The Rise of Jamstack Sites: A Game-Changing Tutorial

The web development landscape has witnessed a significant shift with the emergence of Jamstack sites, characterized by JavaScript, API, and Markup. This architecture has given birth to a new generation of fast, secure, and scalable websites.

What is Azure Static Web Apps?

Azure Static Web Apps, launched in May 2021, offers a robust set of features, including:

• globally distributed content
• autoprovisioned preview environments
• custom domain configuration
• free SSL certificates

What’s more, these features are available for free, making it an attractive option for developers.

Creating a Docusaurus Site

To get started, we’ll create a Docusaurus site, a popular static site generator. Run the following command in your terminal:

npx docusaurus init website

This will create a new site in the website directory. Commit and push the changes to your repository.

Setting Up Azure Static Web Apps

Next, we’ll create a Static Web App in Azure. Follow these steps:

1. Log in to the Azure Portal
2. Click on “Create a resource”
3. Search for “Static Web App” and follow the creation wizard
4. Create a resource group, choose the free plan, and connect your GitHub account

Deploying with GitHub Actions

Once you’ve set up your Static Web App, Azure will create a GitHub Actions workflow to deploy your site. This workflow will build and deploy your site to Azure. You can monitor the deployment process in the Azure Portal.

Authentication Made Easy

One of the standout features of Azure Static Web Apps is its built-in authentication capabilities. We’ll add GitHub authentication to our site by modifying the index.js file. This will enable users to log in with their GitHub credentials.

// Add GitHub authentication to index.js
//...

Staging Environments

Another exciting feature of Azure Static Web Apps is its support for staging environments. By creating a new branch and pushing changes to GitHub, you can create a staging environment that mirrors your production site. This allows you to test changes before deploying them to production.

The Power of Azure Static Web Apps

In this tutorial, we’ve demonstrated the ease of deploying a Jamstack site using Azure Static Web Apps and GitHub Actions. We’ve also explored the built-in authentication and staging environment features. With Azure Static Web Apps, you can build fast, secure, and scalable websites without breaking the bank.