What are the best methods to create static sites using Gatsby as well? (r) (r)

Dec 10, 2023

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A demo site showing what you can build after reading this guide
Demo sites that demonstrate the possibilities of what you could create once you've completed this course.

Understanding static sites

  1. Performance: Static sites load quick since there's not any server-side processing.
  2. Security As there's no running program that can be executed on servers, static websites are more secure against security threats.
  3. Scalability It's easy to share static websites through Content Delivery Networks (CDNs).
  4. Simple: They are easier to develop, implement and keep up.

After you have a better idea of what static sites are and the benefits they provide, we can examine Gatsby.

What does it mean to be Gatsby?

  1. Rapidly Fast: Gatsby improves the speed of your website for speed by employing techniques like code splitting and lazy loading. This speeds up the loading of your webpages.
  2. Flexible data sourcing It can get data from a variety of sources including Markdown files databases, APIs and other.
  3. Rich Plug-in Ecosystem Gatsby's large collection of plug-ins allows you to extend the functionality of your application quickly.
  4. Performance and SEO: Gatsby automatically produces optimized HTML that is better optimized for SEO and can be more efficient.

The Beginning of the Journey with Gatsby

To be able to comply with this directive, you must have:

  • Basic understanding in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
  • Basic knowledge of React

If you're planning to get started at Gatsby and formulate a strategy look over any of the countless examples available in Gatsby Starter Library. Gatsby Starter Library as well as create an beginning project, then follow until it is completed.

To do this, we'll benefit from GatsbyJS's Hello World starter for GatsbyJS as it gives us an intuitive project that doesn't come included with additional extensions or documents.

  1. Before starting, install Gatsby's Command Line Interface on your personal computer using the following instructions:
NPM install -g gatsby Cli

Start the version gatsby to check whether it succeeded or not.

  1. After that, you must navigate to the directory you want to build your project within then execute the following command:
npx gatsby new https://github.com/gatsbyjs/gatsby-starter-hello-world

Modify the project's name above to show the project's name. you're working on.

  1. Once this is completed After that, go to the project folder and then start the server for development.
Cd gatsby - create

The local development server will start at http://localhost:8000, where you can access your Gatsby site.

The Gatsby hello world theme
It's the Gatsby Hello World theme.

Learn Gatsby File Structure

When you open the project with an editor for codes, you'll notice the following structure:

/ |-- /public |-- /src |-- /pages |-- index.js |-- /static |-- gatsby-config.js
  • public: This directory contains the outcomes of your Gatsby method of making. The directory is where made HTML, CSS, JavaScript and various other data files are kept.
  • (or SRC): This is the heart of Gatsby. Gatsby project. This is where you'll have to spend the bulk throughout the day. There are many subdirectories with files:
  • pages: This is where each page of your site is stored. Each JavaScript document in the folder is affixed to the place you've selected for your site.
  • static This folder is used for static documents that must be added to your website. These include images, fonts and downloadable files. The files are offered for free and have not been altered by Gatsby.
  • gatsby-config.js: This configuration file allows you to specify various settings for your Gatsby site. It lets you specify the your metadata or plugins that you wish to add in your website using various configurations.

What is the Making of Pages and Components

In Gatsby creating web pages is an easy procedure. Every JavaScript documents you write in pages/src directory pages/src directory is automatically transformed into pages using the appropriate route, thanks to Gatsby's automated pages generation.

You can create the pages you require to add to your site through the addition of additional JavaScript documents into pages. The documents are stored in the pages folder inside the /src/pages folder. You can, for example, build the about.js file for the "About" page.

While you are able to create separate JavaScript files for each page directly within pages/src/pages folder, it is also possible to create subfolders to each page pages/src/pages folder. This way, you're competent of organizing your pages by a specific method. You can create subfolders to specific pages. If you decide to do this, for example, you could make the blog folder, which will be able to organize the blog related web pages.

This will be the manner in which the structure of the page will appear in the following manner:

|-- /src |-- /pages |-- about.js |-- index.js |-- /blog |-- index.js

Utilizing JSX for Pages

If you do this, you could design the content on your homepage ( index.js) using the following steps:

Import React from'react";the most common method of exporting React is home() and returning ( Get a static web hosting experience via StSH. Fast, secure and reliable Hosting Solution. > );

For creating a hyperlink for other websites, you could make use of this Link feature. The way to do this is:

Integrate React into the react integrate React into react Link using the 'gatsby' default function export default function to returning() return ( Find Static Web Hosting using StSH. Secure, fast and quick Hosting Solutions. to="/about">About Us to="/blog">Blog > );

In this illustration in the illustration above, we've incorporated Link elements that we discovered on the gatsby website and used it to create links for Our "About Us" page and our blog. The "About Us" page, as an instance, we have the hyperlink about. If visitors hit on"About Us," like"About Us" or" when they click on"About Us," and then click on the "About Us" button, they are directed into"About Us" page/about page.

