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Jamstacked Issue 9

The differences between static generated sites and server-side rendered apps

Published: Jul 8, 2020

📮

 JAMstacked

#9 — July 9, 2020

✦ web version

I was struck this week by the growing ecosystem of tools/services that modern web developers - Jamstack devs in particular - have at our fingertips. This is a good thing but it comes with some additional complexity. Modern web devs are often more like the conductor of an orchestra who has to know all the individual parts to make a particular piece work (this has led to new tools that focus just on the orchestration). It's really interesting to watch this space evolve.

— Brian Rinaldi

↘︎ What's good

Differences Between Static Generated Sites And Server-Side Rendered Apps
There are some good examples of how Gatsby, VuePress and Next.js can differ in how they handle pre-rendering versus SSR, but I did have an issue with what I felt like were outdated definitions of what can be done or common use cases for “static” versus SSR.

Timi Omoyeni

WordPress Static Site: Benefits, Limits & Tools
Rather than use a headless Wordpress, a new category of tools are enabling generating a Jamstack site automatically straight from the Wordpress source. This post covers the options.

Mathieu Dionne

Six Modern JAMstack Hosting and Deployment Solutions
While Jamstack hosting and deployment has become somewhat synonymous with Netlify, Jamstack devs are actually fortunate to have a wide range of options, each with unique features.

Nebojsa Radakovic

Building the Tailwind Blog with Next.js
The Tailwind team talk about how they set up their blog and some challenges they faced, particularly some complexities around the choice to use MDX for content.

Adam Wathan

Intro to Hugo: The Masterchef of Layouts
An easy-to-understand overview of how Hugo manages layouts and some different types of layouts such as page and list type layouts.

Tim Mastny

✂︎ Tools and Resources

  • Speedlify - A new tool by Zach Leatherman that can run locally or on Netlify for running continuous performance measurements.
  • Mastering Next.js - A free video course by Lee Robinson on how to build both Jamstack and SSR sites using React and Next.js.
  • Headless Commerce Resources - A community curated list of resources for anyone looking to build a Jamstack ecommerce site.

❖ Tidbits

Goodbye Squarespace. Hello Eleventy, Tailwind CSS and Netlify!
It’s great not only to see people transitioning to the Jamstack, but also to hear about some of the difficulties they faced in making that transition.

Sahil Parikh

Jamstack: The Static Website Revolution Upending Web Dev
Be warned, you will be inundated with modals and video ads when loading this site, but, on the other hand, it is good to see Jamstack being covered by mainstream (even non-developer) tech media.

Josh Fruhlinger

Adding Search to Your Gatsby Site
Algolia makes adding search pretty easy and straightforward - and of course Gatsby has plugins for handling most of the complexity. Or check out Ray’s post on using it with 11ty.

Brian Rinaldi

Understanding Plugin Development In Gatsby
A detailed guide that looks at the different types of plugins and how to build your own plugin.

Aleem Isiaka

As always, I welcome feedback or link suggestion via Twitter. Stay safe and stay healthy! — Brian