Squarespace Announces Local Development Server • Hacker News Board

Re: Squarespace Announces Local Development Server

#21

Post by jasonbarone » Thu, Aug 04, 2016, 5:02 PM UTC

matrix wrote: post #6

Squarespace is awesome, but until they offer SSL certificates I can't recommend it to anyone. This is very unfortunate because it's a great product otherwise.

Founder/CEO Anthony Casalena mentioned on an interview with TNW (http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/04/15/squarespace-now-let...) that free SSL would be coming soon to Squarespace customers by way of their new Domains service.

Cloudflare SSL can be used with Squarespace as an alternative. Everything Squarespace does underneath is over https already

Re: Squarespace Announces Local Development Server

#22

Post by mcescalante » Thu, Aug 04, 2016, 5:06 PM UTC

I'm mainly wary of Squarespace because their entire frontend compiles to YUI which stopped being maintained in August, 2014 (see https://yahooeng.tumblr.com/post/96098168666/important-annou...). You don't write YUI, but that's what the code ends up as when you visit the site. I tried out their developer platform early after they launched it, and trying to be productive with it put my brain in a pretzel.

I feel as though the SS CMS is overpriced for the features you get, and you're locked into their tech stack & templating which I find leave something to be desired. You can use Wordpress as a CMS and use the API to get the data yourself, or just compile the site to static for free with a plugin, not to mention the large number of paid pluggable CMS solutions for developers. The list goes on, but a local development server shouldn't be this big of news for a CMS developer platform.

Re: Squarespace Announces Local Development Server

#23

Post by smpetrey » Thu, Aug 04, 2016, 5:11 PM UTC

colevscode wrote: post #16

koolba wrote: post #8

> The first time you access a local template, it will take a while to load as the server fetches the site content. However, once the content has been cached, subsequent requests will complete more quickly until you terminate the server. If you need to invalidate the cache (because you’ve updated your website in the online editor, for example) you can use the ?nocache=true query parameter on any URL. Why would a devel…

Hi, I worked on this at Squarespace. > Why would a developer want to see a cached version of a page? Squarespace is a CMS. There's an online content editor where users can add text and images. The content is rendered using a template which contains the HTML/CSS/Template code that defines the layout for the content. The squarespace dev server makes it easier for the developer to work on the template code using content…

Seems cool man! But why not give the dev the option to turn off caching?

Re: Squarespace Announces Local Development Server

#24

Post by jasonbarone » Thu, Aug 04, 2016, 5:16 PM UTC

mcescalante wrote: post #22

I'm mainly wary of Squarespace because their entire frontend compiles to YUI which stopped being maintained in August, 2014 (see https://yahooeng.tumblr.com/post/96098168666/important-annou... ). You don't write YUI, but that's what the code ends up as when you visit the site. I tried out their developer platform early after they launched it, and trying to be productive with it put my brain in a pretzel. I feel as th…

That isn't entirely correct. You can use Squarespace on the front end 100% YUI-free if you want. I haven't used one line of YUI in years and I work exclusively with Squarespace. Some of Squarespace's internal features are powered by YUI and accessible via misc callbacks, but if you're building custom websites you don't have to use any of it.

Re: Squarespace Announces Local Development Server

#25

Post by dsugarman » Thu, Aug 04, 2016, 5:18 PM UTC

JaggedJax wrote: post #19

gogopuppygogo wrote: post #5

Next up an open source version that lets us host our own version without being trapped in their environment. Once that exists I'd see Squarespace as a viable option for hosting a website. Until then it's just another proprietary WYSIWYG website builder that I don't care about. It's competing in a world where Wordpress is open source and is powering over 26% of the world's websites: https://w3techs.com/technologies/ov…

Squarespace is way too locked down. They advertise it as a great eCommerce platform and people come to us all the time already having setup a Squarespace store asking if we can pull their orders for fulfillment. It either has to be done manually or they force you to use ShipStation. Terribly inflexible for a webstore and I always steer people away as soon as possible. But hey, they got that sweet sweet exclusivity ag…

I don't see any benefit of having an exclusive, ShipStation wants Squarespace as much as Sqaurespace wants ShipStation

Re: Squarespace Announces Local Development Server

#26

Post by artosispylon » Thu, Aug 04, 2016, 5:21 PM UTC

smpetrey wrote: post #23

colevscode wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, I worked on this at Squarespace. > Why would a developer want to see a cached version of a page? Squarespace is a CMS. There's an online content editor where users can add text and images. The content is rendered using a template which contains the HTML/CSS/Template code that defines the layout for the content. The squarespace dev server makes it easier for the developer to work on the template code using content…

Seems cool man! But why not give the dev the option to turn off caching?