To build links to external sites you can use anchor tags that are normal ( ) tags that include an an attribute referred to as HREF: attribute:

import React using'react";Export the default home functions() return ( Get Static Website Hosting with StSH. Secure, fast, and reliable Hosting service. Get the benefits of static web hosting using StSH. Secure, fast, and dependable Hosting service. Discover more on );

In this instance it opens an external site within an entirely different browser as it could employ attributes such as target="_blank" and rel="noreferrer" attributes.

Production of the components needed for Gatsby

Gatsby's modular design enables users to create reusable components for your website. Instead of duplicated codes on several pages, you're in a position to encapsulate the components you use to perform your daily tasks into parts which makes your base of code more flexible easily manageable and effective.

The code you utilize to show your site's homepage includes the navigational area as its primary content, as well as the footer

Import React using the aid of the react Import Link 'gatsby' export default function default function for home() returning ("home" back"home" back to ="/">Home to="/about">About to="/blog">Blog Make profit from static web hosting using StSH. Secure, fast and dependable Hosting Solution. Read more Hosted with by 's' ' href="https://.com/static-site-hosting"> Static Site Hosting . > );

Imagine having to copy the footer and navigation bar codes for each page on your website. Components can come in. They are able to be made by reusing components that could be employed to build the footer, navigation bar or another part of code which could be applied to various components and websites.

To be able to utilize elements from Gatsby in order to make use of these elements, you need to create folders that contain components from Gatsby. Make components folders in Gatsby. Within Gatsby, create an components folder in the src folder. It should contain all components. Next, create your components, e.g. Navbar.js and Footer.js. Inside the Navbar.js file, break the code into the format below:

Import Link 'gatsby' import React using'react";const navigationbar () = return ( Home About Blog ) Export default Navbar

Additionally, Footer.js:

import React from 'react'; const Footer = () => return ( Hosted with by 's' ' href="https://.com/static-site-hosting">Static Site Hosting . ); ; export default Footer;

Then, it is possible to add documents to components or pages and apply this procedure:

import React from 'react'; import Navbar from '../components/Navbar'; import Footer from '../components/Footer'; export default function Home() return ( Enjoy Static Site Hosting With StSH. Secure, fast, and reliable hosting solution. Learn more about );

Layout elements and design

The most popular method of creating websites is by creating an layout element which reflects the general style of the web site. Layout components typically include elements which appear on every page, like the footer, the header, sidebars, navigation menus and so on.

Make a new file called Layout.js in your component's components/src/components directory. After that, you will be able to identify the layout's design. The guide below will explain that layout's style must comprise the footer and the navigation bar

import React from 'react'; import Navbar from './Navbar'; import Footer from './Footer'; const Layout = ( children ) => return ( className="content">children ); ; export default Layout;

This layout component could be used to make components to wrap the contents of the pages (provided by children). If you want to utilize the layout component in the pages you create, you need install it, after which you can use it to wrap your content of your pages it. In this case, for instance, you could have an index.js page:

import React from 'react'; import Layout from '../components/Layout'; export default function Home() return ( Enjoy Static Site Hosting With StSH. Fast, safe and reliable Hosting service. Find out more );

Utilizing a layout feature can ensure you have the exact layout and style across your pages as well as keeping your website's code updated and organized. It's an excellent way to deal with the elements that are most commonly used for your site effectively.

Styling Pages and other components of Gatsby

The style you choose for your Gatsby website can be flexible since it permits you to utilize different strategies, including simple CSS and CSS-in JS, and CSS preprocessors, such as Sass. This tutorial will show you how you can create easy and mod-styled sites.

CSS Styling

In Gatsby there's an option to create the CSS file. You can then connect it to any site or other component you'd like to be connected to and it should be flawlessly working. For example, you could build the styles folder within the folder known as src folder. You then make a global.css. global.css file with the CSS code.

