Practical - How would we build Airbnb, Twitter, or Reddit?

In this episode, Scott and Wes are trying something new! It's called Practical, in which Scott and Wes take a topic and flesh out all the theory into something super practical. Today's topic comes from a listener question asking how they would build a simple version of a modern web app like Twitter, Reddit, or Airbnb.

Netlify - Sponsor

Netlify is the best way to deploy and host a front-end website. All the features developers need right out of the box: Global CDN, Continuous Deployment, one click HTTPS and more. Hit up netlify.com/syntax for more info.

Sanity - Sponsor

Sanity.io is a real-time headless CMS with a fully customizable Content Studio built in React. Get a Sanity powered site up and running in minutes at sanity.io/create. Get an awesome supercharged free developer plan on sanity.io/syntax.

Show Notes

3:03 - Backend

• Express
• Node
• GraphQL
• MongoDB

14:45 - Frontend

• React
• Next.js
• Styled components
• Stay as close to real CSS as possible

22:39 - Deployment process

• Serverless
• Now
• Ideally one app that handles everything

28:38 - Email

• Syntax Ep 32: Designing, Templating, Inlining and Sending Email
• mjml
• Juice
• Inky
• Nodemailer
• Postmark
• Mailjet
• Mandrill
• Get everyone set up and working in two different systems, so you can switch easily if something goes wrong

33:32 - Users / Auth / Cookies / Permissions

• Use something like a pre-existing package or service rather than roll your own (though it can get expensive quickly)
• Passport
• Auth0
• accounts-js

38:48 - Images

• Cloudinary
• imgIX

41:50 - Other things to be aware of

• Handling cash
  • Stripe
  • PayPal
  • Braintree
  • Recurly
• Queueing

Links

• Ruby on Rails
• Django
• Meteor
• MySQL
• PHP
• Postgres
• Mongoose
• Drip
• ConvertKit
• Feathers
• David Luecke
• Tweetdeck
• Next.js
• react-router
• Reach Router
• Gatsby
• Digital Ocean
• Heroku
• Redux
• Svelte
• Gridsome
• Mailchimp

××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ×××

• Scott: K-Safe
• Wes: Bon Appetit YouTube Channel

Shameless Plugs

• Scott: Svelte Course Coming Soon! - Sign up for the year and save 25%!
• Wes: Flexbox.io Course

Tweet us your tasty treats!

• Scott's Instagram
• LevelUpTutorials Instagram
• Wes' Instagram
• Wes' Twitter
• Wes' Facebook
• Scott's Twitter
• Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets