[May Update] Wasp - language for developing full-stack JS apps with no boilerplate
Tags: webdev, javascript, react, node
Published: 2022-06-27 15:29:31

> Wasp is a configuration language (DSL) for building full-stack web apps with less code and best practices that works alongside React and Node.js. We are on a mission to streamline web app development while empowering developers to continue using the power of code and their favorite tools. We are backed by Y Combinator and engineers from Airbnb, Facebook, and Lyft. This is our community update!

[We are in Alpha (try it out)!](https://e44cy1h4s0q.typeform.com/to/ycUzQa5A) → [Join our community ](https://discord.gg/rzdnErX) → [Work with us](https://wasp-lang.notion.site/Founding-Engineer-at-Wasp-402274568afa4d7eb7f428f8fa2c0816)

How hops it, fellow Waspeteers? 🐰 🐝  Welcome to our May update - it's been another packed month of developing and shipping new features, so let's dig in and see what's new:

## Community highlights - [join us on Discord](https://discord.gg/rzdnErX)!

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/udb7aunwb846bdz8emkz.png)

One of our amazing contributors and users, [cursorial](https://github.com/cursorial), gave the whole team a presentation on **how he used Wasp to develop and deploy an internal tool for the company he was working for at the time**! The next step is to turn it into a standalone SaaS service, and of course, he is again using Wasp for it! 

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/vg4rabqow3hzh3p03uv3.png)
🤯🤯

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/9sz3x5bi68o3mg55sniq.png)

Feedback from our Alpha Testing Program - scroll below to learn more and join!  

## 🐝  [Become Wasp Alpha Tester](https://wasp-lang.notion.site/Wasp-Alpha-Testing-Program-Admissions-dca25649d63849cb8dfc55881e4f6f82) + get a LE Wasp Alpha t-shirt! 👕

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/b63n78d5vdveih9upct0.png)
Want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes? Take the red pill, Luke.

Our Alpha Testing Program is in full swing and we've been getting some great feedback, but we also [need you on board](https://wasp-lang.notion.site/Wasp-Alpha-Testing-Program-Admissions-dca25649d63849cb8dfc55881e4f6f82)!

This is your opportunity to get a taste of Wasp, connect with the team, and earn forever bragging rights (+ a t-shirt to prove it) that [you tested Wasp while it was still in Alpha](https://wasp-lang.notion.site/Wasp-Alpha-Testing-Program-Admissions-dca25649d63849cb8dfc55881e4f6f82) and pretty much single-handedly saved it from the inevitable doom with your feedback! 

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/pvg7i2ivd8vyk71pg9o0.png)

**Join for:**

- Official recognition in the Wasp community (awesome nick color in Discord + limited edition T-shirt!)
- Direct connection to the Wasp team (via a dedicated channel)
- Be the first to learn about the new features and directly influence them!

How to join? [Apply here](https://wasp-lang.notion.site/Wasp-Alpha-Testing-Program-Admissions-dca25649d63849cb8dfc55881e4f6f82) and we'll be in touch shortly!

To prove that t-shirt is not a lie, here is a photo of our stash: 

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ylb2h5yhfakdotamlwla.png)

Here's also the latest meme of our making (by our CTO Martin, he was very proud of it so I had to include it):

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/icmm2uyqfo0r9a9k2789.gif)

Recorded footage of our first testers (we promise, it's better now!! 😅)

## 🚀 Run async jobs directly from Wasp! 🏗

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/0rloxqcs4u1obb732imj.png)
 
If you have a server task that you want to run in an async way (e.g. sending an email, manipulating an uploaded image via 3rd-party API, generating a lengthy report overnight...), Wasp has you covered!

**You simply need to provide a function you want to have executed, define is it a cron job or not and Wasp will cover the rest:**

- executing it
- keep retrying in case it fails
- store the progress in the database so you don't lose it if e.g. the server gets restarted
- → all the heavy lifting you don't want to worry about!

Check out the [feature announcement post with examples](https://wasp-lang.dev/blog/2022/06/15/jobs-feature-announcement) and also find the docs [here](https://wasp-lang.dev/docs/language/features#jobs).
 
## ❓Easily configure react-query client ⚙️

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/9gsds1zpwjy2gjkyaqgd.png)

Wasp `useQuery` hook is powered by [react-query](https://react-query.tanstack.com/) under the hood. It already comes with pretty sane default options so you often won't need to touch it, but in case you do now you can! You can do it via `configureQueryClient` (above) within the client setup function (below):

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/xnhcsoip86ga25hy7uvk.png)

For more details and examples, check out [the docs](https://wasp-lang.dev/docs/language/features#overriding-default-behaviour-for-queries).
 
## 🚧 coming soon 🚧 Optimistic UI updates without the hassle! 🧘‍♂️
 
![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/32kpxp7n062tzvb9fo6v.png)

After we've updated react-query to the latest stable version and made it configurable, now is the time to deal with the elephant in the room - optimistic UI updates! It's a pattern that many developers broke their teeth on, which makes it a perfect fit to be streamlined with Wasp!
 
## 🚧 coming soon 🚧 Improved IDE support for Wasp 📟 

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/q8tfd2f11ad1ca25ros3.gif)

You asked for it - you're getting it! Building a language has a lot of benefits, such as practically unlimited flexibility to design the best possible DX for you, but it also requires a bit more work to get all the tooling around it to work as you'd expect.

