Why your next Umbraco project should be Headless
7. march 2018
| Jeppe
The biggest topic for this year's Umbraco Codegarden18 at the end of May is expected to be Headless Umbraco. We have just upgraded our internal baseline to Headless / .NET Core and will describe the main points for why you should consider Headless architecture for your next Umbraco project.
New technology, a faster solution and easier upgrade
A Headless CMS project means. that the classic dependency between the CMS platform and the presentation layer have been removed. This means in practice that front-end is physically separate from the back-end, and you can therefore develop the presentation layer independently of the CMS platform version. It provides a number of built-in benefits in terms of utilizing new technologies. A CMS platform will always be behind in relation to technology compared to the framework because; first a framework (eg. MVC or .NET Core) is released and only then can all the products based on the technology be adapted.
That means by basing a project on Headless, it is possible to create .NET core projects with Angular2 which otherwise would not be possible with a classic CMS setup. With the expectancy of the Umbraco 8 release in the near future, it will be much easier to upgrade as well since only the CMS part will be needing an upgrade, not the web presentation layer.
A scalable solution
For the performance part, it allows for easy add-on of front-end servers, which can handle much larger solutions with load balancing - and even if the front-end should hit peak load, it will not affect the webmaster's work in the back-end, since It can be placed on a separate server instance.
It will also be possible to make a completely different front-end in any other programming language, since there is no direct link between the CMS and the implemented solution.
Disadvantages of Headless
There will always be arguments for and against a new technology trend. One can say the argument against Headless is the extra complexity that must necessarily be added to have a separate structure. Therefore, it will take work and effort to make the first solution Headless - but once the baseline is made as Headless, there will not be much overhead.
We have chosen to make all new projects like Headless as it both provides a more modern solution, developer satisfaction as they can use the latest technologies, and finally because it becomes a more secure and fast solution with greater flexibility.
Other blog posting
Circular e-commerce presentation at Umbraco Codegarden 2019
The fashion industry is in deep trouble. Brands abuse scarce resources, they overproduce to create more consumption and growth, and have a huge credibility problem with consumers who require sustainable action. In others words: It is time for a new model. View the presentation on circular e-commerce from Umbraco Codegarden 2019.
E-commerce: Compent wins best e-commerce case with Shamballa Jewels 2019
Thursday evening the best e-commerce case was celebrated at the yearly FDIH award show in Øksnehallen, Copenhagen. Compent was nominated together with Shamballa Jewels in the category “Best e-commerce case 2019” for Shamballa Jewels Global Sales Platform. We are super proud to walk away with the first price being nominated among other strong e-commerce cases.
Why you don't need an onsite .NET / Umbraco consultant
The use of IT consultants is a big market and in many industries there is a consensus that this can be a good way to solve tasks that are beyond the primary competencies of the company or as a way to reach the goal faster in a project that have high priority. But the use of short-term on-site consultants is a risky affair if you have a longer term strategy and have a outright development project.
Compent wins Best New Tech Award at Umbraco Codegarden 18 with Shamballa Jewels
Every year the best Umbraco projects are elected at the Umbraco Codegarden conference and a total of 10 awards in various categories are awarded among several hundred projects. This year Compent won in the category Best New Tech with the Shamballa Jewels In-store Jewelry Designer.
Crisis management of IT projects – a 10 point checklist
Something that characterizes many of the projects that we undertake for our customers is that they start from an existing project that has gone wrong. When a project has gone wrong, the reason may be misunderstandings between the former supplier and the customer about how the project was to turn out, that internal members of staff are not qualified in the field to which the project belongs, inadequate or poor technical implementation or perhaps simply deficient routines. It can be hard to tell if the problems are caused by one thing or the other without doing a thorough analysis, but if you go through the ten points below, it might be easier to obtain an overview of how problems may occur.
New version of Uintra for download from our.Umbraco.org
Many intranets are developed on Umbraco, but no standard platform has existed for a long time that you have been able to use from our.umbraco. With uIntra it has become easier to develop an intranet on Umbraco without having to start from scratch. A short while ago we placed version 0.2.3.7 on our.umbraco for free download. Among the new functions are groups, emoticons and comments on articles plus many small updates.
Intranet with Umbraco?
Umbraco is what you might call a classic system for web publication and presentation. For this reason it is often not associated with intranet use where functions such as decentralised administration, work group functionality, member management, document management and rights-based searching are among the most critical features. However, this does not mean that Umbraco cannot be used for intranets simply because all features do not appear out of the box in Umbraco. Whether Umbraco is the best choice for intranets therefore depends on which functional needs you have concerning your intranet.