Smashing Magazine JavaScript newsletter

Native JSON modules, progressive web components, modern web types, and the current state of build tools. Issue #581 • Oct 20, 2026 • View in the browser Ahoj Smashing Friends, What’s going on in JavaScript these days? What are new ECMAScript features that are coming up? And do we actually need build tools still? In this newsletter, we dive into front-end engineering and focus on JavaScript — from modern web types to progressive web components and native JSON modules. Meet Smashing Workshops and Smashing Conferences 2027. Friendly, practical and actionable, the smashing way. If you want to prepare for what’s next in the world of front-end and UX, we’ve just launched our new online workshops. You can save 10–20% off today: prices will go up on Oct 27. You can also get a bundle of workshops for your (incredible!) team. How To Measure UX and Design Impact UX + self-paced course with Vitaly Friedman. Oct 20 – Nov 3 Building Modern HTML Emails Dev with Rémi Parmentier. Oct 26–29 Deep Dive On Accessibility Testing Dev with Manuel Matuzović. Nov 9 – Nov 23 Design Patterns For AI 2027 UX + self-paced course with Vitaly Friedman. Nov 16–24 Designing Websites That Convert UX with Paul Boag. Dec 7 Designing For Complex UIs UX with Vitaly Friedman. December 2–16 SmashingConf Freiburg 2027 🇩🇪 (Sep 6–9, 2027) SmashingConf Amsterdam 2027 🇳🇱 (May 18–21, 2027) Jump to all online workshops and conferences → And now, let’s jump into all things JS! 🚀 — Vitaly 1. Native JSON Modules Native JSON modules are here. With import attributes, the platform can finally handle JSON modules directly — no transforms, custom loaders, or build-time magic involved. Matt Smith compares native JSON modules with the bundler-based JSON import that we’ve historically relied on and explains why import attributes matter beyond JSON. 2. Progressive Web Components Layout shifts, accessibility problems, server-side rendering limitations, too much reliance on client-side JavaScript — web components have quite some pain points. To avoid common issues, Ariel Salminen created Elena, a small library for creating Progressive Web Components. They render HTML and CSS before JavaScript loads and add an enhancement layer of JavaScript to add reactivity, event handling, and more advanced templating. 3. Modern Web Types When you use TypeScript on a project with newer web features, you usually run into type errors. Philip Walton created a fix for the issue: modern-web-types. The library gives you full support for any API that’s shipped in a modern browser. It saves you from manually adding types to a project and avoids conflicts once TypeScript eventually adds support for them. From our sponsor Build Across Any UI With One Shared Customer Context For Every Agent HubSpot unites teams and AI agents on one customer context. Its open platform provides data, APIs, and AI tools to build apps and agents. Use live customer data, build with MCP or APIs, and expect predictable releases. Join the live session for updates → 4. Highlighting A Range Of Text Let’s say you have a textarea or input and want to highlight every instance of a particular word, updating as the user types. The OpaqueRange API together with the Custom Highlight API make it possible. Ollie Williams explains how each API works and how to put them together to style a selection of text. 5. Do We Still Need Build Tools? Build tools usually rank among the things that developers struggle with the most when working with JavaScript. So, how necessary are they for front-end development in 2026? Ollie Williams explores the benefits and drawbacks of JavaScript module bundlers, transpilers, types, minification, and frameworks, as well as of CSS build tools. 20 Years and Counting: Thanks For Being Smashing! Do you know that SmashingMag has been around for 20 years? Thank you so much for reading articles, newsletters and attending workshops and conferences — online and offline. This year, Smashing h