ReactJS

Getting Started with GatsbyJS

Published Dec 14, 2020

Updated Feb 14, 2023

7 min read

This article was written over 18 months ago and may contain information that is out of date. Some content may be relevant but please refer to the relevant official documentation or available resources for the latest information.

GatsbyJS is a React framework and a Static Site Generator (SSG) tool used in building web applications. It combines Server Side Rendering (SSR) features, and static site development for building SEO-powered, secured, and fast applications.

In this article we’ll start with an introduction to Gatsby, we’ll learn the terms SSG, CSR, and SSR, how Gatsby improves SEO, and then we’ll build a simple website with Gatsby.

Introduction

GatsbyJS is built on React. React is a frontend UI library for frontend implementations. It supports the idea of small components that merges with other components to make bigger components.

As a UI library, React is a tool that can be combined with other tools for building web applications. Therefore, React on its own may require other tools (like routing tools, webpack server, and so on) for building full-fledged frontend applications.

With that being said, when you install React, you need to install other tools to make up your application. This results in an opinionated setup aided by Create React App (CRA). Despite this, more configurations and tools needed to be installed for a full application.

Then, Gatsby!

Gatsby is an opinionated framework that takes away the hassle of setting up the application and allows you to begin development immediately. Asides from this, Gatsby also solves the issue of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) that using only React provides. react-helmet is not an effective SEO solution. This article explains that further.

SSR, CSR, and SSG

Client-Side Rendering (CSR)

In CSR, all routings and renderings are handled by the browser with JavaScript. For this technique, different HTML files are not created for different pages, instead, one page referencing some JavaScript files that determine what to display depending on the URL. React is a CSR tool. This means all routings are handled by the browser. In React, you have an index.html file found in the public folder which codes similar to this:

<html>
  <head>
    <title>React App</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id='root'></div>
  </body>
</html>

After the build process (npm run build), the index.html will look like this:

<html>
  <head>
    <title>React App</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id='root'></div>
    ...
    <script src="/static/js/2.711c516a.chunk.js"></script>
    <script src="/static/js/main.139dd313.chunk.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>

The referenced .js files handles all routings and responds to the URL with contents to share. build/index.html is only fetched once, also with the JavaScript files. This may result in low page load speed due to fetching all resources. This method affects SEO in such a way that SEO crawlers only see <title>React App</title> and does not see every other meta changes because those changes only happen when libraries like react-helmet are executed (which is only on the browser).

Server Side Rendering

In contrast to CSR, SSR involves populating the browser with resources from the server. This means that for every route change, a request is made to the server to fetch new resources. SSR is perfect for SEO because SEO crawlers get the right meta information when any page is requested. SSR also has its cons, one of which is a delay when navigating between pages. CSR wins in this area because all JavaScript resources are fetched on the first request and every other navigation does not need a page refresh.

Static Site Generator

An SSG is a tool or set of tools that create static HTML pages from input files or content sources. Many SSG tools work in various ways but most of them take away the issues of security and slow fetching that database-driven platforms use. SSG takes content from different sources and builds them all into static pages which can be accessed faster when fetched by a browser.

How Gatsby improves SEO

Gatsby is an SSG tool that solves the issue of SEO that CSR brings and also makes routing faster compared to SSR. Gatsby does this by pre-building the web application before it is hosted. During the build process, all meta information provided within components is attached to the built pages. So when SEO crawlers or social sharing tools access any page of the application, they get access to the meta-information that has been provided to all pages during development. This does not involve any rendering in the browser. The built files are static pages which looks like each page was built separately like so:

<!-- /about -->
<html>
<head>
  <title>About us</title>
</head>
</html>

Building a simple website with Gatsby

To show how Gatsby sites are built, we’ll be building a very simple website. No much complexities or dynamics, just simple.

Install the CLI tool

Firstly, install the gatsby CLI tool. Or you can use npx if that’s what you want.

npm i -g gatsby-cli

Create new site

You can either create a new Gatsby site with a basic template ([gatsby-starter-default]9https://www.gatsbyjs.com/starters/gatsbyjs/gatsby-starter-default/)) provided by the team, or use a specify another template to customize.

