Anthony Campolo demonstrates building and deploying a blog application with RedwoodJS 1.0, showcasing its new features and deployment options to Netlify and Render.
Episode Summary
In this episode of Learn With Jason, Anthony Campolo returns to showcase RedwoodJS 1.0 and its new features. They build a simple blog application from scratch, demonstrating RedwoodJS’s capabilities in creating full-stack applications with ease. The episode covers setting up a database with Prisma, generating CRUD operations, implementing authentication, and deploying to both Netlify and Render. Anthony highlights RedwoodJS’s convention-over-configuration approach, which provides developers with a standardized project structure and best practices out of the box. The tutorial showcases how RedwoodJS simplifies complex tasks like authentication and database management, making it an attractive option for teams looking to build robust web applications quickly and efficiently.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction and Overview
Anthony Campolo is introduced as the guest, returning to the show to discuss RedwoodJS 1.0. They briefly touch on Anthony’s background, transitioning from music teaching to tech through bootcamps and open-source contributions. The conversation highlights the importance of open-source involvement in career development. They discuss the appeal of RedwoodJS, comparing it to frameworks like Ruby on Rails in its “batteries included” approach. Anthony explains how RedwoodJS aims to simplify full-stack development by providing conventions and tools that make it easier to build and deploy web applications.
02:56 - Setting Up the Project and Database
Jason and Anthony begin the practical demonstration by setting up a new RedwoodJS project. They start by creating a database schema using Prisma, choosing PostgreSQL as the database. Anthony guides Jason through defining a simple “Post” model with fields for title, body, and creation date. They use Railway, a platform for easily spinning up databases, to create a PostgreSQL instance. The segment showcases how RedwoodJS integrates with Prisma to handle database migrations and schema changes effortlessly. They discuss the simplicity of this approach compared to traditional methods of database management, highlighting how it reduces the complexity for developers.
15:21 - Generating CRUD Operations and Admin UI
In this section, Anthony demonstrates RedwoodJS’s scaffolding capabilities. They use the RedwoodJS CLI to automatically generate CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations for the Post model. This process creates GraphQL schemas, services, and React components for managing blog posts. They explore the generated admin interface, showcasing how RedwoodJS provides a fully functional UI for managing database records with minimal manual coding. The discussion touches on the benefits of this approach for rapid development and prototyping, as well as its usefulness for teams with varying levels of frontend expertise.
27:50 - Implementing Authentication
The focus shifts to implementing authentication in the RedwoodJS application. Anthony guides Jason through setting up database-backed authentication, explaining the process of creating a User model and configuring auth routes. They discuss the importance of secure password handling, touching on concepts like salting and hashing. The segment demonstrates how RedwoodJS simplifies the implementation of authentication features, providing built-in components and hooks for user management. They also cover the process of protecting routes and API endpoints, ensuring that only authenticated users can access certain parts of the application.
54:36 - Deploying to Netlify and Render
In the final segment, Anthony and Jason prepare the application for deployment. They start by configuring the project for deployment to Netlify, showcasing RedwoodJS’s built-in support for serverless deployment. They discuss environment variables and how to securely manage them in a deployment context. The duo then attempts to deploy the application to Render, demonstrating how RedwoodJS can be adapted for traditional server deployments. While they encounter some issues with the Render deployment due to time constraints, they discuss the process and potential troubleshooting steps. The segment highlights RedwoodJS’s flexibility in supporting different deployment strategies, from serverless to traditional server setups.
90:15 - Conclusion and Resources
As the episode wraps up, Anthony and Jason recap the key points covered in the tutorial. They discuss additional resources for learning RedwoodJS, including official documentation, tutorials, and community channels. Anthony encourages viewers to explore RedwoodJS further and engage with the community. The hosts reflect on the framework’s potential benefits for different types of development teams and projects.