2023 was one other 12 months of thrilling development for Atlas, WP Engine’s all-in-one platform for headless WordPress.

Launched in 2021, Atlas presents an entire headless stack designed for company effectivity, developer freedom, and enhanced model affect. Whereas preliminary, post-launch efforts had been targeted primarily on foundational targets, the Atlas crew broadened its scope in 2023, embarking on a spread of enhancements aimed toward refining the developer expertise and upgrading instruments to be extra person pleasant.

We’re excited to share all the main points with you, and on this article, we’ll break down the foremost updates to Atlas in 2023, spotlight a few of our prospects’ successes, and embody necessary sources for builders beginning their headless journey. Let’s dive in! 

Making Blueprints Higher

Launched at DE{CODE} 2022, Atlas Blueprints present customers with pre-configured, easy-to-install environments that function a place to begin for studying and constructing with a headless tech stack.

In 2023, we included much more builder instruments into the Atlas Blueprints expertise. The BigCommerce and Shopify Blueprints, for instance, have develop into invaluable to headless eCommerce builders who need to embrace composable commerce with out rebuilding their legacy shops.

Superior Customized Fields (ACF), WPGraphQL, and Faust.js have additionally been seamlessly built-in into Atlas Blueprints, making it simpler than ever for builders to stand up and working on headless WordPress tasks.

Simplifying Innovation 

2023 additionally noticed vital enhancements to the Atlas platform as an entire, solidifying its place as a pacesetter in headless WordPress expertise. 

By specializing in enhancements to particular person elements, the Atlas crew efficiently elevated all the platform, making it extra intuitive and person pleasant whereas fostering innovation and simplifying the event course of. 

In 2023, Atlas platform enhancements included:

• Integration with Bitbucket and GitLab to offer Atlas customers with a wider collection of Git distributors and larger flexibility and compatibility with completely different improvement workflows.
• Construct notifications. Atlas now presents enhanced communication by posting feedback on a repository’s Pull Request web page after a construct completion. This function helps a number of notification preferences, together with electronic mail, Slack, and the WP Engine Consumer Portal. 
• Entry logs created for Atlas tasks to enhance troubleshooting. Builders can request as much as 20 entry logs per Atlas atmosphere each 24 hours. 
• System atmosphere variables, which may affect the habits of the online utility, offering a method to dynamically alter its configuration with out altering the codebase. Every worth will be modified primarily based on the particular Atlas atmosphere.

Moreover, Faust.js, a framework designed to streamline the event of headless WordPress websites, has seen its personal set of enhancements. 

As a JavaScript framework, Faust.js has develop into a invaluable software for each WordPress and JavaScript builders, and up to date updates have been aimed toward simplifying and enhancing the event expertise for each. This contains: 

• Introducing the WordPress Toolbar for Headless + New TypeScript sorts. The toolbar improves the workflow of content material creators by making a headless backend seamlessly resemble that of a standard WordPress web site. The crew additionally created two new TypeScript sorts (FaustPlugin and FaustHooks) which can be utilized to kind verify Faust plugins.
• Enabling new Bug fixes (Home windows e.g.) + Debug Mode which will be triggered by including FAUST_DEBUG=true to the .env.native file. This new mode offers builders deeper perception to what Faust is doing behind the scenes, together with debugging for distant calls and extra.
• Creating the React-Gutenberg Bridge which, in 2023, made big strides in assembly the wants of each content material creators preferring the WYSIWYG editor and builders who need to harness the complete potential of headless structure.
• Including ten of the preferred WordPress blocks to an all-new Block Library for Atlas. These blocks assist you to get began with a very powerful performance rapidly and serve for example set you need to use to construct your personal block library full of blocks most acceptable on your web site and desires.
• Introducing Subsequent.js App Router Help, a brand new mannequin for constructing functions utilizing React’s newest options, like Server Elements, Streaming with Suspense, and Server Actions.
• Shifting Faust Blueprints to ACF which permits builders to utilize present ACF content material constructions far more simply and reap the benefits of essentially the most highly effective content material answer within the WordPress ecosystem.
• Constructing a showcase web page to spotlight Faust.js builds created by members of the group.
• Making a path to transform present React elements to WordPress blocks, bettering workflows for builders coming to WordPress from one other CMS. 

Group Connection

One other focus for the Atlas crew in 2023 was educating and connecting with a bigger group of builders eager about making the leap to headless. 

Group constructing is without doubt one of the most necessary methods we allow open supply builders as a result of collaboration is the easiest way to be taught and develop.

Our Developer Relations (DevRel) crew has created a treasure trove of each written and YouTube content material which is fashionable amongst headless builders—the YouTube channel alone has greater than 4,000 subscribers! The short-form content material covers every little thing from picture optimization in headless to constructing a brand new app utilizing Faust.js, WPGraphQL, and ACF. 

The Faust.js crew has steadily documented their course of on the Faust.js weblog, and simply final month, they moved their challenge administration to GitHub, permitting them to reply to points and pull requests quicker and extra effectively than ever earlier than. 

On our Discord channel, the crew has additionally been energetic in answering developer questions from our greater than 1,600 group members and facilitating discussions on a number of the most necessary matters surrounding headless WordPress. 

All Atlas-associated groups are constantly connecting with and asking for suggestions from the builders who’re experimenting with these merchandise, so be sure you ship questions and common suggestions to the Faust.js crew by way of their web site or to the broader Atlas group on Discord. 

Altas Success 

We’ve already seen dozens of agile, extremely performant web site functions spun up with Atlas, and 2023 introduced a number of the most spectacular tasks up to now! 

Company specialists at Broad Eye Artistic constructed a healthcare listing web site utilizing Atlas which features a membership platform for healthcare suppliers, a publishing platform for well being sources, and an extensible API to allow strong supplier search performance, all whereas attaining lightning-fast speeds for finish customers.

The Alameda County Meals Financial institution used Atlas to refresh the net presence of its Meals Now program whereas retaining a connection to knowledge from its present CRM and bettering cellular accessibility for customers in low-bandwidth areas.

When Gunnar Roofing contacted Click on Right here Labs to boost their buyer expertise by making a seamless, and user-friendly platform for acquiring roofing quotes and making purchases, the company selected Atlas. The outcome was a web site with improved efficiency and caching capabilities in addition to added performance, together with a 3D visualization software. 

These are just some of the tasks we’ve seen constructed on Atlas within the final 12 months, and we’re so excited to see what’s coming in 2024!

What’s Subsequent for Atlas?

The innovation by no means stops on Atlas, and we’ve bought lofty targets for 2024.

AI is on the minds of many builders, and the Atlas crew is not any exception. One space the place the Atlas crew is setting its sights is Sensible Search, WP Engine’s scalable, intuitive WordPress search answer.

The Atlas crew is already taking steps to enhance Sensible Search with AI enhancements, together with new options that we’ll focus on intimately at DE{CODE} 2024. 

Atlas may even proceed to assist many frameworks, together with React,js, Astro, Subsequent.js, and extra to ship on our promise of bringing all the perfect options into our premium headless WordPress framework, Faust.js.

All of our crew’s present efforts and all the work that’s but to return are targeted on one purpose: to future-proof WordPress and hold the open-source group thriving!

Join With Us

When you have suggestions or questions for the Atlas crew, join with them and others in the neighborhood of their headless Discord channel or take a look at the State of Atlas 2024.

Or, should you’re interested in making an attempt headless improvement for your self, join a free Sandbox account to begin tinkering.