Below are a few of the most popular designs of the parts developed in the past:

@import url('https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Poppins:wght@300;400;500&display=swap'); * margin: 0; padding: 0; box-sizing: border-box; body background-color: #ddd; font-family: 'Poppins', sans-serif; width: 1200px; margin: 0 auto; a text-decoration: none; img width: 100%; nav display: flex; justify-content: space-between; height: 200px; align-items: center; nav .logo-img width: 100px; nav .nav-links a padding: 0 20px; font-size: 18px; @media (max-width:700px) body width: 100%; padding: 0 20px; nav .nav-links a padding: 0 18px; .footer width: 100%; text-align: center; margin: 100px 0 20px; 

It is then possible to add the CSS document into the components which you want to design. This is the case where you're allowed to include it in your Layout component, making sure that it is applied to each component.

import React from 'react'; import Navbar from './Navbar'; import Footer from './Footer'; import '../styles/global.css'; const Layout = ( children ) => return ( className="content">children ); ; export default Layout;

Module CSS Styling

CSS Modules let you scope your style to certain elements or even webpages. This helps avoid clashes between styles, as well as making it simpler to manage the CSS code. In the styles folder, create your CSS modules with the structure (pageName>.module.css and add the specific style into the files.

In this instance, you can create home.module.css for the homepage and then add the following code:

.home_hero display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; flex-direction: column; text-align: center; .home_hero h1 font-size: 60px; width: 70%; .home_hero p color: #6E7076; font-size: 20px; .btn background-color: #5333ed; padding: 20px 30px; margin-top: 40px; border-radius: 5px; color: #fff; @media (max-width:700px) .home_hero h1 font-size: 40px; .home_hero p font-size: 16px; 

In order to use the module CSS styles in your Gatsby website or other component that uses the CSS module you need to load the CSS style styles of the CSS module in the form of an object at the top of the webpage or in the file prior to making use of it in these ways:

import React from 'react'; import Layout from '../components/Layout'; import * as styles from '../styles/home.module.css'; export default function Home() return ( Enjoy Static Site Hosting With StSH. Fast, Secure, Reliable Hosting Solution. Learn more about the );

Making use of Static Files in Gatsby

The Gatsby static files refer to assets like pictures, fonts and CSS files and a variety of other files which are directly delivered to the user's web browser, without having for servers for processing. They are later added to your static directory within the root directory of the project.

For instance, if for instance you post your picture -logo.png to the directory located in the static directory and it is displayed on your component the way it is:

link imports from 'gatsby' React by'react'. It will replace with the Navigation bar () = return ( home to ="/"> home to ="/">Home to="/about">About to="/blog">Blog ) Export default Navbar

Gatsby transforms these relator paths to the proper URL once your site has been built. In this course you'll be taught how to improve the quality of images in Gatsby.

Plug-ins and integrations

Gatsby provides a variety of plugins to allow users to increase the capabilities of. These plugins aid with SEO, analytics images, markdown optimizing, image transformation, and many more. Installing and configuring these plugins is a breeze and will significantly improve the performance of your website.

In this video tutorial, we will make use of four plug-ins

  1. gatsby-transformer-remark: This plugin allows you to transform Markdown files into HTML content, making it easy to create and manage blog posts, documentation, or any text-based content.
  2. gatsby-transformer-sharp and gatsby-plugin-sharp: These plugins work together to optimize and manipulate images in your Gatsby project.
  3. gatsby-source-filesystem: This plugin enables you to source files from your project directory and make them available to query with GraphQL.

In order to install these plugins into the Gatsby project, run this command within the root directory of the project in order to complete installation:

npm install gatsby-transformer-remark gatsby-transformer-sharp gatsby-plugin-sharp gatsby-source-filesystem

After that, you are able to alter them within this gatsby-config.js file. This is an example of the way to set up plug-ins

module.exports = plugins: [ // ...other plugins // Transform Markdown files into HTML 'gatsby-transformer-remark', // Optimize and manipulate images 'gatsby-transformer-sharp', 'gatsby-plugin-sharp', // Source files from your project directory resolve: `gatsby-source-filesystem`, options: name: `posts`, path: `$__dirname/src/posts/`, , , resolve: `gatsby-source-filesystem`, options: name: `images`, path: `$__dirname/src/images/`, , , ], ;

Two gatsby-source-filesystem configurations are created, pointing to two folders: posts and images. Posts will store some markdown files (blog posts) that would be transformed with gatsby-transformer-remark, and images will store images for the blog and other images you wish to optimize.

Be sure to reboot your local development server whenever you alter the gatsby-config.js file.

