Jamstack
JAM = JavaScript + API + Markup
What is it?
You develop the front end app, and the back end lives somewhere as a service.
I want this to mean
- Write code.
- Test it locally.
- To deploy, push to git. (There is a preview mode before it goes live.)
The original thing for Jamstack was to compile the site into fast simple static pages. It's growing now and (at least) Cloudflare is claiming you can do full stack applications with their service this way now. "Pages" is the front end and "Workers" is the back end.
Can it mean this?
I will get back to you on that.
Who supports it?
I already use Cloudflare services for DNS and CDN.
I think I created a Netlify account when I attended the free virtual 2020 JAMstack conference. You do this most easily by using a Github or Gitlab account. The entry level is free. There is no provision for auth at the free level. Looks like it's pretty much the same for Vercel -- log in with Github for free account.
Self hosting
You can use your own backend, but what's the fun of that? Well, ease of deployment, ease of updates, and security. In my case I work for a county and I can't just throw any app out onto a freemium service provider without due consideration for stability and data privacy.
Resources
Jamstack conference
