An Overview of Modern Web Architecture: Jamstack

If you've ever heard of the term Jamstack, you know that many organizations and independent developers are hitching a ride with Jamstack on the bandwagon enroute to success. A web development practice, Jamstack aims to improve performance, increase security and reduce the cost of scalability while providing a better developer experience.

What is Jamstack?

New-age web development architecture built on JavaScript, APIs, and Markup (JAM) is referred to as JAMstack. As opposed to an actual piece of software, Jamstack is more of an approach to creating everything web, from apps to websites.

Sites built using the Jamstack framework separate the code (JavaScript) from the infrastructure (APIs) as well as the content (JavaScript) (Markup).

Unique Features of Jamstack

Explore the best parts of Jamstack meant for any type of application software development challenges:

• Pre-Rendering

Jamstack sports pre-rendering where the front end of the application being worked upon is compartmentalized yet optimized into static pages. This results in serving a site directly from a CDN which in turn translates into reduced cost and reduced risk.

• JavaScript Utilities

Given that Jamstack development facilitates markup and user interface serving directly from the CDN, Jamstack sites can leverage JavaScript and additional APIs to interact with the backend, thus enhancing and personalizing user experience.

• Turbocharged with Third-Party Services

As the API economy grows, using Jamstack for web development is becoming an increasingly effective and lucrative option. Developers can now build hyper-complex applications without having to worry about load times, security breaches, and crashes while decoupling services like authentication, searches, and database access for heightened efficiency.

What Sets Jamstack Apart from Traditional Architectures?

Content, programming, and design all work together seamlessly on a Jamstack CMS or site, but a traditional content management system website is more disconnected.

All of the code and design templates for the app will be handled by your developers in a backend interface. Additionally, all of your material will be controlled and created using a backend system, with all of the data being saved to server databases. When a user visits a page on a website, the server assembles the page and delivers it to the user.

All of these pieces are handled individually in a website built on Jamstack architecture. As a starting point, visitors to a website are presented with a different experience. A JAMstack site relies nearly exclusively on the client-side rather than the server-side for its functionality. Without having to return to the server, everything is available for use once a visitor lands on your page, making jamstack serverless.

You can benefit from a JAMstack platform, given that Jamstack websites, by definition, sport stronger security than other web development systems.

What Makes JAMstack Great?

It’s interesting how Jamstack development platform outperforms in developing modern websites and web apps:

• Ultra-Fast

Jamstack functions at light speed (close at least). To speed up page load times for the user, JAMstack relies less on a server and a database. Many of the steps generally necessary in loading a web page can be avoided by properly caching all of your material on a CDN and concentrating on clean frontend code.

• Highly Secure

The answer to how secure JAMstack really is an unarguably "very." Sites developed through Jamstack WordPress are highly secure. In other words, if a security weakness in your frontend code is attacked, it won't compromise the security of your backend program because the two are separated. An API separates them, and most of the data will be read-only. Additionally, you're no longer dependent on a database and hence have fewer issues to deal with.

• Easy to Scale

With JAMstack, you won't have to deal with the same kinds of limits that you would otherwise. Because you're only delivering static assets, you're letting the client do the heavy lifting. Scaling your website will be a lot easier if you have a good CDN in place. In addition to making scaling easy, it will also save you money because you won't have to buy more servers.

• Freedom to Innovate

Developers will have a positive experience. Because you get to pick your own tech stack as a developer, you have virtually unlimited freedom. Developers don't have to be constrained by the capabilities of a particular platform or technology in order to complete tasks. Reusing features and code across numerous websites or applications has never been easier than it is now, thanks to the emergence of microservices and reusable APIs.

Best Practices for Jamstack

To reap the many benefits that Jamstack development offers, here is a rundown of Jamstack best practices:

• Use a CDN instead of a server to distribute your files.
• You want to make it as simple as possible for people to get involved in your project. NPM and Git can be used to standardize and speed up the process of setting up software.
• Create a cross-browser project by using build tools and making it compatible with all browsers (e.g., Babel, Browserify, Webpack, etc.)
• Maintain the highest standards of online accessibility for your project.
• Avoid unnecessary stress by automating your build process.
• You may automate your deployment process by using services like Netlify, such as GitHub.

Examples of JAMstack

Dive into the real world examples where businesses have used Jamstack and leveraged true business values:

• Bulletproof
• DG Recruit
• Red Central
• Audible
• AutoloadIT
• Inventia
• Pace Revenue
• Sprucehill
• Design Better
• The H Hub

Building the Frontend of a JAMstack App

Let's begin at the top of the Jamstack. JavaScript and the UI frameworks that create stunning experience, rather than the static HTML, are what have made Jamstack popular.

Making interactions or presenting dynamic material more natural and declarative is the goal of technologies like React, Vue, Angular and Svelte, which render to HTML with JavaScript right in the browser (or server).

As a result of these extensions, it is now possible to handle the content of the projects and render pages out to static files more easily using frameworks such as Gatsby, TezJS, Nextjs, Gridsome, Scully, and Sapper.

Rather than having to wait for the complete rendered experience to load on the user's computer, most of these projects have made it possible to render pages out at build time. Rather than relying on JavaScript to fill in the complete page, this typically helps you to provide a speedier web app.

Some of the UI frameworks that developers can use to create their apps:

• Angular
• React Jamstack
• Svelte
• Vue

Developers can choose from a variety of static site generators and web frameworks:

• TezJS
• 11ty
• Gatsby Jamstack
• Netlify Jamstack
• Gridsome
• Hugo Jamstack
• Jekyll
• Next js Jamstack
• Nuxt Jamstack
• RedwoodJS
• Sapper
• Scully

In Summation

There is a new way of developing websites and apps that gives greater performance, more security, cheaper cost of scaling, and a better developer experience that is called the JAMstack. With modern Jamstack development, you can rest assured that your development initiative has all the tools and functionalities it needs to be effective and efficient.

There are several advantages that come with using it right out of the box, and the downsides are minimal.

As a bonus, the community and environment are still very much in their infancy. Even with today's excellent tooling, the teams working to address the web's difficulties will continue to push the envelope of what is possible, making the web a better place for both developers and users.