5 Reasons to Use the Kentico Cloud Boilerplate Project
Innovative technology always presents a challenge for developers. Whether it’s a new platform or language, starting from scratch can be a tough task, even for seasoned software engineers. Luckily, nearly every new library or service has some open source projects available to help you get going. For completely new platforms like Kentico Cloud, these projects could be a huge help to developers new to the Headless CMS concept. In this article, I’ll give you 5 great reasons you should check out the Kentico Cloud Boilerplate project.
So you’re giving Kentico Cloud a look and wondering where to get started? By now, you probably understand the API-driven approach to content delivery and centralized management, but may not be sure how to start building your application. Don’t worry! We have a pretty awesome Boilerplate project ready to go.
Kentico Cloud Boilerplate
This new project is a great way to get started with the Kentico Cloud platform quickly, and ensure your application is implementing best practices. Need more convincing? Here’s 5 reasons I think you should use it for your sites.
1. It’s full of best practices from real sites
With any new platform, knowing the right way to implement features can be challenging. Because not many people have used it yet, it may be tough to know the best way to use a specific feature or functionality. The KC Boilerplate project is stocked full of these examples, to help you understand the best way to implement the service. From managing your configurations to handling errors, the project has working code from real-world applications included.
// Register the IConfiguration instance which ProjectOptions binds against.
services.Configure<ProjectOptions>(Configuration);
services.AddMvc();
services.AddSingleton<IDeliveryClient>(c => new CachedDeliveryClient(c.GetRequiredService<IOptions<ProjectOptions>>(), c.GetRequiredService<IMemoryCache>())
{
CodeFirstModelProvider = { TypeProvider = new CustomTypeProvider() },
ContentLinkUrlResolver = new CustomContentLinkUrlResolver()
});
2. It’s built on .NET Core MVC
With the development community continuing its shift to modular, light-weight architectures, it makes sense that any Boilerplate be built with the same mindset. The KCB follows this pattern by being a .NET Core MVC site. This means that you can spin it up very quickly, and use MVC to build out your application using industry-standard methodologies. Because it’s .NET Core, it opens your hosting options by allowing you to deploy your site to a Microsoft or Linux environment.
3. Built-in caching
One of the best parts of Kentico Cloud is its agility and flexibility. Because your content is centrally located, you can pull it into any channel quickly using the API. While the service itself is very robust and can handle production-level traffic, making calls to the API still needs to be done wisely. The KCB project has some great functionality to help you cache your DeliveryClient and responses. This can significantly decrease your calls to the service and speed up your site.
public async Task<DeliveryItemResponse> GetItemAsync(string codename, IEnumerable<IQueryParameter> parameters)
{
string cacheKey = $"{nameof(GetItemAsync)}|{codename}|{Join(parameters?.Select(p => p.GetQueryStringParameter()).ToList())}";
return await GetOrCreateAsync(cacheKey, () => _client.GetItemAsync(codename, parameters));
}
4. It supports the dotnet new command
Helping developers build better apps quicker is what .NET Core is all about. It supplies only what is needed, without any overhead or extra processing. Another big benefit is how quickly you can get a project up and going using the dotnet new command. If the publisher supplies the proper templates, you can use this great new feature to create your projects quickly, all from the VS Developer Command Prompt. The KCB project supports this functionality and allows you to get going with the solution even faster. Even more awesome, it has some built-in capabilities to dynamically rename your projects and namespaces, to ensure everything is exactly how you need it.
5. It’s open source
One of the best parts of the project is that it is completely open source. While we at Kentico have some great developers, everyone can benefit from real-world examples and best practices. Because the project is open to the community, this means that anyone can contribute and make it better. We’ve already had a few of our partners pitch in with their ideas and suggestions. As more and more companies build their applications using Kentico Cloud, the project will continue to improve as best practices are established and implemented.
Speaking of contributors, I'd like to give a huge shoutout to Kentico Gold Partner Get Started for all of their help with the project. Their devs have been major contributors to the GitHub solution and we could not have launched it without them!
Moving Forward
So there you have it! The Kentico Cloud Boilerplate project is the perfect place to start your development with our new Headless CMS. It’s full of some great examples and functionality that can simplify your architecture and give you a jump start on architecting your solutions. I encourage you to check it out for your next project. And if you have some improvements, feel free to contribute! We want this project to the best it can be. Good luck!
Here are some resources to learn more about Kentico Cloud.
Kentico Cloud Developer Hub
Kentico Cloud Forums