Wasp already had a basic regex-based syntax highlighting via VS Code extensions, but now we're taking it a step further - **we're building our own LSP! That means all the usual goodies will be supported - autocomplete, syntax highlighting, jumping to a definition, ...** (we're not taking them for granted anymore! 😅)

## 🎉 [Welcome Filip](https://wasp-lang.dev/blog/2022/05/31/filip-intro) - Founding Engineer! 🎊

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/1mq9ids9ft3ryqe98fmk.png)

Another amazing engineer joined the team! Filip is a die-hard open-source user and contributor (his favorite pass time is configuring his archlinux setup), and Wasp is not the first programming language he has worked on.

To learn more about him and why he joined Wasp of all the places, check out his [intro interview.](https://wasp-lang.dev/blog/2022/05/31/filip-intro) 

## 🕹️ [We are hiring - DevRel at Wasp!](https://wasp-lang.notion.site/DevRel-at-Wasp-dd53d9b3a8b54960b2cb93f9bdad2944) 💾

After seeing how much fun it is to interact with all of you, chat about the code and also write these emails, we decided we can't be selfish and keep that to ourselves - that's why we decided to [hire a DevRel for Wasp](https://wasp-lang.notion.site/DevRel-at-Wasp-dd53d9b3a8b54960b2cb93f9bdad2944)!

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/wbibpejr74cpy537kf94.gif)

This is how we're going to dance if you apply for DevRel position at Wasp - do you really want to take that away from us (maybe you should though)?

If you love to code but also enjoy writing and talking to fellow developers, we'd love to meet you! For more details [take a look here](https://wasp-lang.notion.site/DevRel-at-Wasp-dd53d9b3a8b54960b2cb93f9bdad2944), and feel free to just reply directly to this email. If this is not your thing but you know somebody whose it is, feel free to forward this to them. We can't wait to hear from you!

## [Wasp Github](https://github.com/wasp-lang/wasp) Star Growth - we are trending on GitHub!

Wasp is trending on GitHub in the "Haskell" category - make sure to [star the repo](https://github.com/wasp-lang/wasp) and let's make it to the top!

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/y22q5f80yxkimnlv6nrw.png)

Total star count: 1,706 - we are on fire 🔥🔥! As always, huge thanks to all our [contributors](https://github.com/wasp-lang/wasp/graphs/contributors) and [stargazers](https://github.com/wasp-lang/wasp/stargazers).

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/g0upeu9xru1swsr99003.png)

**And if you haven't yet**, [please star us on Github](https://github.com/wasp-lang/wasp)! Yes, we are shameless star beggars, but if you believe in the project and want to support it that's one of the best ways to do it (next to actually building something with Wasp - [go do that too](https://wasp-lang.dev/docs)! :D). Don't do it for us, do it for Leslie Knope:  

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/1qbl5yfq0y53ll4bl30r.gif)
Even Ron would star Wasp on GitHub.

[Wasp is on Twitter ](https://twitter.com/WaspLang)- we stepped up our game and are now tweeting every day (at least we try to)! We share memes, code examples, and announce hackathons and swag giveaways - [follow us to stay in the loop](https://twitter.com/WaspLang)!

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/f4bq4lb68jho2kr3m0d4.png)
The cake is a lie! (or is it 🎂?)

## Developer life 💻⌨️💽
Here is the cool stuff we came across this month:
 
**Sampler **- [Visualization for any shell command](https://github.com/sqshq/sampler) - if we ever saw a cool CLI tool, this is the one. Sample any dynamic process right from the terminal, and look like a true h4x0r while doing so! This is actually coming close to Wasp Alpha Testing Program in coolness.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/jzrissya2cp9w6w1ndgf.gif)

**Flycut **-[ clean and simple clipboard for Mac](https://github.com/TermiT/Flycut) - if you ever needed to copy/paste a bunch of things over and over, you know how annoying it is to lose the previous item from your clipboard. Well, never again - with this nifty tool that saves your clipboard history you'll boost your productivity and also become a better person (since you'll be cursing less).

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/nzlv66arjcgvdabuo9gb.png)
By pressing Shift + Cmd + V you toggle through your clipboard history

**A mechanical watch** - [mechanism visualization](https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/) - there was a "post the coolest page on the internet" topic on HN, and it for sure did not disappoint. Not connected to programming per se, but it's the next finest piece of engineering. Amazing interactive 3d visualizations of the inner workings of a mechanical watch!

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/riijln9njwr1oo3fu5sj.png)

Do you have any tips for us (music, gear, useful apps/plugins, ...)? Let us know by [tagging us on Twitter](https://twitter.com/WaspLang) and we'll include it in the next update (with due credit of course). 

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ardc9mou1v2hapfazgre.gif)
I have to leave now and fulfill my destiny (make more memes)

That's it for this month! Thanks for reading and supporting us - if you have any feedback, ideas, or just want to share your latest swag idea (e.g. [wasp antenna headband and honeycomb glasses](https://www.amazon.com/Antenna-Headband-Ladybug-Accessories-Halloween/dp/B09YQ52CPN/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=bee%2Baccessories&qid=1655816371&sr=8-9&th=1)?) [join our Discord](https://discord.gg/rzdnErX) or hit reply to this email!

Fly freely and feel the wind in your antennae! 🐝🐝
the Wasp team