🔑 Key Learning Outcomes

Mastering Astro Framework: Learn to build high-performance websites using Astro, a framework that prioritizes speed and efficiency by delivering zero JavaScript by default.
Developing Dynamic Websites: Create dynamic, content-driven websites, starting with a marketing site and expanding to a blog and e-commerce features like shopping carts.
Integrating Frameworks: Explore how to integrate popular JavaScript frameworks such as React and SolidJS within Astro’s framework-agnostic architecture.
Implementing Server-Side Rendering (SSR): Understand how to use server-side rendering to enhance performance and SEO, with hands-on experience integrating SSR into your projects.
State Management with nanostores: Learn to manage application state using nanostores for lightweight and efficient state management, crucial for e-commerce functionality.
Deploying Astro Applications: Gain practical knowledge of deploying Astro applications to platforms like Netlify, enabling you to get your sites live quickly and efficiently.

👨‍🏫 About the Course

In this course, led by Jason Lengstorf, you'll dive into Astro, a modern web framework designed for building fast, content-focused websites. Starting with a marketing site, you'll add dynamic features like a blog and e-commerce functionality, all while exploring how Astro’s zero JavaScript delivery and framework-agnostic approach enhance performance. By integrating both React and SolidJS, you'll learn how to build scalable websites that are responsive and efficient.

🎯 Target Audience

Frontend developers looking to learn about Astro and its benefits for fast website development.
JavaScript developers interested in integrating frameworks like React and SolidJS into new web projects.
Web developers seeking to build performance-focused sites with minimal JavaScript overhead.
Designers and developers who want to understand the benefits of SSR and state management in modern web applications.

✅ Requirements

Basic JavaScript Knowledge: Familiarity with JavaScript is recommended.
Understanding of Web Development: Basic knowledge of HTML and CSS is beneficial.
Experience with React or SolidJS: Helpful but not required for exploring framework integration.

📖 Course Content

Introduction

Discover Astro's core features, including its zero JavaScript default delivery, partial hydration, and UI-agnostic approach, as Jason introduces the course objectives and setup.

Project Setup, Layouts, & Styling

Astro Adoption: Explore why Astro is an ideal choice for content-focused websites and how it reduces maintenance and bundle sizes.
Project Setup: Set up your Astro project and tools, and learn about creating pages and layouts using Markdown and slots.
Styling: Implement global and scoped styles using the <style> tag and manage navigation using Frontmatter.

Using Frameworks & Fetching Data

Fetching & Rendering Data: Fetch data from APIs and render it on the DOM using Astro components and the fetch() function.
State Management with nanostores: Implement add-to-cart functionality and manage cart state using nanostores.
Adding React & Solid Support: Learn to integrate and style React and Solid components within Astro.

Implementing E-commerce Features

Shopping Cart Functionality: Build a shopping cart with subtotal, total, and item removal features using microfrontends and client directives.
Blog & Content Management: Create a blog page, manage Markdown content with content collections, and set up dynamic routes.

Blog, RSS & Deployment

RSS Feeds: Use the @astrojs/rss package to generate RSS feeds for new blog content.
Server-Side Rendering: Enable SSR for improved performance and explore hybrid rendering modes.
Form Integration: Implement forms for newsletter subscriptions and handle form submissions with SSR.