Table Of ContentJumpstart
Jamstack
Development
Build and deploy modern websites and web apps
using Gatsby, Netlify, and Sanity
Christopher Pecoraro
Vincenzo Gambino
BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI
Jumpstart Jamstack Development
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This book is written in honor and loving memory of my father
Dr. George Anthony Pecoraro, Sr.
He gave his all for us
and also in memory of my friend
Nicholas Robert Pinansky עמנואל בר דוד ו'אלישבע
and my dear cousins
Sergeant Gregory Lee Smith
and
Airman First Class Victor Joseph Guida
Questo libro è stato scritto in memoria del Professor Ingegnere Serafino Casu.
È stato per me come un padre.
I would like to especially thank my wife, Dr. Anna Casu, sa prenda mea, for her divine
patience, spousal love, and eternal support, together with my mother, Patricia Marie
Pecoraro, for her selfless and indescribable love. Thanks to my family, both in the United
States and Italy. Appreciation goes to my educators Br. David Carlson OSB, Dr. Colleen
Carr, and Dr. Harold Morrison at Saint Vincent College.
I would like to thank Luke Woodling, Cliff Manspeaker, Clinton J Robinson, Logo
Olagoke, and all of my other colleagues at Rollins College.
Also, special thanks go to Aaron LeClair for believing in me, and Harmony Betancourt,
Efrain Lugo, and Nick Clements for their continued encouragement and friendship.
To my former colleagues: Geoffrey Bent, Steven Dudukovich, Nate See, Shen DeShayne,
and so many others that I have unfortunately forgotten.
Thanks to Sanity: Magnus for liking my tweet that inspired this book, and Knut, Kapehe,
and Bryan for continued support throughout the writing process.
Last and certainly not least, GRAZIE to my coauthor Vincenzo, and Silvia and Thea.
We sadly remember those who have lost their lives during the COVID-19
pandemic and honor those who gave everything to defeat it.
– Christopher Pecoraro
To my beloved wife, Silvia, whose strength and determination inspire me. You are and
always will be my perfect wife and mother to our children. I really love you and I mean
you.
To my "sleeping on a dandelion" daughter, Thea Sofia: choose your own ground and follow
your dreams.
To my mother Anna Maria, my father Giuseppe, and my sister Alice, with love and
gratitude.
To my niece Emma and nephews Massimiliano, Alessandro P., Gabriele, and Alessandro
S., who always make me smile.
In memory of my grandparents Rocco Battaglia, Angela Cardinale, Vincenzo Gambino,
and Rosalia Bronzino.
To my coauthor and friend, Christopher Pecoraro, who supported me in my
programming career.
– Vincenzo Gambino
Foreword
Innovation is often driven by people who expect more and challenge the status quo.
Instead of making small improvements to what is, they invent new paths that over time
become inevitable. We reach a point where we can't imagine going back to where we came
from.
The most common solutions for building web pages today were created in the early 2000s.
What was once state of the art is now limiting digital projects and content collaboration,
frustrating developers and content editors and leaving product and business owners with
infrastructure that creates poor digital customer experiences and harms their capacity for
digital transformation.
We are now finally seeing a reinvention of the way we approach content and digital
experiences on the web, and the frameworks and services commonly known as Jamstack
are a big part of this revolution. They have emerged as a response to the constraints of
traditional monolithic web architectures: organizations need more security, scalability, and
to service their audience's demand for better content at an ever-increasing rate of delivery.
Jamstack fulfills these needs in ways that monolithic systems simply cannot. These tools
are redefining what's possible on the web – and this book is the primer you need to make
the leap into this new way of building. Christopher Pecoraro and Vincenzo Gambino
provide a step-by-step process for building your own blazing-fast website and real-time
backend by combining three innovative and industry-leading tools:
• GatsbyJS: the highly popular React-based static site generator
• Netlify: the industry-leading Jamstack web host and content delivery network
• Sanity.io: the real-time content platform that lets you treat content as data
In addition to making fast websites, this book shows you how these tools can be used
to present content to any application or device, as exemplified by powering an Amazon
Alexa skill from the same content that drives your website.
This is the true promise of the tools you are introduced to in this book – they're capable of
so much more than websites. This API-enabled constellation of microservices, structured
content, and serverless computing also supports a higher goal of content velocity.
Forward-thinking teams are embracing the fact that great websites are just the first step
towards running unified content projects. They're ushering in a new way of working –
where product and marketing content and workflows converge around a single source of
truth, and shipping amazing omnichannel experiences is no longer a pipedream.
Since you are reading this book, you're probably a person who expects more, challenges
the status quo, and the one who explores the bleeding edge. Together we are creating a
paradigm shift, not only on how the web is built, but in the approach we take to content,
and to building digital experiences at large.
See you on the other side...
Magnus Kongsli Hillestad
CEO @ Sanity.io
Contributors
About the authors
Christopher Pecoraro has been a senior software developer, speaker, and open source
enthusiast since 1999 with experience in software development with a focus on web
applications, apps, and content management systems.
Vincenzo Gambino has been a software developer since 2007. He started in Palermo,
Italy, and is now based in London, UK. He has developed software and web applications
for government departments and many educational entities, including one of the major
universities in the United Kingdom. He is focused on web applications, virtual assistant
apps, and content management systems.
About the reviewers
Nirmalya Ghosh is an experienced developer who has designed and developed complex
applications from scratch. He also has experience building and managing teams and likes
working with React and GraphQL.
Table of Contents
Preface
1
History of the Jamstack
The evolution of the Jamstack 2 The Jamstack acronym explained 7
HTML 2 Jamstack advantages 7
Server-side includes 3
Our Jamstack 9
The Common Gateway Interface 3
GatsbyJS 9
Forms 4
Sanity.io 9
Web page preprocessors 4
Netlify 9
Content Management Systems 4
WordPress 5 Getting started with the Jamstack 9
Ajax 5
Installation 10
JavaScript frameworks 5
Prerequisites 10
The rise of the cloud 5
Summary 11
High-speed access 6
The rise of the Jamstack 6
2
Introduction to Sanity
Technical requirements 14 Introducing Sanity Manage 19
Account setup 14 Sanity.io project pages 19
Introduction to Sanity.io 14
Sanity Studio overview 22
What is GROQ? 15
Navigation 22
Creating a project 15
Summary 25
