Jolt is a software company that helps businesses like consumer goods outlets, grocery stores, convenience stores and car washes improve employee accountability, digital food safety compliance and boost employee performance.
Jolt is one of the earliest customers of Requestly and I recently got a chance to interact with Bryan Jackson, one of their software engineering leaders. He leads the team of developers, own product decisions for multiple teams and, works with founders to establish a product road map and lead their cross-functional team.
For their front-end developers, setting up and managing local environments is a headache, especially when it involves running Kubernetes.
The problem with local Kubernetes
Kubernetes is a fantastic tool for managing applications at scale, but Jolt faced the following challenges:
- Resource Heavy: Local Kubernetes setups slow down your computer, consuming lots of CPU and memory.
- Complex Setup: Setting up and managing a local Kubernetes environment can be time-consuming and complex.
- Dummy Data: Local environments often use fake data, which doesn’t reflect real-world conditions, leading to missed issues.
That’s when they started using Requestly.
The solution using Requestly
Instead of running a full Kubernetes environment on their local machines (which is heavy and slow), they use Requestly to directly work with their live or staging websites.
This approach is especially useful for frontend development, where the main focus is on how things look and behave in the browser, rather than the backend logic.
How this helps Jolt
- Live Data: When they make changes, they can immediately see how those changes interact with real customer data on the live site. This is particularly helpful for tasks like updating reports or working with read-only data.
- Efficiency: By not having to replicate the entire backend environment locally, they avoid unnecessary bloat and keep their development process lightweight and efficient.
How they use Requestly
They set up a few rules in Requestly to modify the live or staging site as needed for their development work. These rules redirect certain URLs to a different server or endpoint (for example, localhost), allowing them to test changes without affecting the real site.
They get immediate feedback on their changes with real user data, making it easier to spot issues or improvements. They also avoid the complexity and resource consumption of running a full local development environment, focusing instead on the specific frontend changes they need to make.
An example of rules is to redirect their “feature flags” module JS files from their CDN to local development servers.
For example, https://cdn.joltup.com/apps/featureflags/insert.js redirects to http://localhost:3874/bundle.js.
This helps them develop and test the feature flags directly on their live site using real data, making it easier to identify and fix issues quickly.
Conclusion
Requestly has transformed how they develop front-end at Jolt, helping them avoid the complexities of running Kubernetes locally. By leveraging live or staging sites and real customer data, they develop more efficiently and catch issues early.
Say goodbye to the hassle of local Kubernetes setups. Embrace the simplicity and power of Requestly for your front-end development needs.
Try Requestly today and discover a smarter way to develop against live data.
