In defense of static sites

The most basic sites don't need servers, and they don't need fancy front end routing. And yet... how did we get here, and why are we so afraid to go back to the basics? Who are we actually building these sites for and who are we harming by front loading so many build tools, complex frameworks, and overblown architecture? Hint: it's not just us, it's our users, too.

Static sites serve a purpose, and they're really important pieces of the web's history and its future. Static doesn't mean forever unchanged and it doesn't mean you're stuck with a dead site that you can never update. Quite frankly, static sites have gotten a bad reputation and it's not their fault: we've all been so distracted by shiny new things to remember their virtues.

I'll revisit what it means to build a static site, what the use cases are, how you know its the right technical choice, what tools to use, and when to scale up to something more complex.

Transcript

1. In defense of static sites A RANT BY LIZ ABINANTE AKA @FEMINISTY, SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER AT NEW RELIC
2. I LEFT FRONT END ... FOR JAVA
3. THE NEXT QUESTION INEVITABLY BECOMES: SO WHY DO YOU EVEN CARE?
4. FAMOUS LAST WORDS "RUN npm install THEN npm start"
5. LOL
6. JS TOOLS FATIGUE IS REAL
7. How did we get here?
8. I HAVE A THEORY
9. SHIP IT BECAME SELL IT
10. OUR TECHNICAL DECISIONS IMPACT USER EXPERIENCE
11. “IF WE SWITCH TO THIS SHINY NEW THING, WE’LL BE ABLE TO SHIP FEATURES FASTER TO CUSTOMERS.”
12. NO YOU WON'T.
13. ALL ABOUT USERS
14. USERS AS AN EXCUSE TO UPGRADE
15. USERS AS AN EXCUSE TO REFACTOR
16. USERS AS AN EXCUSE TO TRY SOMETHING NEW
17. USERS AS AN EXCUSE TO DO WHAT WE WANT
18. OUR COLLECTIVE TECHNICAL ENNUI HAS BECOME OUR USERS' PROBLEM
19. WE HAVE USERS BECAUSE THEY WANT TO USE OUR PRODUCTS
20. NOT BECAUSE THEY LIKE US AS PEOPLE
21. USERS DON'T CARE WHAT TOOLS & LIBRARIES WE USE
22. USERS CARE WHEN WE SHIP SOMETHING MEANINGFUL
23. Ecosystem
25. THRIVING ECOSYSTEM OF BUILD TOOLS AND LIBRARIES
26. THE OPTIONS ARE OVERWHELMING
27. WE ARE EASILY DISTRACTED
28. WE ARE BASICALLY CHILDREN
29. WE ARE GUILTY OF OVER ARCHITECTING
30. WE HAVE TOO MANY TOOLS AND TOO FEW CARPENTERS
31. Rethinking what we build
32. STATIC SITES
33. NO DATABASE. NO BACKEND. NO JS.
34. WHAT DO YOU ACTUALLY NEED JS FOR?
35. NOTHING
36. ❤ CSS
37. REMEMBER PROGRESSIVE ENHANCEMENT?
38. Benefits of static sites
39. LOW COST! !
40. DEPLOYS ARE EASY !
41. NO SCALING PROBLEMS
42. SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
43. MULTI-DISCIPLINARY EXPERT NOT REQUIRED
44. FEWER SECURITY CONCERNS
45. PERFORMANCE
46. Downsides
47. UPDATES REQUIRE MANUAL CHANGES
48. AUTOMATION REQUIRES EXPERTISE
49. LOTS OF DUPLICATED WORK WITHOUT TOOLS
50. THERE ARE SO MANY GENERATORS
51. NO ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL SOLUTION
52. How do you decide?
53. ANSWER SEEMINGLY ENDLESS QUESTIONS
54. HOW OFTEN DOES CONTENT NEED TO BE UPDATED?
55. CAN CONTENT UPDATES BE MADE EASIER WITH AUTOMATION?
56. DO I HAVE THE ABILITY TO AUTOMATE THE THINGS I WANT?
57. DO I NEED USER STATES?
58. DO I NEED THIRD PARTY DATA AT RUNTIME?
59. CAN I SOURCE THIRD PARTY DATA AT BUILD TIME INSTEAD?
60. IS THIS SITE INFORMATIONAL OR INTERACTIVE?
61. AM I PROCESSING PAYMENTS OR HANDLING SECURE INFORMATION?
62. static sites are...
63. REALLY GOOD AT DISPLAYING INFORMATION
64. REALLY BAD AT RECEIVING & MANIPULATING INFORMATION
65. Use cases
66. ▸ portfolios ▸ blogs ▸ resumes ▸ prototypes ▸ events and confs ▸ brick and mortar business ▸ informational marketing
67. USE AN API TO GENERATE YOUR CONTENT!
72. How do you build it?
73. THE SAME WAY YOU BUILD AN APP
74. WITH PLANNING, DESIGN, FORETHOUGHT...
75. AND TOOLS !
76. Tools & Generators
79. ! " #
80. FILTER BY LANGUAGE PREFERENCE!
81. PYTHON 111 JAVASCRIPT 91 RUBY 48
82. MOST OF THEM OFFER: ▸ templating ▸ live reloading ▸ Sass or Less compiling ▸ blog aware ▸ deploy hooks
83. PICK ONE THAT WORKS FOR YOU
84. LEVERAGE THE TOOLS WE HAVE
85. FOCUS ON USERS
86. Upgrading
87. UPGRADING FOR YOU AND YOUR USERS
88. ASK YOURSELF
89. HOW HAVE MY USERS' NEEDS CHANGED?
90. WHAT TECHNOLOGY DO I NEED TO SUPPORT THESE CHANGES?
91. HOW DO I BUILD IT?
92. ACTUALLY MIGRATING YOUR CONTENT IS STRAIGHTFORWARD, but please keep in mind...
93. URLS ARE SACRED NEVER CHANGE A URL WITHOUT A REDIRECT!
94. TEMPLATES ON A STATIC SITE ➡ TEMPLATES IN AN APP
95. Build simple first
96. Build beautiful
97. Build for people
98. Thanks! LIZ ABINANTE AKA @FEMINISTY SLIDES: TINYLINX.BIZ/CASCADIA IMAGE CREDITS: TINYLINX.BIZ/CASCADIAIMAGES