Open Data sets are now more popular then ever. This explosion is due to the pandemic of Covid19 we are living now. 

The importance of Open Data is paramount in time of crisis. But we shall be carefull about the fact that it can also shift the focus on other as equally important things (planet warming), and that numbers are still numbers until someone specialized is able to translate them into information. 

Belgium has opened up a series of data sets in order to follow the pandemic more accurately. Surely other countries have done the same. That is a way to follow up the flattening of the curve. 

We took that data in and made a little micro project using Vue as a frontend and Yii2 as an ETL and proxy for the data. 

You can see it live here : covid.fifteenpeas.com

(in our portfolio : Covid vs Belgium)

There is a new way to build rich websites that do have functionnalities without having to use a lot of layers to maintain to make it run.

To makre it quick, in the JAMstack way, sites are pre rendenred and distributed through Content Delivery Networks (like images, videos, or any other files) without using or maintain a webserver.

Yes, your site will be “compiled” into a package of optimized files using Javascript, Api’s an Markup (html). 

The advantage are :

• Website is very fast without compromising SEO
• No need of a webserver somewhere, instead you will use a Content Delivery Network that will optimize distribution around the world.
• If site is quicker, then it gets a better ranking on search engines.
• JAMstack is not a product, it is a way, agnostic of any technology, to make sites
• In terms of security, the usual targets are removed as nothing will run server side.
• Serve anywhere as what is distributed is only files not needing processing
• therefore, cheaper maintenance
• In terms of development, every technical aspect (backend, frontend,…) of your site can be decoupled resulting on more flexibility.

This revolution in building sites can be associated to another trend which is the use of headless CMS. You can read an article about Headless CMS here.

What is the worflow to develop a site the JAMstack way ?

The workflow is quite identical to developping an app. Here is the one used for the site you are reading right now.

1. As a backend we use Directus API, as a frontend we use NuxtJs
2. The NuxtJs source is backed up in a GIT repository for version control.
3. In NuxtJs we generate the result with a command
4. The generated result is sent to the CDN.

All those steps can be automated. For example: When pushing your modifications to a GIT repository, the generation command can be triggered, and the generated result can be sent to the CDN.  

What are the tools

New trends arise with new tools and new tools arise with new trends. If we focus only on the frontend side here are some tools.

• HUGO
• GRIDSOME
• NUXTJS
• VUEPRESS
• GATSBY
• …

….there are many more but we are not going to list them all here. We suggest from here to read on JAMstack.org to consolidate the knowledge of the theory before going practical.

For a vast majority of small businesses, having an internet presence seems to be an obvious step. Depending on how frequently they update their website with new information, the choice seems always to be directed, in anyway by an acquaintance or a familiar, or because the client has made his own research, to the most used CMS on the market: WordPress, Drupal,…

Most of my clients didn’t need WordPress even if they thought the contrary.

The promise of an immediate ROI

Yes, WordPress is the most used CMS on the internet, but it is also the most hacked CMS, therefore you must protect it in many ways. Yes, WordPress has huge marketplace where you can find easily themes and plugins. And you can get something working out of the box very very quickly. The counterpart is that you will face high maintenance costs. 

Every single plugin, theme you add will have to be maintained as much as the core WordPress installation.

If you need something quickly setup and if you are going to add content frequently and if you are ready to pay more maintenace costs over an initial setup, then WordPress is for you.

WordPress is not bad at all, on the contrary, that is a superbly crafted CMS that we, at Fifteenpeas, are still proposing. Plus now it has an API which may render it “Headless”. But again, if you are not going to update on a regular basis, then, that solution is overkill.

The change of paradigm of the API

API’s have long been a programatic term which now has taken over most of the IT spheres. What then was only ment for pieces of codes is now applied to whole services.

In fact, it t the API trend that helps turn your site/blog into a service. It means that your content or features can be used by any other program or site, developed in any language. This opens new perspectives in terms of flexibility. Basically, a Headless CMS is a CMS you access content or features through an API an that will return raw data. 

Usually, the structured data will be returned in a, defacto, standard like JSON or XML.

Therefore, the presentation is not sent along the data. Those CMS usually, don’t care about the frontend thus the denomination of Headless CMS.

Rise of the frontends

The Headless CMS trend has been helped by the coming of the frontend frameworks. VueJS, Angular, React helped it the emergence of this trend which consists of decoupling the frontend from the backend. This is a trend that can be opposed to a fullstack framework which does backend and frontend. 

Frontend frameworks have also kind of mutated from being the voice of application backends to be used as sites/landing page generators.

And that is the revolution brought in by JAMstack that we will discuss on a next article.

Information technology can not be seen today as it was before. The technologies have mature and enable/demand the global vision of the whole Enterprise.

It is not advised anymore to solve issues overlooking stakeholders and the other systems within the company. More and more, inside systems tend to have a part accessible from the outside, not only for the sake of mobility but also to enable automated self services for clients/prospects.

The simple fact of enabling the convenience of self service through the  company’s portal becomes an sale’s argument on its own. The whole digital layer of the company becomes an ecosystem capable to adapt because it becomes open to the change. If it could be better, I would suggest to go to tailored made tools and not ready made products. The whole advantage is a full control from beginning to the end of the digital layer.

There are here two points of view: Or you choose a tool that will structure you or you build a tool that adapts to you. No solution is bad. It depends on the stage you company is. But one solution will evolve with your company : a tool that adapts to your structure.

The costs war is missing the ROI

We could argue that this would cost more, but nowadays development technologies/frameworks are dramatically reducing the development times, thus, the costs. The return on investment is greater then a close vendor solution which might be hard to adapt. The fact of mastering the tool from the start will shorten the workflow to adapt or add new features.

The company will not spend time anymore to asses ready made solutions and try to choose the better one. Having its own environment is the best solution if it is built on long existing, community supported technologies : for example PHP, AngularJS…

Just to cite one company that really succeed: Facebook !! They’ve used PHP to build the starting point of the company. No doubt that with an adequate open source tehnology they can do whatever they want and need.

In my point of view, tailored made digital solutions will bring Saas + mobility + open API + agility + evolution for as long as the underlying technology is widely used and, more important, its implementation derives from a global vision of the whole company a thorough business analysis).

For the global vision, we trust a company like Fifteenpeas who is able to produce totally independent Business Analysis.