"If you need to invalidate the cache (because you’ve updated your website in the online editor, for example) you can use the ?nocache=true query parameter on any URL."

Re: Squarespace Announces Local Development Server

#27

Post by jasonbarone » Thu, Aug 04, 2016, 5:22 PM UTC

dsugarman wrote: post #25

JaggedJax wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Squarespace is way too locked down. They advertise it as a great eCommerce platform and people come to us all the time already having setup a Squarespace store asking if we can pull their orders for fulfillment. It either has to be done manually or they force you to use ShipStation. Terribly inflexible for a webstore and I always steer people away as soon as possible. But hey, they got that sweet sweet exclusivity ag…

I don't see any benefit of having an exclusive, ShipStation wants Squarespace as much as Sqaurespace wants ShipStation

Squarespace typically integrates with best-in-class services for optimal onboarding, setup and UX. ShipStation is best in class for fulfillment, which is why I think they partnered with them.

But I agree with some of the comments. The restricted API kills all workflow-related processes. Regardless of shipping and fulfillment, there's tons of business processes that need to be done with orders and you can't do any of it with Squarespace. I've worked with dozens of clients who started on Squarespace and moved to other platforms simply because of Commerce restrictions.

Re: Squarespace Announces Local Development Server

#28

Post by JaggedJax » Thu, Aug 04, 2016, 5:24 PM UTC

dsugarman wrote: post #25

JaggedJax wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Squarespace is way too locked down. They advertise it as a great eCommerce platform and people come to us all the time already having setup a Squarespace store asking if we can pull their orders for fulfillment. It either has to be done manually or they force you to use ShipStation. Terribly inflexible for a webstore and I always steer people away as soon as possible. But hey, they got that sweet sweet exclusivity ag…

I don't see any benefit of having an exclusive, ShipStation wants Squarespace as much as Sqaurespace wants ShipStation

I don't understand it either really. It's a one way exclusivity agreement so it's making ShipStation money by bringing them new accounts, but I don't see how it helps Squarespace to only offer one fulfillment option. I assume ShipStation is paying Squarespace. I see this type of decision and it makes me very wary of using a platform that would do such a thing to a seemingly critical component.

Re: Squarespace Announces Local Development Server

#29

Post by danpalmer » Thu, Aug 04, 2016, 5:27 PM UTC

colevscode wrote: post #16

koolba wrote: post #8

> The first time you access a local template, it will take a while to load as the server fetches the site content. However, once the content has been cached, subsequent requests will complete more quickly until you terminate the server. If you need to invalidate the cache (because you’ve updated your website in the online editor, for example) you can use the ?nocache=true query parameter on any URL. Why would a devel…

Hi, I worked on this at Squarespace. > Why would a developer want to see a cached version of a page? Squarespace is a CMS. There's an online content editor where users can add text and images. The content is rendered using a template which contains the HTML/CSS/Template code that defines the layout for the content. The squarespace dev server makes it easier for the developer to work on the template code using content…

That's a really strange choice, to distribute Java via NPM. Can you go into a bit more detail on the reasons?

Re: Squarespace Announces Local Development Server

#30

Post by arc » Thu, Aug 04, 2016, 5:45 PM UTC

JaggedJax wrote: post #19

gogopuppygogo wrote: post #5

Next up an open source version that lets us host our own version without being trapped in their environment. Once that exists I'd see Squarespace as a viable option for hosting a website. Until then it's just another proprietary WYSIWYG website builder that I don't care about. It's competing in a world where Wordpress is open source and is powering over 26% of the world's websites: https://w3techs.com/technologies/ov…

Squarespace is way too locked down. They advertise it as a great eCommerce platform and people come to us all the time already having setup a Squarespace store asking if we can pull their orders for fulfillment. It either has to be done manually or they force you to use ShipStation. Terribly inflexible for a webstore and I always steer people away as soon as possible. But hey, they got that sweet sweet exclusivity ag…

Hey --

Regarding the eCommerce integrations, Jason is right that early on we wanted to partner with a few companies where we felt like we could deeply integrate and provide a controlled/polished experience for consumers. There is no exclusivity agreement with ShipStation (though they're a great choice for many) and we're actively working on APIs that will allow larger merchants to integrate with our order/inventory systems more deeply.

(Disclosure: I'm the founder/CEO of Squarespace)