JAMstack! A milestone of WebDev

What does it mean JAMstack? Javascript, APIs, Markups, three elements define "almost" the full-stack.

This term represents the evolution of headless CMS systems where the source of data is totally detached from the frontend and at the same time embraces the concept of SSR (server-side rendered) frameworks.

In SSR (server-side rendered) frameworks, such as NextJs or Nuxt, we have Javascript to handle the DOM and is in charge to collect data from endpoints (backend), generating the HTML document, both the markups and the contents on the server-side, and ship the results as HTML to the client which sent the request.

In JAMstack the CMS itself is the source of data, there are no more API calls involved since the data is included in the HTML. That's why in JAMstack you do not need servers anymore. The application is generated as static files and can be served anywhere, most likely a repository or several repositories, if the traffic increase.

Take as example Netlify CMS (in use by https://www.smashingmagazine.com/) which is supported by a GIT repository. The application can be cloned anywhere, and, by installing dependencies, is good to go.

This solution drives us to high performance, no more async API calls, all contents are already available. But still easy to update by regenerating the pages and pushing the changes on GitHub. Platform as Netlify can pull newly generated files from the master branch of a repo almost instantly and automatically.

So when I wrote: "almost" the full-stack, the meaning is that we still need a pseudo server, a CDN, a repository, intended not anymore as a software (NGINX, IIS, and so on), but as a service.

So, in the case of Netlify CMS, the paradigm of JAMStack, the data is written right inside the application itself, we can easily say that back-end and front-end merged in one stack, sounds like the ultimate of full-stack.

Is this representing the end of the backend? Of course not. Well for the small-scale project might be (btw: Smashin Magazine is not that small either). Not everything in a web application can fix by server-side rendered pages. We still need to collect data from web pages, we still need to fetch data from other sources. But this solution is undoubtedly revolutionary.

From the nineties, the evolution of web application designing has followed a complex pattern with the attempt to find the simplest and most effective way to develop efficient applications. In the nineties and the first decade of this century, the strong binding between backend and frontend has been an obstacle for improvements of both sides of the stack.

After more than 20 years, thanks also to a dramatic acceleration of frontend technologies, we are facing this new developing attitude of JAMStack. Born around 2017, is, as a matter of fact, the milestone for the new era of web development.

In my opinion, is never have been more fun to design and develop than it is now.

It is not only fun, but this attitude also has implicit more advantages in the management of projects as well. If we consider maintenance first, by splitting the backend and front end in such an explicit way we are freer to maintain or restyle our application without involving too many resources. Costs reduce a lot and performances increase.