gatsby

What is gatsby?

Gatsby is a React-based open-source framework for creating websites and apps. It allows developers to build fast, secure, and powerful web experiences using modern web technologies. Gatsby leverages GraphQL for data management and offers a rich plugin ecosystem to extend its functionality.

What are gatsby's main functionalities?

Static Site Generation

Gatsby can generate static pages from data sources like Markdown files. This code sample demonstrates how to create pages dynamically using GraphQL to query Markdown files and the createPage API to generate pages.

const path = require('path');

exports.createPages = async ({ graphql, actions }) => {
  const { createPage } = actions;
  const result = await graphql(`
    {
      allMarkdownRemark {
        edges {
          node {
            frontmatter {
              path
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  `);

  result.data.allMarkdownRemark.edges.forEach(({ node }) => {
    createPage({
      path: node.frontmatter.path,
      component: path.resolve(`src/templates/blog-post.js`),
      context: {},
    });
  });
};

GraphQL Data Layer

Gatsby uses GraphQL to manage data. This example shows how to query site metadata using GraphQL and display it in a React component.

import React from 'react';
import { graphql } from 'gatsby';

export const query = graphql`
  query {
    site {
      siteMetadata {
        title
      }
    }
  }
`;

const IndexPage = ({ data }) => (
  <div>
    <h1>{data.site.siteMetadata.title}</h1>
  </div>
);

export default IndexPage;

Plugin Ecosystem

Gatsby has a rich plugin ecosystem that allows developers to extend its functionality. This example shows how to configure plugins for handling React Helmet, sourcing files from the filesystem, and transforming Markdown files.

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    `gatsby-plugin-react-helmet`,
    {
      resolve: `gatsby-source-filesystem`,
      options: {
        name: `src`,
        path: `${__dirname}/src/`,
      },
    },
    `gatsby-transformer-remark`,
  ],
};

Other packages similar to gatsby

next

Next.js is a React framework for server-side rendering and static site generation. It offers a more flexible approach to rendering, allowing developers to choose between static generation, server-side rendering, and client-side rendering on a per-page basis. Compared to Gatsby, Next.js is more versatile in terms of rendering options but may require more configuration for static site generation.

nuxt

Nuxt.js is a framework for creating Vue.js applications with server-side rendering, static site generation, and client-side rendering. It provides a similar feature set to Gatsby but is built on Vue.js instead of React. Nuxt.js is ideal for developers who prefer Vue.js over React.

gridsome

Gridsome is a Vue.js framework for building static websites and apps. It is similar to Gatsby in that it uses GraphQL for data management and offers a plugin ecosystem. Gridsome is a good alternative for developers who prefer Vue.js and want a static site generator with a similar feature set to Gatsby.

README

Gatsby v2

⚛️ 📄 :rocket:

Blazing fast modern site generator for React
Go beyond static sites: build blogs, e-commerce sites, full-blown apps, and more with Gatsby.

Quickstart · Tutorial · Plugins · Starters · Showcase · Contribute · Support: Twitter & Discord

Gatsby is a modern framework for blazing fast websites.

• Go Beyond Static Websites. Get all the benefits of static websites with none of the limitations. Gatsby sites are fully functional React apps, so you can create high-quality, dynamic web apps, from blogs to e-commerce sites to user dashboards.

• Use a Modern Stack for Every Site. No matter where the data comes from, Gatsby sites are built using React and GraphQL. Build a uniform workflow for you and your team, regardless of whether the data is coming from the same backend.

• Load Data From Anywhere. Gatsby pulls in data from any data source, whether it’s Markdown files, a headless CMS like Contentful or WordPress, or a REST or GraphQL API. Use source plugins to load your data, then develop using Gatsby’s uniform GraphQL interface.

• Performance Is Baked In. Ace your performance audits by default. Gatsby automates code splitting, image optimization, inlining critical styles, lazy-loading and prefetching resources, and more to ensure your site is fast — no manual tuning required.

• Host at Scale for Pennies. Gatsby sites don’t require servers, so you can host your entire site on a CDN for a fraction of the cost of a server-rendered site. Many Gatsby sites can be hosted entirely free on services like GitHub Pages and Netlify.

Learn how to use Gatsby for your next project.

What’s In This Document

• Get Up and Running in 5 Minutes
• Learning Gatsby
• Migration Guides
• How to Contribute
• Thanks to Our Contributors and Sponsors

🚀 Get Up and Running in 5 Minutes

You can get a new Gatsby site up and running on your local dev environment in 5 minutes with these three steps:

1. Create a Gatsby site from a Gatsby starter.

   Get your Gatsby blog set up in a single command:

   # create a new Gatsby site using the default starter
   gatsby new my-blazing-fast-site
   

2. Start the site in develop mode.

   Next, move into your new site’s directory and start it up:

   cd my-blazing-fast-site/
   npm run develop
   

3. Open the source code and start editing!

   Your site is now running at http://localhost:8000. Open the my-blazing-fast-site directory in your code editor of choice and edit src/pages/index.js. Save your changes and the browser will update in real time!

At this point, you’ve got a fully functional Gatsby website. For additional information on how you can customize your Gatsby site, see our plugins and the official tutorial.

🎓 Learning Gatsby

Full documentation for Gatsby lives on the website.

• For most developers, we recommend starting with our in-depth tutorial for creating a site with Gatsby. It starts with zero assumptions about your level of ability and walks through every step of the process.

• To dive straight into code samples head to our documentation. In particular, check out the “Guides”, API reference, and “Advanced Tutorials” sections in the sidebar.

We welcome suggestions for improving our docs. See the “how to contribute” documentation for more details.

Start Learning Gatsby: Follow the Tutorial · Read the Docs

💼 Migration Guides

Already have a Gatsby site? These handy guides will help you add the improvements of Gatsby v2 to your site without starting from scratch!

• Migrate a Gatsby site from v1 to v2
• Still on v0? Start here: Migrate a Gatsby site from v0 to v1

🤝 How to Contribute

Whether you're helping us fix bugs, improve the docs, or spread the word, we'd love to have you as part of the Gatsby community! :muscle::purple_heart:

Check out our contributor onboarding docs for ideas on contributing and setup steps for getting our repos up and running on your local machine.

Read the Contributing Guide

Code of Conduct

Gatsby is dedicated to building a welcoming, diverse, safe community. We expect everyone participating in the Gatsby community to abide by our Code of Conduct. Please read it. Please follow it. In the Gatsby community, we work hard to build each other up and create amazing things together. 💪💜

Read the Code of Conduct

A note on how this repository is organized

This repository is a monorepo managed using Lerna. This means there are multiple packages managed in this codebase, even though we publish them to NPM as separate packages.

Contributing to Gatsby v1

We are currently only accepting bug fixes for Gatsby v1. No new features will be accepted.

💜 Thanks to Our Contributors and Sponsors

Thanks to our many contributors and sponsors as well as the companies sponsoring our testing and hosting infrastructure: Travis CI, Appveyor, and Netlify.