Sitecore just announced the general availability of Sitecore JavaScript services at Sitecore Symposium 2018.
JSS 1.0 will be release with Sitecore 9.1 later this year. In my opinion, JSS is one of the largest fundamental shifts in how websites will be developed on the Sitecore Platform. JSS enables javascript developers, using the most popular javascript frameworks – React, Angualar and Vue.js, to develop full-fledged Sitecore solutions using nothing but javascript.
Getting Started
Interested in learning more about Sitecore JavaScript Services? JSS can be downloaded from [dev.sitecore.net]
Installation
The installation is a 2 step process:
- The server side package will install all of the JSS components into the Sitecore backend.
- Npm packages for JSS (which you will use to develop your custom solution). Sample applications can be found on the JSS github page.
What Can You Build?
- React applications
- Vue.js applications
- Angular applications
- Embed a JSS application (any of the above) into any Sitecore MVC solution
- React Native for mobile application development
- Sitecore javascript rendering (server-side rendering of a JSS component)
- Headless Server-Side Rendering with Node.js
JSS has done a great job of being flexible enough to support multiple javascript frameworks and numerous use cases. React native for mobile development is a particularly compelling use case for sharing code between your website and mobile application. The ability to embed a JSS application into an existing Sitecore MVC application means that you don’t have to wait for a new site to use JSS. IIn other words, you can use it today to develop the next great feature on your site.
Why use JSS?
There are a number of reasons that many applications, including those that are generally just content, have started to go to a single page application architecture. The most compelling reason is speed for the end user. The only time a visitor to your site downloads the full payload of HTML is in the first request. All subsequent requests simply update parts of the page, giving a noticeably faster experience.
Single page applications are also very easy to deploy and to scale. With JSS, you do still need to worry about deploying the Sitecore bits (templates, content, etc.) However, scaling to the end user is as easy as deploying static assets to a web server (or use a CDN to cache all of the static assets on edge servers across the world).
Stay tuned for details from Rick Bauer and Corey Smiths session on Working with JSS Gold Master and Marketing Automation!
