January Developer newsletter: New features, lots of live-coding and learning TypeScript
Tags: contentful, webdev
Published: 2021-01-13 11:26:30

---
title: January Developer newsletter: New features, lots of live-coding and learning TypeScript
published: true
description: The App Framework, what coding does to our brains and more community hangouts
tags: contentful, webdev
cover_image: https://images.ctfassets.net/fo9twyrwpveg/2trLA57L07x4ZhOGAnutwg/51b618df7ebec8a298876133bac4519d/eRWFKLWA.png?fm=jpg&q=90&w=1536
canonical_url: https://www.contentful.com/blog/2021/01/12/developer-newsletter-january-2021/
---

Happy new year, Contentful community! 🍾

2020 felt long for most of us, but we made it! The Contentful team and I wish you all a happy and successful New Year 2021! I hope that you all had some time to rest, reflect and recharge.

We’re excited to see what the new year will bring. Give yourself a treat before you catch up on that overflowing inbox — read about what’s new in the Contentful community.

We code live!
-------------

Every Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. PT / 11:00 a.m. ET / 5:00 p.m. CET, our DevRel team and guests hang out on [YouTube Live](https://www.youtube.com/c/Contentfulinc/videos?view=2&live_view=503) and [Twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/contentfuldevs) to talk about GraphQL, Contentful tools and web development. 

We ran the numbers, and I can now announce the most popular live-streams of 2020! They included many cats served by [our Images API](https://www.contentful.com/developers/docs/references/images-api/), [Nuxt](https://nuxtjs.org/) (the popular Vue.js framework) and an app built from scratch using our [App Framework](https://www.contentful.com/developers/docs/extensibility/app-framework/). You can still watch them! Just follow the links.

![Screenshots of Contentful live coding events](https://images.ctfassets.net/fo9twyrwpveg/1LLkP1Pjnvx8raz2qiFMM5/e8db5fb40a19aa9bffc28f5d7a13edfe/pasted_image_0.png)

* [Getting the most out of the Images API](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCz6Z1mu4_M) with [Allan White](https://twitter.com/allanwhite?s=20)
    
* [The Contentful App Framework](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQCJKaS64UU)
    
* [Contentful and Nuxt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuKzaCoDB1E) with [Debbie O’Brien](https://twitter.com/debs_obrien)
    

In January, we’ll [tweak our open source editors to include more styling options](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y45hepSuP_8&feature=youtu.be) and [Brian Douglas from GitHub will show us around in GitHub actions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1stWBQLLr4&feature=youtu.be).

Follow us on [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrsEcxPCJlz5yZ_FKGo6D9g) or [Twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/contentfuldevs) to receive updates when we go live. See you there!

**Do you have any projects we should build live? Let us know by replying to this email!**

Exciting things from the internet
---------------------------------

### 5 Reasons to use GraphQL at Your Company

You know that I’m a big fan of GraphQL (and obviously not only because we offer [a GraphQL API](https://www.contentful.com/developers/docs/references/graphql/) ourselves). If you’re wondering why you should start using it, the [5 reasons to use GraphQL post](https://codersociety.com/blog/articles/graphql-reasons) is for you!

### `Type<Challenge\[\]>`

I’m still not 100% fluently speaking TypeScript, and maybe I’ll finally take that on in 2021. If you’re in the same boat, [`Type<Challenge\[\]>`](https://tsch.js.org/) is a beautiful and nicely nerdy way to learn TypeScript. 

### To the brain, reading computer code is not the same as reading language

[Is learning to code similar to learning a language, or is it more related to logic math?](https://news.mit.edu/2020/brain-reading-computer-code-1215) For me, coding always felt more like solving puzzles. This post filled me in on what coding does to our brains. It’s worth reading! 

Contentful community
--------------------

![Illustrated image with individuals on two screens, with a Contentful logo and community hangout written in the middle. ](https://images.ctfassets.net/fo9twyrwpveg/d8sA03F8cQN6zMeXAV5eq/444c1c512cd9c5704c97c976dfdb79e1/pasted_image_0__1_.png?q=1)

### Community hangouts

Last month we hosted another round of our monthly community hangouts. 🎉

In the European edition, [Phil Hawksworth from Netlify explained why you shouldn’t build every feature in your software stack yourself](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2VJmmST27g&t=367s) and [Henri Helvetica gave us a deep dive into image formats of the present and future](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKusPxmMciE). It was a lot of fun, and I highly recommend checking out these videos!

