A First Look at RedwoodJS | Jamstack Denver
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Video Link: A First Look at RedwoodJS | Jamstack Denver
RedwoodJS, a full-stack serverless framework for the Jamstack, is explored through the journey of Anthony Campolo, showcasing its potential for building scalable web applications.
Episode Summary
This episode features Anthony Campolo, a Lambda School student and self-proclaimed RedwoodJS cheerleader, presenting an in-depth look at RedwoodJS. Anthony explains the framework’s architecture, key concepts, and demonstrates how to build a basic blog application. He covers RedwoodJS’s integration with Prisma for database management, its use of GraphQL for querying, and its serverless deployment capabilities. The presentation highlights RedwoodJS’s potential for building scalable applications, its user-friendly development experience, and its aim to push the boundaries of what can be achieved with the Jamstack approach. Anthony also touches on the framework’s origins, its core team, and its vision for the future of web development.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction and Overview
Anthony Campolo is introduced as a Lambda School student and RedwoodJS enthusiast. The chapter sets the stage for the presentation, mentioning Anthony’s background as a former teacher and his transition into web development. It also briefly touches on the structure of the talk, indicating that it will cover the basics of RedwoodJS and include a live coding demonstration.
02:56 - RedwoodJS Fundamentals and Architecture
This chapter covers the core concepts of RedwoodJS. Anthony explains the framework’s architecture, including its division into front-end and back-end directories. He discusses key components such as pages, layouts, and cells, and how they work together. The concept of “tutorial-driven development” is introduced, highlighting RedwoodJS’s approach to creating a framework that is easy to learn and use.
09:52 - Database Integration with Prisma
Anthony explores how RedwoodJS integrates with Prisma for database management. He demonstrates setting up a Prisma schema, creating database migrations, and explains how Prisma acts as a query builder for the application. This chapter also touches on the flexibility of RedwoodJS, mentioning that while Prisma is the default, other databases like FaunaDB can also be used.
17:35 - Building a Blog Application
In this hands-on chapter, Anthony guides the audience through building a simple blog application using RedwoodJS. He demonstrates generating pages, creating layouts, and setting up routes. The process showcases RedwoodJS’s powerful CLI tools and how they streamline the development process. This section provides a practical understanding of how the different parts of a RedwoodJS application come together.
30:46 - Scaffolding and Admin Interface
Anthony shows how to use RedwoodJS’s scaffolding feature to quickly generate an admin interface for the blog. This demonstrates the framework’s ability to rapidly create CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) functionality, highlighting how it can speed up development for common application features.
33:37 - Creating and Using Cells
This chapter focuses on RedwoodJS’s unique “cell” concept. Anthony explains what cells are, how they work, and demonstrates creating a cell to display blog posts on the homepage. This section showcases how cells simplify data fetching and state management in RedwoodJS applications.
38:36 - Conclusion and Q&A
The presentation concludes with a brief overview of what was covered and what further topics the full RedwoodJS tutorial includes. The chapter then moves into a Q&A session, addressing questions about RedwoodJS’s target audience, its potential for enterprise applications, and its built-in features like authentication and authorization.