I can’t think of a better collaboration than Mathias and O’Reilly for a JAMstack book. Netlify is a pioneer in the JAMstack community and they’ve been at it a while.

They had JAMstack conf NYC just a few months ago which I attended. WordPress was brought up a lot in different sessions as a pain point which I understand.

When speaking with developers I would emphasise it’s not either or. WordPress can learn a lot from the JAMstack community about DX (developer experience) and the JAMstack community can learn alot from WordPress about UX. Since the idea of JAMstack is not backed by a specific framework, the concepts can and still do apply.

I’m speaking at WordCamp Montreal this weekend on developing WordPress the JAMstack way. I hope to draw more parallels between the two communities and share my experience as someone who’s worked on Shifter, a static site generator for WordPress since 2016 using the JAMstack approach within WordPress.

There are major differences in the details but generally speaking, Gutenberg is using the JAMstack approach.

JavaScript = Gutenberg uses React, written in JavaScript
APIs = It’s how Gutenberg interacts with WordPress
Markup = Blocks are pre-rendered, templated, and reusable.

Static is the one major difference. That said, not all JAMstack CMSs are static. It’s common but not a requirement.

I wouldn’t say that JAMstack is a craze. Netlify/JAMstack has been around since 2014 which is years before Gutenberg existed. The craze or hype may simmer down but I do think we will be using this approach for years to come.

I obviously have lots of opinion about this topic. Ultimately, I think the WordPress community taking notice to what’s happening is a very good thing. Let’s focus on getting the most of out it and maybe we can solve our most challenging problems.