Build a knowledge base with Gatsby, Contentful and AWS

The workshop utilizes Gatsby, Contentful, and AWS to build a knowledge base. Gatsby is used for static site generation, Contentful acts as the content management system, and AWS is used for hosting and deploying the application.

Using Gatsby with Contentful combines the benefits of static site generation with a powerful headless CMS. Gatsby pre-builds pages using content fetched from Contentful, resulting in fast load times and improved SEO. Contentful's API allows for easy content updates without redeploying the whole site.

Webhooks in Contentful can trigger automated actions like deployments when content changes. This feature allows developers to automate their workflow by connecting Contentful to other services, like AWS, to automatically update the live site whenever content is updated in the CMS.

AWS is used for hosting and deploying the knowledge base created during the workshop. It provides the infrastructure necessary to ensure that the web application is accessible online and can handle user requests efficiently.

Static site generators pre-render pages at build time, which means all pages are generated before they are requested by the user. This approach speeds up load times, improves SEO, and enhances security by serving pre-built HTML files rather than relying on server-side processing at runtime.

Contentful provides content as an API, which Gatsby can pull into its GraphQL data layer during the build process. This integration allows developers to query content dynamically from Contentful and render it using Gatsby, benefiting from fast performance and enhanced developer experience.

Server-side rendering generates the full HTML content on the server before sending it to the client, ensuring that the page is ready to be rendered when it arrives. Client-side rendering, however, sends a minimal HTML document with JavaScript that renders the content in the browser, which can delay content visibility until scripts are loaded and executed.

A knowledge base is a self-service online library where data and information are centralized to help team members or customers. It's chosen over a normal blog or news website because it allows users to find answers quickly without needing to ask repetitive questions, thus streamlining information dissemination and support.