For the default template, a new site is created like so:

gatsby new new-site

Where new-site is the name of the project you’re creating.

This gives the following project structure:

The template provides SEO configurations using GraphQL which you can improve. To see the site in action, run:

gatsby develop

At localhost:8000, you’ll find your site displayed like so:

Alternatively, you can specify a template you want to use. You can find different starter templates from their list of starter libraries.

To use a template, say, gatsby-starter-blog, the following command will be used:

gatsby new my-gatsby-project https://github.com/gatsbyjs/gatsby-starter-blog

This gives the following project structure:

On starting the development server, localhost:8000 shows this:

Improving the gatsby-starter-default template

The template has three folders under src namely components, images and pages. The components and images page are optional, but pages is a required page for Gatsby. Unlike React, where you need a router library to show a set of components for a particular URL, in Gatsby, you create pages by having React JavaScript files under the pages folder.

Let’s add an about page under pages like so:

In about.js, you can create your React components or import components. For example:

import React from "react"
import Layout from "../components/layout"
import SEO from "../components/seo"
const About = () => {
  return (
    <Layout>
      <SEO title="About my website" />
      <h1>About my beautiful website</h1>
    </Layout>
  )
}
export default About

SEO is a component that dynamically updates meta information about each pages and Layout is a wrapper component that serves as the layout of all pages. This can be configured to fit your needs too.

When you start your development server, go to localhost:8000/about and you’ll find this:

Note that: whatever you can do in React (components structuring, prop-types, and so on), you can do the same in Gatsby. Gatsby makes things easier allow you to focus on the important parts of your application and pre-building your site to make SEO-fit. Also, Gatsby makes your site fast and since they are static pages, they can be served from anywhere (like CDNs).

Conclusion

Gatsby goes beyond the general understanding of “static pages”. Gatsby can source content from Content Management Systems and build static pages for them. An example is gatsby-source-instagram. It sources content from Gatsby at every building process, source the latest content from Instagram, and makes them available on your website.

There a lot of other awesome applications that can be achieved by using Gatsby, such as e-commerce tools, portfolios, and so on. Here's a gallery of sites using Gatsby.

Another beautiful thing about Gatsby is the community. You’ll find a ton of plugins that make development easier and more effective.

This article gives introductory information on what makes Gatsby an awesome tool. There are still more to learn to make the best use of Gatsby such as Gatsby and GraphQL, SSR APIs, and many more. Their documentation gives a very great guide to learning more about the tool.

I hope this article gives you reasons to try out Gatsby in your next project.

This Dot is a consultancy dedicated to guiding companies through their modernization and digital transformation journeys. Specializing in replatforming, modernizing, and launching new initiatives, we stand out by taking true ownership of your engineering projects.

We love helping teams with projects that have missed their deadlines or helping keep your strategic digital initiatives on course. Check out our case studies and our clients that trust us with their engineering.

About the author(s)

Dillion Megida
Loves learning, building and teaching tech.
@iamdillion @dillionmegida

