ArcBlock's new website has been released. This article takes you on a comprehensive tour and analysis of how we built the ArcBlock new website ourselves. See how we used reusable Blocklets to construct the ArcBlock website, something you can easily achieve too!
The ArcBlock website is built on top of ArcBlock#
Below is the management web console of our ArcBlock official website:
Those who are familiar with ArcBlock's Blocklet product will definitely recognize at first glance that this is the standard Blocklet management backend interface. So let's take a look at what secrets are revealed in these backends.
Runs on Serverless Service#
The subscription status reminder in the upper right corner indicates that our official website is a standard Serverless service running on our own Launcher business. It currently displays that the subscription will expire in 198 days, but there is no need to worry because we have enabled automatic renewal subscription using our Payment Kit. The system will automatically send email or notification reminders when the subscription is about to expire and will automatically renew it. We will receive notifications immediately upon successful renewal or any unexpected events. Building our official website on our own standard external service reflects our confidence in our platform. By using ArcBlock's Serverless service, you can obtain the same level of service as our official website. Running a website in a Serverless manner allows for better adaptation to changes in website traffic, higher security, and lower operational maintenance costs. The majority of our own services at ArcBlock are provided using our own external services, without any exceptions for any normal customers using ArcBlock services. The only exceptions are blockchain, bridge, and test services that do not use these external services.
Automated Domains, HTTPS Certificates Management#
Blocklet has the function of complete domain name binding and fully automated HTTPS certificate management. Especially for HTTPS certificates, from application to regular updates, everything is done automatically, and users do not need to worry about these details.
Blocklet can bind any number of domain names, and the system will automatically allocate some domain names for internal use. After the official launch of our DID DNS in our DID Name Service, it will be able to combine with DID DNS to achieve fully automated domain name binding and domain name management and maintenance.
Unified login with DID:Connect#
Like all Blocklet applications, DID:Connect and the enhanced user management and user permission management based on DID/VC are standard configurations for all Blocklets. Developers do not need to write a single line of code to have a secure, comprehensive, and powerful user Identity and Access Management system (IAM) based on the latest DID/VC and DID:Connect protocols.
ArcBlock's main site also has a special mission, which is to be the unified login service provider for all ArcBlock services. This means that in the future, all other ArcBlock services will adopt unified login with our official website.
Automated Backup with DID:Spaces #
Based on the data backup mechanism of DID:Spaces, it is also the standard configuration for any Blocklet application. ArcBlock's official website fully utilizes this basic Blocklet service to ensure the security and reliability of data.
Other features #
We can write a complete tutorial to explain the various functions that can be achieved using the Blocklet architecture, but this article will not go into detail. Here are some brief lists: - Web analytics, and these statistics information are completely privacy protected. - Automatic upgrade and hot update of functional modules (Blocklets). - Automatic management and maintenance of Sitemap, automatic management of search engine optimization (SEO). - Automatic compression, optimization, and CDN optimization of image and video resources. - Automation support for open graph protocol (Open Graph) used for social media and sharing. ... All of the above are standard services that are default provided when using the Blocklet framework. In other words, any service built using Blocklet does not require any additional development and configuration and has the same capabilities as our official website. In the implementation of a traditional web application, almost every part listed above requires development, configuration, and management work. Although there may be some frameworks and libraries that provide similar functions, developers still need to integrate them.
What Blocklets does ArcBlock site use?#
The official website of ArcBlock currently uses the following Blocklets to build. As ArcBlock is a composable architecture, any application can install the necessary Blocklets according to its needs to form the final service. Therefore, here we are just showcasing the Blocklets we used when writing this article. When designing your own website, you are completely free to combine them according to your needs.
Pages Kit#
The homepage you are visiting is built using Pages Kit.
Pages Kit is a component of our Web3 Kit series. Although Pages Kit itself is already very powerful, you will find that its functionality can rival some services provided by publicly traded companies in traditional web development, such as Wix and Square Space! Moreover, thanks to the composability of ArcBlock's Blocklet framework, Pages Kit is even more powerful than any visual web page building tool currently available in the market.
Our new homepage's interactive product architecture diagram is also built using Pages Kit. This showcases the powerful features of our latest version of Pages Kit, which we will provide a detailed and dedicated introduction to in the future.
Media Kit (Image Bin)#
This Blocklet will be automatically installed when you install Pages Kit. Its function is to help you manage the upload and processing of any required images, videos, files, etc. Media Kit is a component of our Web3 Kit series.
Media Kit can also be combined with other services, such as AI Kit, to automatically generate images using AIGC instead of uploading files; Media Kit can also be integrated with third-party services, such as Unsplash, allowing you to directly search for the images you need to use.
Discuss Kit#
Discuss Kit supports most of the features of the website, including the article you are currently reading. All the articles, documents, bookmark collections, and discussions on the site are supported by Discuss Kit. Discuss Kit can be considered as a Swiss Army knife for building dynamic websites. It integrates perfectly with Pages Kit and can fulfill over 90% of the website's requirements.
Discuss Kit is a component of our Web3 Kit series.
AI Kit#
Our official website includes the functionality of AI. To enable these, you just need to install AI Kit and subscribe to its provided AI services. The design of AI Kit is an optional feature-enhancing Blocklet. Once installed, all other Blocklets that support AI capabilities will have AI functionality, and AI usage can be managed centrally here.
Mellisearch #
Mellisearch is currently only available in our testing store, and its function is to provide full-text search functionality for websites. Mellisearch itself is an open-source component, and we have adapted it into a Blocklet. This is a typical way of building a Blocklet, where developers can adapt open-source components into Blocklets, making the installation and usage of these open-source components extremely simple and easy.