Modern Web Development on the JAMstack

Chapter 4. Planning for the JAMstack

This section covers the JAMstack end-to-end setup and highlights the choices you’ll make along the way to create the appropriate setup for your team. These decisions include the following:

• How you’ll manage the project/code

• Where you’ll store your content

• What software will build your site

• How your build process will be automated

• Where your site will be published

• What services and APIs your live site will use

Let’s look at each one in turn.

Setting Up the Project

With no server or database to configure, a JAMstack project is largely a simple folder structure full of text files. The contents of your JAMstack project will usually include the following:

• A source folder to store your content files

• A folder for layouts and templates

• A configuration file containing the settings for the build process

• A static site generator, usually added as a dependency

• A destination folder to save the final output

You can manage your entire project locally, directly on your computer, but it’s always best to begin by setting up a hosted Git repository. Even if you are the only site author, starting a repository will give you an online backup, store the history of the project, and eventually allow others to contribute. And in a moment, you’ll also see how a hosted repository is key to triggering new builds whenever a change is pushed.

Rarely would you set up your entire project folder from scratch because most site generators have sample projects that you can ...