Exploring Angular Forms: A New Alternative with Signals

Exploring Angular Forms: A New Alternative with Signals In the world of Angular, forms are essential for user interaction, whether you're crafting a simple login page or a more complex user profile interface. Angular traditionally offers two primary approaches: template-driven forms and reactive forms. In my previous series on Angular Reactive Forms, I explored how to harness reactive forms' power to manage complex logic, create dynamic forms, and build custom form controls. A new tool for managing reactivity - signals - has been introduced in version 16 of Angular and has been the focus of Angular maintainers ever since, becoming stable with version 17. Signals allow you to handle state changes declaratively, offering an exciting alternative that combines the simplicity of template-driven forms with the robust reactivity of reactive forms. This article will examine how signals can add reactivity to both simple and complex forms in Angular. Recap: Angular Forms Approaches Before diving into the topic of enhancing template-driven forms with signals, let’s quickly recap Angular's traditional forms approaches: 1. Template-Driven Forms: Defined directly in the HTML template using directives like ngModel, these forms are easy to set up and are ideal for simple forms. However, they may not provide the fine-grained control required for more complex scenarios. Here's a minimal example of a template-driven form: ` ` 2. Reactive Forms: Managed programmatically in the component class using Angular's FormGroup, FormControl, and FormArray classes; reactive forms offer granular control over form state and validation. This approach is well-suited for complex forms, as my previous articles on Angular Reactive Forms discussed. And here's a minimal example of a reactive form: ` ` Introducing Signals as a New Way to Handle Form Reactivity With the release of Angular 16, signals have emerged as a new way to manage reactivity. Signals provide a declarative approach to state management, making your code more predictable and easier to understand. When applied to forms, signals can enhance the simplicity of template-driven forms while offering the reactivity and control typically associated with reactive forms. Let’s explore how signals can be used in both simple and complex form scenarios. Example 1: A Simple Template-Driven Form with Signals Consider a basic login form. Typically, this would be implemented using template-driven forms like this: ` ` This approach works well for simple forms, but by introducing signals, we can keep the simplicity while adding reactive capabilities: ` ` In this example, the form fields are defined as signals, allowing for reactive updates whenever the form state changes. The formValue signal provides a computed value that reflects the current state of the form. This approach offers a more declarative way to manage form state and reactivity, combining the simplicity of template-driven forms with the power of signals. You may be tempted to define the form directly as an object inside a signal. While such an approach may seem more concise, typing into the individual fields does not dispatch reactivity updates, which is usually a deal breaker. Here’s an example StackBlitz with a component suffering from such an issue: Therefore, if you'd like to react to changes in the form fields, it's better to define each field as a separate signal. By defining each form field as a separate signal, you ensure that changes to individual fields trigger reactivity updates correctly. Example 2: A Complex Form with Signals You may see little benefit in using signals for simple forms like the login form above, but they truly shine when handling more complex forms. Let's explore a more intricate scenario - a user profile form that includes fields like firstName, lastName, email, phoneNumbers, and address. The phoneNumbers field is dynamic, allowing users to add or remove phone numbers as needed. Here's how this form might be defined using signals: ` > Notice that the phoneNumbers field is defined as a signal of an array of signals. This structure allows us to track changes to individual phone numbers and update the form state reactively. The addPhoneNumber and removePhoneNumber methods update the phoneNumbers signal array, triggering reactivity updates in the form. ` > In the template, we use the phoneNumbers signal array to dynamically render the phone number input fields. The addPhoneNumber and removePhoneNumber methods allow users to reactively add or remove phone numbers, updating the form state. Notice the usage of the track function, which is necessary to ensure that the ngFor directive tracks changes to the phoneNumbers array correctly. Here's a StackBlitz demo of the complex form example for you to play around with: Validating Forms with Signals Validation is critical to any form, ensuring that user input meets the required criteria before submission. With signals, validation can be handled in a reactive and declarative manner. In the complex form example above, we've implemented a computed signal called formValid, which checks whether all fields meet specific validation criteria. The validation logic can easily be customized to accommodate different rules, such as checking for valid email formats or ensuring that all required fields are filled out. Using signals for validation allows you to create more maintainable and testable code, as the validation rules are clearly defined and react automatically to changes in form fields. It can even be abstracted into a separate utility to make it reusable across different forms. In the complex form example, the formValid signal ensures that all required fields are filled and validates the email and phone numbers format. This approach to validation is a bit simple and needs to be better connected to the actual form fields. While it will work for many use cases, in some cases, you might want to wait until explicit "signal forms" support is added to Angular. Tim Deschryver started implementing some abstractions around signal forms, including validation and wrote an article about it. Let's see if something like this will be added to Angular in the future. Why Use Signals in Angular Forms? The adoption of signals in Angular provides a powerful new way to manage form state and reactivity. Signals offer a flexible, declarative approach that can simplify complex form handling by combining the strengths of template-driven forms and reactive forms. Here are some key benefits of using signals in Angular forms: 1. Declarative State Management: Signals allow you to define form fields and computed values declaratively, making your code more predictable and easier to understand. 2. Reactivity: Signals provide reactive updates to form fields, ensuring that changes to the form state trigger reactivity updates automatically. 3. Granular Control: Signals allow you to define form fields at a granular level, enabling fine-grained control over form state and validation. 4. Dynamic Forms: Signals can be used to create dynamic forms with fields that can be added or removed dynamically, providing a flexible way to handle complex form scenarios. 5. Simplicity: Signals can offer a simpler, more concise way to manage form states than traditional reactive forms, making building and maintaining complex forms easier. Conclusion In my previous articles, we explored the powerful features of Angular reactive forms, from dynamic form construction to custom form controls. With the introduction of signals, Angular developers have a new tool that merges the simplicity of template-driven forms with the reactivity of reactive forms. While many use cases warrant Reactive Forms, signals provide a fresh, powerful alternative for managing form state in Angular applications requiring a more straightforward, declarative approach. As Angular continues to evolve, experimenting with these new features will help you build more maintainable, performant applications. Happy coding!...

