Last Thursday the 28th of September the biggest Dutch Umbraco User Group event of the year DF23 took place! With Umbraco 13 & 14 being just around the corner, let's take a look at the various sessions, highlights and take-aways from this year's event!
Introducing the Umbraco Commerce Storefront API
We're starting the day off with Matt Brailsford, talking about the new headless API introduced to Umbraco Commerce, formerly known as Vendr. I'm not sure what impresses me most, Matt's software skills, or his doodling skills! ✏️ Paired with an excellent new demo project to demonstrate the various Commerce & Delivery APIs, it'll give a head-start to anyone looking to get started with Umbraco Commerce in a headless setup!
Attachment 1. Introducing the Umbraco Commerce Storefront API by Matt Brailford
Me, myself and AI
Time for the official kick-off of DF23! With Jim Stolze as our host, we've had an interactive session testing our knowledge about AI using Kahoot! With the recent developments of AI, it's become harder and harder to distinguish between real and AI-generated images, but I didn't realize it already came this far! (And yes, that's an excuse for me not even ending up in the top 50 of the quiz!😛)
Attachment 2. Me, myself and AI, by Jim Stolze
Personalisatie in de praktijk
The only Dutch spoken talk of the day, by none other than Jeffrey Schoemaker! Personalization is one of the keywords you think of when you think of uMarketingSuite, but what does that actually entail? Together with Hugo Ophof we've been given various theoretical & real-world examples of how Personalization & Segmentation can increase your conversion rates, and how easy it is to get started with only two segments! ⚙️
Attachment 3. Personalisatie in de praktijk, by Jeffrey Schoemaker
Expand your content reach with the new headless capabilities of Umbraco 12
Over to Elitsa Marinovska, one of the brains behind Umbraco 12's Headless API's! Over the last month I've seen her name pop-up constantly diving into the Umbraco source-code for the various API's (why? find out soon!🤫), but now we've gotten a look at what it all entails from her point of view!
Automate Umbraco package development
The man I've had many chats with during the day, Richard Soeteman! Well-known for his various packages like SEO Checker, CMSImport and Media Protect, Richard's talk on automating Umbraco package development gave me a ton of inspiration and drive to automate all the things! 🙌
Custom Powershell scripts, Gitversioning, Azure DevOps, Umbraco Templates, automated deployments, automated testing, I know what I'll be doing next! 📦
Mounting your UI in the new Backoffice
Niels Lyngsø, the mastermind behind the new Umbraco 14 Backoffice, has provided us with what may be my favorite session of the day! I've spend maybe an hour or two messing around with the early versions of the new Backoffice since they've started working on it, but Niels' demonstration was outstanding!
While intimidated at first with all the new lingo, languages and libraries like Typescript, Lit and Vite, Niels demonstrated how easily extendable the new Backoffice is going to be. While definitely having my work cut out for me soon, I can't wait to mess around everything the new Backoffice has to offer!
Attachment 4. Mounting your UI in the new Backoffice, by Niels Lyngsø
Web components in Umbraco: Crash course
With the new Backoffice relying heavily on Web components, it was time to head over to Julia Gruszczynska's advanced talk! While web components work great as stand-alone elements, what perhaps surprised me the most was how well web components can work and interact with eachother! Being able to use both e.g. Vue, React, and Svelte components together on the same page and have them interact with each-other through attributes, properties, events and more was amazing to see. These sessions really show what's going to be possible in the new back-office soon!
Attachment 5. Web components in Umbraco: Crash course, by Julia Gruszczynska
Closing Keynote
Last but not least we have Andy Butland, Head of DXP over at Umbraco HQ, talking about what's been going on and is going to happen over at Umbraco HQ! Umbraco 13 as the new LTS is just around the corner, and Umbraco 14 will follow shortly after. Several deprecated features like the old media picker and nested content are going to be removed, and the new back-office is actively being worked on. However not only the CMS itself is being worked on with various other topics passing the stage, like Umbraco Commerce & Umbraco Workflow. Umbraco Cloud is already getting some love, with features like CI/CD, Load Balancing and Carbon Neutrality.
Besides Umbraco's own plans, there was also a little wink towards Hacktoberfest which started yesterday. Always wanted to contribute to open-source? There's no better time to contribute than now! Don't know where to start? Head over to the Umbraco Discord Server and join the #hacktoberfest channel where the community will help you get started! 🎃
Attachment 6. Closing Keynote, by Andy Butland
Conclusion
DF23 is definitely an event worth attending, and one that I have been looking forward to for a while! With a new role and new perspective myself, the talks that were given at DF23 fit right up my alley! I'm leaving more motivated and inspired than ever! 🚀
