Gatsby Monorepository Shared Theme

Overview

The gatsby-monorepository-shared-theme is a project under development that demonstrates how to set up multiple websites using the same “layout” theme while allowing for customizations such as colors and images. This approach makes it possible to build a SaaS application for multiple customers using a shared code base. The project utilizes Gatsby Theme, which simplifies the sharing of components, services, GraphQL queries, and pages. It offers easy maintenance and deployment, making it a valuable tool for creating independent web applications that share logic but differ in specific aspects.

Features

• Maintenability: The shared theme ensures that functions code tested and working fine will work across all websites, enabling bug fixes for multiple websites at once.
• DRY Code: With the shared theme, there is no need to duplicate the same code across different websites, reducing redundancy and improving code organization.
• Development Speed: By abstracting common elements into a shared plugin, an entire website can be built by simply importing the plugin and adding configurations. Additionally, the shared theme can be used as an npm package to quickly build multiple web applications.

Installation

1. Install Gatsby, Contentful, and Yarn (if not already installed).

npm install -g gatsby-cli
npm install -g yarn

2. Clone the repository and move into the project directory.

git clone [repository-url]
cd [project-directory]

3. Install project dependencies and packages using Yarn.

yarn install

4. Configure the project settings, including colors, images, and data structure, according to your requirements.

# Example of changing colors
const primaryColor = 'red';

# Example of changing images
const logoImage = require('path/to/logo.jpg');

# Example of changing data structure
const data = [
  {
    title: 'Blog Post 1',
    content: 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.',
  },
  {
    title: 'Blog Post 2',
    content: 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.',
  },
];

5. Build and deploy the websites using Netlify or any other preferred web hosting service.

gatsby build
# Deploy command for Netlify or other hosting service

Summary

The gatsby-monorepository-shared-theme project showcases how multiple websites can be built using the same “layout” theme while allowing for customization. It utilizes Gatsby Theme, which facilitates the sharing of components, services, GraphQL queries, and pages, making it easy to maintain and deploy the websites. The shared theme offers benefits such as improved maintenability, DRY code, and accelerated development speed. However, it should be used with caution as excessive abstractions can make the code complex and inflexible. Overall, the project showcases the power and utility of monorepositories and the potential for creating SaaS applications for multiple customers using shared code bases.