We’ve all enjoyed building creative front-end applications using our favorite library, React. But did you know that we can break down large, complex applications into smaller, more manageable pieces? And, to make it even better, you can use different frameworks for each of these pieces!
I recently dove into this development model, and even though it's been around for some time, I’m amazed I hadn’t fully explored it until now.
If you’re like me and hadn’t come across this before, let me break it down for you. You’ve probably heard of microservices, right? If not, here’s a quick explanation. In the old days, we used to build applications as a single monolithic unit. These were often massive and hard to grasp, especially if you were new to the codebase—what we typically refer to as "legacy" applications. Some clever folks thought, "Why not split these big applications into smaller, independent units to make them easier to manage?" And thus, microservices were born. Each small unit provides a set of services, but the core functionality of the original application remains the same, just divided into manageable chunks.
Now, if you’ve followed so far, you might be thinking, "So this new model must be similar to microservices." And you'd be right! The concept is indeed similar, but there’s a key difference in the implementation. While backend services can be deployed and run independently (though they can still communicate with each other), the frontend approach requires a slightly different strategy.
Now, let’s dive into the concept of Micro Frontend Architecture (MFE).
Just like microservices in the backend, micro frontends break up the frontend monolith into smaller, independently developed, tested, and deployed units. Each of these units represents a different part of the application—like a specific feature or section. This allows different teams to work on different parts of the application, using the tools, frameworks, and libraries that best suit their needs.
Why Micro Frontends?
In traditional frontend development, a single team or multiple teams work on one large codebase. Over time, this can get messy—long build times, complex dependency management, and hard-to-track bugs. With micro frontends, you’re essentially breaking this down, so each team manages a smaller scope. This approach provides a few key benefits:
Team Autonomy: Different teams can independently develop, test, and deploy their micro frontends. This allows them to use different frameworks (yes, you can have React for one module, Angular for another, and maybe even Vue.js elsewhere).
Scalability: With teams working independently, they can scale their development efforts without being blocked by other teams working on the same codebase. This accelerates development speed and reduces bottlenecks.
Easier Maintenance: Since the application is broken into smaller pieces, each micro frontend can evolve separately. This leads to easier maintenance and debugging, as you no longer need to sift through a gigantic codebase to find a problem.
Incremental Upgrades: One of the biggest pains in frontend development is upgrading frameworks or libraries. With micro frontends, you can upgrade one part of the application without affecting the rest, making transitions smoother.
How Micro Frontends Work
The core idea is to split the frontend application by features, and then stitch them together at runtime. This can be done in several ways, including:
Iframe-based Approach: While not common anymore, this involves embedding different micro frontends using iframes. It’s easy to implement but can lead to poor user experiences due to performance and styling issues.
JavaScript Bundles: Different micro frontends are deployed as independent JavaScript bundles, and these are combined on the client side. This is a more modern and flexible approach.
Web Components: Using web standards like custom elements, shadow DOM, and HTML templates, micro frontends can be built and deployed as reusable components that work seamlessly across frameworks.
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Server-side Composition: In this method, the micro frontends are composed server-side, and the user receives a fully-rendered page. This is great for performance but might be more complex to implement.
Key Considerations
Communication Between Micro Frontends: Though each micro frontend is independent, they often need to communicate. This can be managed through events, a shared state, or API calls.
Shared Dependencies: While it’s tempting for each micro frontend to include its own libraries, it’s important to manage shared dependencies to avoid bloating the final bundle size.
Routing: You’ll need a strategy for routing between different micro frontends. This can be done through a central router that loads the appropriate frontend based on the URL.
Conclusion
Micro frontends bring the same benefits of modularity and scalability that we love in microservices to the frontend world. By splitting large applications into smaller, independently managed pieces, we can reduce complexity, boost team productivity, and deliver more flexible, maintainable code.
If you’re dealing with a large, unwieldy frontend, maybe it’s time to explore the world of micro frontends!
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