Alternatives to Next.js for Sitecore JSS
Sitecore is currently only supporting JSS solutions for Next.js and Angular, but it is possible to implement solutions with other frameworks as well.
We got a firsthand view by the team from EXDST of a Sitecore headless implementation using the framework Astro, and we were very impressed of how much faster it performs compared to all other frameworks. We’ve been researching lightweight frameworks such as Astro and Svelte before, and the simplicity of this integration inspired us to dive a little deeper into the possibilities of this implementation.
It might just be a perfect fit for sites that are strictly content based, such as blogs and marketing pages.
The best of all is that EXDST has provided us all with a production ready HeadStart npm package, read more about it here: https://exdst.com/posts/20240103-first-sitecore-astro-project
We’ll strongly consider Astro in future projects.
Migrating existing MVC sites to Headless
Sreesh Maroli and Nadeem Baksh from Trelleborg Sealing Solution had an interesting talk about the complexities and challenges they faced while migrating an existing MVC SXA implementation to a Headless SXA.
They had successfully implemented a migration tool in Sitecore that streamlined the process of migrating existing pages with components from the old site to the headless version. This is done by adding a couple of PowerShell scripts that copies the content, replaces all layout and placeholders to the headless versions while still maintaining the same item and template references.
Giving editors the possibility to freely migrate content at their own pace with a click of a button sounds incredible!
They are currently working on a blogpost that gives an in-depth guide on how to setup the scripts, so we'll be keeping an eye out for that.
Building low code/ no code applications using Retool
Neil Killen demonstrated a new tool called Retool. It’s a no code / low code application builder that can be used to quickly set up an interface with real data manipulation. In his demonstration he assembled a Backoffice application for Ordercloud management in minutes by simply dragging and dropping building blocks and connecting them to data from API requests. Retool in my eyes feels like a combination of Postman and a CMS for developers. We’ll probably use it for proof-of-concept applications, but It can certainly be used in production as well.
Read more about retool here: https://retool.com/