTP endpoints).

You are eliminating the need for code or external functions meant to handle these operations because everything can be configured and managed through a service like AppSync.

<4/> Geeking it up

CSS Battles

The best time to learn is when gamification is involved; check this out if you are trying to brush up or test your CSS skills.

South Korea fights with big tech around payments in-app

Here’s news that could soon change the restrictions on developers when adding in-app purchases after the South Korean government has passed a bill that will force big tech to change their in-app payment rules.

PlanetScale the DB for developers

Here is a database that brings a lot of what being a developer is, together. PlanetScale has version control, background tasks, and a cool mission to make enterprise-grade data storage fun.

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