In January we’re taking a break but we’ll be back in February and keep you posted. 

We’d love to give you the stage! Let us know by filling out [this form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc1ZAVBs247hKU-ZNNdh8aAtQLf4n8SZPUAmJ7UvruD2l8AGA/viewform) if you’d like to give a talk about web development in general or about something you built using Contentful.

Mark your calendars, friends. We’re excited!

### Create Timeline with Reactjs and Contentful

The React package [react-chrono](https://github.com/prabhuignoto/react-chrono) can be used to [build beautiful-looking timelines](https://dev.to/kojikanao/create-timeline-with-reactjs-and-contentful-4j7p) that come in handy for your portfolio. Our community member Koji wrote about how to use it with Contentful. Thank you, Koji!

### A Contentful recipe app

![Screenshot of a contentful recipe app](https://images.ctfassets.net/fo9twyrwpveg/1w6qN0uBvg8lzjUEMvanT8/4cecba9810c19d2f49922afd0d57ca78/pasted_image_0__2_.png?q=1)

[Martin Schön built a very useful app to handle ingredients](https://twitter.com/mgschoen/status/1341405005518090242?s=20). If you’re running a food blog, check out [the project on GitHub](https://github.com/mgschoen/contentful-ingredients-field-app) (it includes a useful explainer gif, too).

Contentful corner
-----------------

### Three new Contentful GraphQL features to make your life easier

[We released new features to our GraphQL API at the end of 2020](https://www.contentful.com/blog/2020/12/03/three-new-graphql-features-2020/). If you want to learn more about what’s new, I summed up the latest feature additions on the blog.

### Five reasons migrating your UI extension to an app will save you headaches

Contentful UI extensions and apps are both great ways to tailor the web app to your needs. Our very own David provided guidance on when to use which. [Is it time for you to migrate to the App Framework?](https://www.contentful.com/blog/2020/11/30/five-reasons-to-migrate-ui-extensions-into-apps/) You’ll have the answer after reading this post.

### Contentful introduces request verification for the App Framework

If you’re building Contentful apps and have integrated a backend component using [identities and events](https://www.contentful.com/developers/docs/extensibility/app-framework/app-identities-and-events/), we have good news for you. [Request verification entered the stage](https://www.contentful.com/blog/2020/12/17/introducing-request-verification-for-contentful-app-framework/) and you can make your apps more secure.

### Contentful tip

![Screenshot of a contentful cotent model](https://images.ctfassets.net/fo9twyrwpveg/3lsSuSAPWTXgt3hA1XOIid/4c4e8b9a0d2ed768d780775e400a7bca/pasted_image_0__3_.png?q=1)

Organization owners and admins can now export space resource usage to a local CSV file. The export includes the entries and assets usage (entries + assets = records), space ID, created at, created by, and the expiry date (for trial spaces).

### Changelog

Our development teams were busy closing the year. Take a look at [the Contentful developer changelog](https://www.contentful.com/developers/changelog/) to learn what’s new.

#### Space usage summary

Organization owners and admins can now [view space resource usage directly on the subscription page](https://www.contentful.com/developers/changelog/#space-usage-summary). Alerts are displayed when environments, roles, locales, content types, or records usage is approaching, reached or exceeded the limit for the space type. 

#### Locales for app identities

Important for app builders: [App identities can now access locales](https://www.contentful.com/developers/changelog/#locales-for-app-identities). [Learn more in our guide on app identities and events to leverage our App Framework at its fullest](https://www.contentful.com/developers/docs/extensibility/app-framework/app-identities-and-events/).

#### Contentful migration v4 is out

Short and sweet: [our migration tooling was released in a new major version 4](https://www.contentful.com/developers/changelog/#contentful-migration-v4.0.0-released). As it’s a breaking change, make sure to read the changelog entry because the behavior of the **transformEntries** method changed.

Stay safe, and talk with you next month!
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And that’s it for January. Visit [our developer portal to stay up to date](https://www.contentful.com/developers/). It includes developer blog posts, videos and our newsletter. Let us know via [Slack](https://www.contentful.com/slack/) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/contentful) how we can continue to help you make awesome things.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, [sign up to receive the next one in your inbox](https://www.contentful.com/resources/dev-newsletter/)!