VIScon Workshop: Beyond Containers: Hands-on Polyglot Apps with wasmCloud
Event start time 11.10.2025 14:00
Event end time 11.10.2025 17:00
This event is only available for VIScon Symposium or Hackathon participants, as well as Helpers! Please sign up for one of these events first!
Build polyglot distributed apps with wasmCloud! This hands-on workshop guides you to create WebAssembly actors in various languages, linking them to HTTP & Key-Value capabilities. Witness the wasmCloud lattice, explore true language an-agnosticism, dynamic binding, and simplified microservice development. While existing technologies like Kubernetes masterfully orchestrate containers, wasmCloud elevates your application development by working with ultra-lightweight WebAssembly modules. This offers distinct advantages such as near-instant startups and much better security sandboxing. More importantly, wasmCloud abstracts away complex infrastructure boilerplate, allowing developers to focus purely on business logic rather than wrestling with underlying OS or container configurations. In this workshop you will get the opportunity to deploy your first distributed application on wasmCloud. You will learn about the internals of this new technology, what makes it different to existing solutions, and play with it hands-on. The workshop will guide you through the development of a polyglot application, demonstrating built-in provider features from wasmCloud, and showcasing the power of loosely coupled WebAssembly modules. Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Explain the core concepts of wasmCloud: actors, capability providers, WIT, and the lattice.
- Develop simple wasmCloud actors in at least two different programming languages (e.g., Rust and TypeScript).
- Define and utilize WIT (WebAssembly Interface Types) interfaces for actor contracts.
- Dynamically link actors to standard capability providers (e.g., HTTP server, Key-Value store).
- Deploy and observe a multi-component application running on the wasmCloud lattice.
- Appreciate the benefits of polyglot development and loose coupling in a distributed system.
- Utilize wash dev for an efficient development workflow.
Additional slots might become available later on. Please use the waiting list!
The VSETH General Privacy Policy applies to this event.
Details and Prerequisites
Workshops may require items VIScon cannot provide (e.g., a Laptop) which you have to bring with you or to set up something (e.g., install software) that would otherwise take up a significant chunk of the workshop. You may also need knowledge in certain fields (e.g., how to program in a specific language). All of this information can be found in the following paragraphs, so you can decide whether you want/can participate in this workshop, or not.
What you have to bring to the workshop:
- a laptop.
What you have to do before the workshop:
- Install Git
- Install Docker
- Install an IDE
Knowledge requirements(/recommendations) for this workshop:
- Relative comfort with command line interface (CLI) tooling.
- Experience in some programming language.
- Experience in Rust is advantageous but not necessary.
- Understanding of Kubernetes is advantageous but not necessary.
FAQ
Why can't I sign up for this workshop?
If you signed up for the main event after the early access deadline (8:00pm, 18th of September), you can sign up from the 21st of September. But don't worry, we will send you a reminder when the sign up opens. Early access is our way to thank early supporters!
The fine print
By participating you agree that pictures and videos can be taken of you that could be used for VIS-Purposes (VISIONEN, Instagram, etc)
By participating, you agree to adhere by the VIS Code of Conduct
Every participant is responsible for their own insurance
All statements are made without guarantee
In general, there are no refunds
Event organisers
Main event organiser Luigi Pizza