Frontity sends an HTML that is ready to start navigating the site, so the initial load feels almost instant. No extra assets or round trips are necessary.
This HTML is fully functional and navigable without Javascript.
Once React loads, it takes control of the app. Users don’t notice any change, it is 100% transparent.
Instant in-app navigation
Once React has loaded, our router prefetches other routes and data automatically. Users never have to wait when they navigate inside the app.
Google AMP with the same codebase
Themes made with Frontity are able to render an AMP compatible version with the same React code and CSS used for the HTML version.
Extensible via Frontity extensions and NPM packages
There are lots of Frontity extensions already available: Adsense, SmartAds, Doubleclick, OneSignal, Disqus, Google Analytics, Tag Manager, ComScore, Yoast SEO…
Apart from extensions, there are many interface tools specifically created for Frontity: context routing, swipe navigation, infinite scrolling, html-to-react, gutenberg-to-react…
Frontity themes can also use any of the 80.000 React packages currently available in NPM.
With React, it’s really easy to create modern, native-like, user experiences. Things like our own “swipe-to-next” or TechCrunch’s “expand-to-read” experiences.
Smallest React bundle possible
We have reduced our core by 60%. Now it weights only 60Kb (gzipped).
Modern Javascript with ES5 fallback
Frontity now produces two JavaScript bundles out of the box: one transpiled for old ES5 browsers with polyfills and one 40% smaller for modern browsers.
Best Lighthouse score
Frontity is optimized to get the maximum score in Lighthouse out of the box. Theme developers start with 100 and they just need to maintain it while they add features to their theme.
Serverless and horizontal scaling
The Frontity server is so small it suits perfectly the serverless requirements. That means infinite scaling for the front-end.
Frontity is also prepared to scale horizontally in any Node server.
Ready for React Concurrent and Suspense
The React team is working hard to release an async, “no-CPU-blocking” version and Frontity is already compatible with it. It is expected for Q2 2019.
Once it is released, we expect to see a rise in the use of the React animation libraries available that will get the user experience to the next level.
PWA & Offline
Themes made with Frontity work offline without any extra configuration via service workers.
It also works with the WordPress manifest to get full PWA compatibility out of the box.
Frontity responds with a fully populated HTML file generated with React. This reduces the time required for the first contentful paint and ensures that the SEO is not harmed.
Code Splitting
Frontity uses webpack to split the code and send the minimum code required for the app to work. Also allows developers to dynamically load components with the help of loadable-components.
@development-team could you add a description for the “Dev tools” feature as well?
@Reyes, I think we are going to leave devtools out of the beta features because the current devtools are from a library we won’t be using in the near future. It may be confusing for the initial users if we put emphasis on those.
I am going to move all the features to one page at the docs. According to the messages below, to sum up, the main features and their state when beta is launched would be:
Zero setup development
Instant initial load
Instant in-app navigation
Google AMP with the same codebase
Serverless and horizontal scaling
Server Side Rendering
Extensible
Code Splitting
Battle-tested
Smallest React bundle possible
Best Lighthouse score
PWA and offline support
Perfect accessibility
Support for ES6 in modern browsers
Ready for React Concurrent and Suspense
Fallback for really old browsers
@development-team Could you check if this is correct please? If you miss anything feel free to share it
I think this is in the beta as well, but it is difficult to know because React Concurrent has not been released yet. You can include it.
Apart from that, we have full Typescript support and I think it may be important to mention that as well.
First class TypeScript support
Frontity has amazing TypeScript support. Actually, we like it so much that Frontity itself is built using TypeScript. But don’t worry, it’s absolutely optional: if you don’t know or don’t want to learn you can use regular JavaScript without problems!
Do you think we should also mention that at the moment we support wordpress.com and wordpress.org? Or maybe another page to include future sources as it could be WPGraphQL?
Okay, so I will include it on the docs too and add a link to that topic to discuss other possible sources.
I am not sure if I understand this one You mean that Frontity could work like Wordpress, where you can have different themes installed and Wordpress Multisite, where you can have different domains under the same Wordpress installation?
I have created a first iteration of the Features page at the docs >> https://docs.frontity.org/frontity-features . We still have to review the copy and check if everything makes sense, but any feedback is welcome!
I don’t like that much the style, but Gitbook is a bit limited, maybe it is better to invest more time once we migrate docs to Frontity. And maybe I used too many emojis . Any feedback here is also welcome.
The idea is to keep improving that page, keep it updated and lead the users there to see all features. If you feel something is missing or we should make some changes, you can post them here.
You mean that Frontity could work like Wordpress, where you can have different themes installed and Wordpress Multisite, where you can have different domains under the same Wordpress installation?
. Any feedback here is also welcome.