Creating Blog Posts

After installing the plugins, make posts folders within the Post folder of the Src directory. Following that, you should create two Markdown documents that have the following content:

post-1.md:

--- title: "Introduction to Gatsby" date: "2023-10-01" slug: "introduction-to-gatsby" description: "Learn the basics of Gatsby and its features." featureImg: ../images/featured/image-1.jpeg --- Welcome to the world of Gatsby! In this article, we'll take you through the basic notions of Gatsby and its clever features.

Additionally, post-2.md:

--- title: "Optimizing Images in Gatsby" date: "2023-10-05" slug: "optimizing-images-in-gatsby" description: "Explore how to optimize images in your Gatsby project." featureImg: ../images/featured/image-2.jpeg --- Images play a crucial role in web development. This blog will explore ways to improve images for Gatsby by using plugins.

They are Markdown files contain metadata as well as front matter for blog post content like dates and names, along with slugs, descriptions as well as images.

To search for Gatsby, GraphQL can query the Gatsby novel.

When you run gatsby develop in your terminal, you'll notice that, in addition to the link gatsby-source-filesystem, which opens your project on the web, you also see the http://localhost:8000/___graphql URL. The URL will give you an access point to GraphiQL Editor that you could make use of to develop your own Gatsby project.

After you launch the editor, you will get the following user interface

The Gatsby GraphiQL playground
Gatsby GraphiQL is the Gatsby GraphiQL playing space.

You'll be able to get most accurate information regarding your site from this editor. This is because you've made markdown file and you've made the required adjustments within the gatsby-config.js file. It's possible to search markdown files as well as their contents. Markdown files and the content they contain by using the query below within the editor.

blogList query *

The query extracts information from every Markdown documents by employing the AllMarkdownRemark. It retrieves information such as those of the names, slug and the details from the top of every Markdown document, and also their identification number.

Once you've completed your query, make sure you click the button following your query. Then press"Play" "Play" button (a right-facing triangle) to run the query. The results will be shown in the upper-right corner in the editors.

Using the GraphiQL playground to get markdown information
Making use of the GraphiQL playground to gather the information about the markdown.

You can then employ GraphQL to get access to the Markdown data on the pages in your application. For access to this data blog/index.js or blog/index.js or the blog/index.js page, first install graphql through the gatsby application. Then, in the last section of the JSX script add the following information:

export const query = graphql` query BlogList allMarkdownRemark nodes frontmatter title slug description id `;

This code makes use of the graphql tag to build this GraphQL query. The phrase GraphQL is a reference to the title of queries. The way your blog/index.js file should be looking like is in the format shown below:

import graphql, Link from 'gatsby'; import React from 'react'; import Layout from '../../components/Layout'; import * as styles from '../../styles/blog.module.css'; const blog = ( data ) => const posts = data.allMarkdownRemark.nodes; return ( Blog posts.map((post) => ( post.frontmatter.title post.frontmatter.description )) ); ; export default blog; export const query = graphql` query BlogList allMarkdownRemark nodes frontmatter title slug description id `;

In the sample code of the earlier code of the above program, you are using queries to obtain results by using the info prop in the component. Following that, you search the content's data with you JavaScript method. After that, you will be able display every post's title as a grid.

To avoid errors, create for yourself to avoid errors, create a blog.module.css file in the styles folder. Then, add the below code:

.blog_cont h2 font-size: 40px; margin-bottom: 20px; .blog_grid display: grid; grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr; gap: 20px; @media (max-width:700px) .blog_grid grid-template-columns: 1fr; .blog_card background-color: #bfbfbf; padding: 20px; border-radius: 5px; color: #000; transition: all .5s ease-in-out; .blog_card:hover background-color: #5333ed; color: #fff; .blog_card h3 margin-bottom: 15px; .blog_card p margin-bottom: 15px; 
Display of blog posts fetched via GraphQL
Blog post posts displayed via GraphQL.

Lerner's Templates and creating dynamic pages for Gatsby through GraphQL

in Gatsby the Gatsby, templates and dynamic websites are the fundamental concepts used to build flexible and dynamic websites powered by information. Templates let you define the style and layout of your web pages. GraphQL assists you in gathering data to create templates so that it will be automatic.

