Secure, Performant, Scalable and Green: The big wins of a static Drupal website
Time: Wednesday 20th March 14:30-15:00
Room: Main Ballroom
Track: Web Tools & Complementary Technologies
Drupal is the swiss-army-knife of content management systems. It provides the flexibility to build pretty much any site you want. This is why so many of us choose Drupal for our backend technology.
**Jamstack vs Static**
You can find tons of resources on Drupal with React, Gatsby, Next, Vue and Nuxt, yet not so much static-focused non-Jamstack content beyond using the Drupal Tome module (which is a great tool!). Why are JavaScript frameworks such a hot Drupal topic yet simple static frontends not so much? I think static Drupal has a marketing problem!
**Benefits of Static**
Drupal provides the tools and workflows that content editors want. With Paragraphs and Layout Builder and Views, there is much to love. But for many sites, they would also reap the benefits of having a fully or mostly static frontend such as:
* Enhanced security
* Increased performance
* Better scalability
* Less CO2 emissions
* Higher Lighthouse scores
* Improved user engagement
It’s often more cost-effective too!
Although you can’t use static for everything, it’s not unusual to be able to leverage a static frontend for a good part of your website while routing dynamic pages back to the Drupal backend. This provides the best of both worlds:
1) Drupal with its flexibility and features, and
2) static with its speed, security, scalability, and better environmental footprint.
Let’s discuss how to leverage a fully or partially static frontend for your Drupal website for all the wins!
**Jamstack vs Static**
You can find tons of resources on Drupal with React, Gatsby, Next, Vue and Nuxt, yet not so much static-focused non-Jamstack content beyond using the Drupal Tome module (which is a great tool!). Why are JavaScript frameworks such a hot Drupal topic yet simple static frontends not so much? I think static Drupal has a marketing problem!
**Benefits of Static**
Drupal provides the tools and workflows that content editors want. With Paragraphs and Layout Builder and Views, there is much to love. But for many sites, they would also reap the benefits of having a fully or mostly static frontend such as:
* Enhanced security
* Increased performance
* Better scalability
* Less CO2 emissions
* Higher Lighthouse scores
* Improved user engagement
It’s often more cost-effective too!
Although you can’t use static for everything, it’s not unusual to be able to leverage a static frontend for a good part of your website while routing dynamic pages back to the Drupal backend. This provides the best of both worlds:
1) Drupal with its flexibility and features, and
2) static with its speed, security, scalability, and better environmental footprint.
Let’s discuss how to leverage a fully or partially static frontend for your Drupal website for all the wins!
Speakers
Steven Worley
Hi! I'm a full-stack web developer with a keen interest on service oriented architecture and am an advocate for API development best practices. I have been developing web applications professionally for more 10 years and specialise in using open source technologies that utilise PHP, MySQL and various Javascript frameworks. I have Worked with many leading open source systems, namely Drupal and Wordpress, and I contribute back to the community either via code releases or sharing knowledge.
I am passionate about all parts of application development, from design and UX through to performance monitoring and optimisations. I enjoy working with the latest technologies and being a mentor to others around those technologies.
In my professional career I have focused on building solutions with Drupal and have worked with various integration layers. Some of the most prevalent being the govCMS CKAN module which utilises a data backend to produce dynamic visualisations.
In my personal time I am more general and use other PHP frameworks to help facilitate my frontend applications. Backend applications have been typically written with the Symfony and Laravel frameworks, while frontends typically leverage React, React Native, Angular and VueJS.
I am passionate about all parts of application development, from design and UX through to performance monitoring and optimisations. I enjoy working with the latest technologies and being a mentor to others around those technologies.
In my professional career I have focused on building solutions with Drupal and have worked with various integration layers. Some of the most prevalent being the govCMS CKAN module which utilises a data backend to produce dynamic visualisations.
In my personal time I am more general and use other PHP frameworks to help facilitate my frontend applications. Backend applications have been typically written with the Symfony and Laravel frameworks, while frontends typically leverage React, React Native, Angular and VueJS.