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Composing React Components with TypeScript

TypeScript is a language that supercharges your JavaScript by giving your application's source codes type-checking. Combining the compiler tool and the IDE plug-ins gives a beautiful development experience when building JavaScript applications. What I love most about using TypeScript is that when I use it, I know exactly the structure of data to give to components and when I give a different structure, the IntelliSense immediately notifies me. Also, as a friend said: > If you use TypeScript in your application (without doing "illegal" kinds of stuff like passing any everywhere), you'll never have an uncaught error of "x as undefined" This view is opinionated, but I quite agree with it. Using TypeScript with React makes building React components faster with little to no uncaught errors. It allows you to specify the exact structure of expected props for any component. In this article, we'll learn how to use TypeScript to compose React components. To continue with this article, a fair knowledge of TypeScript is required. This is a great starting guide to learn TypeScript. At the end, we'll also look at the difference between prop-types and TypeScript. Let's start building components In this article, we'll build four components: an Input, a Button, a Header, and a BlogCard component. These components will show how TypeScript can be used with React. Setting up TypeScript for React Some React frameworks (like NextJS and GatsbyJS) already have support for TypeScript out of the box, but for Create React App, you have a few things you'll need to do. If it's a new project, you can create the project like so: ` The --template typescript installs dependencies that add support for TypeScript in your React application. If it's an existing project, then you would need to install the Typescript dependencies: ` With these, you can rename .js files to .tsx to allow TypeScript codes. Now, let's build our components. An Input component For our Input component, we need the following props: defaultValue, onChange, placeholder and name. Each of them is a string value except onChange, which is a function. Using TypeScript, here's how we define the component: ` This way, our component is well defined. The expected onChange method must accept only one argument which must be a string. placeholder, name and value (if provided) must be a string. If a different data type is passed, the IntelliSense immediately yells, or the compile command on the terminal breaks. And here's how this component is used: ` Let's change the data type of the placeholder property to see the warning we get: ` Here's the warning: A Button component Our Button component will have the following props: value and processing like so: ` For the value prop, we're expecting either of three strings: "Submit", "Continue", or "Update", and the processing expects a true or false value. Let's see the component in use: ` As you'd notice, "Next" is not included in the expected strings for value. Therefore, we get an error from IntelliSense. Here are two things you'd notice on your IDE: As seen above, on entering quotes, the IDE already gives you the acceptable values. But if you pass "Next", you'll get this: A Header component So our Header component would be a bit complex. For an authenticated user, the header would have the user's name, but if otherwise, we have the "Sign in" text. Here's how we'll define it: ` The Header component accepts two props: authenticated and profile. The props are conditional such that when props.authenticated is false, props.profile is null and when props.authenticated is true, props.profile is the User type. This means, if a user is authenticated, a profile object must also be provided. Here's how the component is used: ` For the above, we do something unacceptable. authenticated is true, but a different data type for profile is provided. Here's what the IntelliSense gives: A BlogCard component In this component, we expect a post prop which is an object with the following properties: title, author, date and timeToRead. Here's how we define it with TypeScript: ` And here's how it's used: ` *Note that* the Post type does not have to be written multiple times in different files. It can be a shared type exported from its own file and used anywhere. With the above, we do not get an error because every data type is as expected. Now let's say we added an extra property to the Post type in the blog posts like so: ` We get errors in the IDE like so: In the components examples above, we've seen how to add typings to the component's properties such that a parent components using such components would know exactly what the component wants to receive. We've seen how the Intellisense provides error messages when types are not valid. Having an IntelliSense makes the development faster as you can easily see the warnings and errors in your IDE. Without IntelliSense, you can also verify the data types when you try building (npm run build) your React application. For example, using the Header component like so: ` Running npm run build for the above code gives the following error in the terminal: The examples above are in this Stackblitz project. You can play with it, and violate expected types to see warnings. Prop Types TypeScript is not the only way to ensure expected data types in a React application. There are also prop-types. They are quite similar, but work in different ways. prop-types is more of an injected tool that inspects data received from an API to ensure it has the expected type. Also, it can be used in libraries that are compiled to JavaScript to be consumed by other applications. This means, even in Vanilla JavaScript, you'll still be able to catch type errors. However, prop-types is limited in the way you can specify data types compared to TypeScript. For example, prop-types cannot have interfaces, neither can they have the conditional props as we saw for the Header component. This StackOverFlow answer shows a detailed difference between them. Conclusion While TypeScript has a lot of work (adding typings to almost everything) which can be strenuous, it makes developing React applications faster and with little fear of errors. You're not just limited to single types as with prop-types, but you can also specify objects of objects or literally any pattern as an expected type. There's also more than you can do with TypeScript and React. You can further read the TypeScript Documentation to learn more....