The creation of a template for use to create templates for Blog Posts

Imagine you want to create a blog the sense that every post on your blog is similar structure and includes an introduction as well as an explanation. Make a BlogDetails template to create the same style. Within the the src folder, you'll have the ability to construct a Template folder. Then, create blog-details.js file: blog-details.js file:

import React from 'react'; import Layout from '../components/Layout'; import * as styles from '../styles/blog-details.module.css'; const BlogDetails = () => return ( Title className=styles.html dangerouslySetInnerHTML= /> ); ; export default BlogDetails; In this instance, the BlogDetails template defines the format for blog post. Next, let's utilize GraphQL to retrieve data from particular blog posts to pass as props to the template. In order to create dynamic pages that build dynamic websites, you have to construct the gatsby-node.js file inside the root directory of the project. This file permits users to define how the pages are created. The gatsby-node.js file, utilize GraphQL to get the information that you want to utilize for dynamic websites. In the case of, for instance, if you've Markdown blog posts, you can query their slugs: const path = require(`path`); exports.createPages = async ( graphql, actions ) => const data = await graphql(` query Articles allMarkdownRemark nodes frontmatter slug `); data.allMarkdownRemark.nodes.forEach((node) => actions.createPage( path: '/blog/' + node.frontmatter.slug, component: path.resolve('./src/templates/blog-details.js'), context: slug: node.frontmatter.slug , ); ); ; In this example in this example, we search the slugs for all Markdown posts and create dynamic pages for each article making use of this BlogDetails template. The context object could be used to supply details in the form data into the template. Data (slug) is what template uses to obtain other data that's aligned with the information contained in the slug. It is important to understand the process of image optimization in Gatsby prior to adding the GraphQL query on the template's site. Image Optimization in Gatsby Earlier, you installed and configured the gatsby-transformer-sharp and gatsby-plugin-sharp along with gatsby-source-filesystem for sourcing images. Through these plugins, you can optimize and query images using GraphQL. Here's an example of how to query and display an optimized image using the gatsby plugin-sharp: export const query = graphql` query file(relativePath: eq: "example.jpg" ) childImageSharp fluid ...GatsbyImageSharpFluid `; In the code above in the above code, you're requesting an image named example.jpg from the images source and then using the fluid property of the image to show it in a the most responsive and optimized rendering. You can then use images-gatsby to load the image for images optimized for. import React from 'react'; import graphql from 'gatsby'; import Img from 'gatsby-image'; const ImageExample = ( data ) => const fluid = data.file.childImageSharp; return ( ); ; export default ImageExample; Queuing Dynamic Pages Gatsby is using the template to build distinct pages for every blog post. Let's now include a GraphQL query on the template page to fetch the relevant data, based on the URL: import graphql from 'gatsby'; import Img from 'gatsby-image'; import React from 'react'; import Layout from '../components/Layout'; import * as styles from '../styles/blog-details.module.css'; const BlogDetails = ( data ) => const html = data.markdownRemark; const title, featureImg = data.markdownRemark.frontmatter; return ( title ); ; export default BlogDetails; export const query = graphql` query ProjectDetails($slug: String) markdownRemark(frontmatter: slug: eq: $slug ) html frontmatter title featureImg childImageSharp fluid ...GatsbyImageSharpFluid `; In the above code, you will notice it is querying for the optimized image and querying for the blog entry that matches the slug. Get the complete source code for Gatsby in GitHub. Gatsby project at GitHub. Set up Gatsby static websites After you've completed the repo follow these steps to install your static site Log in to your account or register for access to your dashboard in My Dashboard. You must authorize the Git account using your provider. Select Static Sites from the left sidebar, then choose Add Site. Add Site. Select the repository you wish to be deployed from, and the branch that you wish to use for deployment to. Assign a unique name to your site. My will be able to detect the parameters used to build your site that are used by Gatsby. Gatsby project and will automatically. The following configurations already set up to be used: Build command npm run build version of Node: 18.16.0 Publishing directory: public Click on the Make an choice.. Introduction The text covers the essential concepts of routing and data source and the appearance of images, and the image optimization plugins, deployment and more. Gatsby's flexibility, speed and broad-ranging ecosystem makes it the ideal tool to building static websites. If you're planning to create an individual website, portfolio or blog, or a company website, Gatsby has you covered. The time has come to put that abilities to use by creating your own Gatsby site. Did you use Gatsby in the building of some thing? Please share your experience and ideas by leaving us a comment in the following form. Joel Olawanle Joel is an Frontend Developer at the firm that holds the Technical Issues Editor position. Issues. He is a passionate educator with a love of JavaScript, an open source software. He has published over 200 technical articles, mainly about JavaScript and the frameworks that it utilizes.  Twitter LinkedIn

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