Building the Future: A Developer's Guide to Uniweb
What if you could build sophisticated websites that clients can actually maintain, without sacrificing code quality or developer experience? What if you could create components once and use them across multiple projects, knowing they'll maintain their integrity? What if you could focus on building valuable features instead of wrestling with infrastructure?
This is what Uniweb makes possible. It's not just another CMS or framework - it's a fundamentally different approach to web development that lets you create lasting value through carefully crafted Site Foundations.
What You Can Build
Imagine creating Site Foundations that power entire websites. Not just simple templates or basic widgets, but a sophisticated set of components that transform content presentation, adapt perfectly across devices, handle complex layouts automatically, and maintain brand consistency effortlessly.
Each component you create becomes like a professional instrument that content teams can play to create beautiful experiences. You maintain complete control over the implementation while giving them intuitive ways to achieve their goals.
Real Business Opportunities
This approach opens up interesting possibilities for developers:
Custom Client Foundations
Build complete, custom Foundations that perfectly match specific client needs. Since each site runs on exactly one Site Foundation of your choice, you create focused solutions that maintain their integrity over time. These become valuable assets that can evolve with your clients' needs.
Commercial Foundations
Create specialized Foundations for specific industries or purposes and sell them through the marketplace. Your expertise becomes a product that generates ongoing value. Whether it's a Foundation for help centres, educational institutions, or tech companies, you're building solutions that can serve multiple clients.
Client Services
Offer Foundation development and enhancement services, creating long-term relationships built on valuable intellectual property rather than one-off website builds. Your work compounds over time as you refine and expand your Foundation catalog.
Learning From Others
You're not starting from scratch. Uniweb has a growing ecosystem of open-source Foundations you can learn from. Study how professional Foundations handle different scenarios. See how experienced developers structure their components and define parameters. When licenses permit, you can even copy and adapt components directly, as they're organized in self-contained folders that make reuse straightforward.
The Development Experience
Building components in Uniweb feels natural and focused. You write modern React components, but without the usual overhead. No need to handle data fetching, language switching, or state management - the platform handles all that. Your components receive their content already translated into the active language, letting you focus purely on presentation and behaviour.
Every component gets properties like title, content, and media through a standardized block structure. Need dynamic content? The platform handles fetching and caching. Want to add interactivity? You have full access to React's capabilities while leveraging Uniweb's infrastructure.
The Power of Parameters
Parameters are what make your components truly powerful. Think of them as carefully designed options that let content teams adapt components to their needs while maintaining your design intent. You might create parameters for layout styles, color themes, or content density.
Each parameter represents a thoughtfully considered possibility, not just arbitrary settings. When content teams choose a "grid layout" or "cards view," they're selecting complete presentations that you've crafted to work perfectly together.
Important Considerations
Version Management
When you update a Foundation, those changes go live to all sites using it. This isn't just an automated deployment - it's baked into how Uniweb works. Each Foundation is distributed as a webpack federated module through a global CDN. When you commit changes to your Foundation’s main branch, GitHub Actions builds the updated Foundation and notifies Uniweb. The platform then copies these files to its global CDN, and the next time any site using this Foundation loads, it automatically receives the latest version.
This powerful update mechanism means that bug fixes and improvements reach all your sites automatically, but it also means you need to be extremely careful about compatibility. Never make breaking changes to existing Foundations - instead, create new versions (like V2) for major changes. Think of each Foundation version as a stable foundation that sites can rely on.
Complete Responsibility
Creating a custom Foundation means building everything that site will need. You define all the components, their parameters, and how they work together. You create the documentation that helps teams understand each component. You build preset combinations that showcase different possibilities. You even provide preview images that show how components look in various configurations.
The Technical Foundation
Behind your components sits a powerful infrastructure that makes everything work smoothly:
The Core Engine
The Uniweb Core Foundation handles all the complex operations automatically. It manages content delivery, handles multiple languages, coordinates dynamic data, and ensures everything works smoothly. You never interact with it directly - it just makes everything work while you focus on creating value.
Developer Tools
The Uniweb SDK provides the building blocks you need, from common UI components to development utilities. It's like having a professional toolkit that helps you work efficiently without reinventing wheels.
Getting Started
Ready to build something great? Start by exploring the open-source Foundations to understand what's possible. Clone the starter repository when you're ready to create your first component. The platform handles deployment through GitHub Actions, letting you focus on what matters - creating valuable solutions for your clients.
Welcome to a new way of building for the web. Welcome to Uniweb.