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AI Leadership: Data-Driven Decision Making & Avoiding "Analysis Paralysis" with Jerry Reghunadh

In this episode of Leadership Exchange, host Rob Ocel chats with Jerry Reghunadh, Senior Director of Enterprise Architecture at Data Nimbus, about leadership, AI adoption, and data-driven decision-making. Jerry shares his career journey, insights on leveraging tools like ChatGPT and Copilot, and strategies for building effective data pipelines. They explore how companies can avoid "analysis paralysis," adopt AI strategically, and evaluate new technologies to solve real-world problems. Tune in for practical advice on aligning innovation with business goals and staying competitive in a rapidly evolving tech landscape. Chapters 00:00 – Introduction 00:31 – Jerry’s Leadership Journey 02:01 – Discussing AI in Leadership 03:59 – Experimenting with AI Tools 06:24 – Overcoming Analysis Paralysis 09:18 – Importance of Early AI Adoption 13:12 – AI’s Impact on Efficiency 14:30 – Sponsor Message 16:26 – Setting Realistic Goals for AI 19:41 – Data Management and AI 23:09 – Is AI Just a Fad? 27:22 – Testing New Technologies 29:56 – Final Thoughts on AI 30:25 – Connect with Jerry 30:44 – Closing Remarks 31:20 – Outro Follow Jerry on Social Media Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrymannel/ Sponsored by This Dot: thisdot.co...

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Let's innovate together!

We're ready to be your trusted technical partners in your digital innovation journey.

Whether it's modernization or custom software solutions, our team of experts can guide you through best practices and how to build scalable, performant software that lasts.

Getting Started with GatsbyJS

Introduction

SSR, CSR, and SSG

Client-Side Rendering (CSR)

Server Side Rendering

Static Site Generator

How Gatsby improves SEO

Building a simple website with Gatsby

Install the CLI tool

Create new site

Improving the gatsby-starter-default template

Conclusion

Dillion Megida

You might also like

Exploring Angular Forms: A New Alternative with Signals

The Journey To Making A New Framework: TanStack Start with Tanner Linsley

Composing React Components with TypeScript

AI Leadership: Data-Driven Decision Making & Avoiding "Analysis Paralysis" with Jerry Reghunadh

Let's innovate together!

You might also like

Exploring Angular Forms: A New Alternative with Signals

The Journey To Making A New Framework: TanStack Start with Tanner Linsley

Composing React Components with TypeScript

AI Leadership: Data-Driven Decision Making & Avoiding "Analysis Paralysis" with Jerry Reghunadh