Micro-frontends are essentially small and independent front-end applications that can be used in a larger application as building blocks, each representing a feature or functionality. However, it’s essential to know some best practices for micro-frontends to ensure their seamless integration, scalability, and maintainability.
This includes aspects such as modularization, context and state management, communication, testing, and deployment. By adopting these best practices, developers can achieve a cleaner, more organized codebase, reduce compatibility issues, and allow for more flexible development and deployment strategies in the future.
The insights from this article come in part from Luca Mezzalira’s Edu Path With Codemotion. Luca Mezzalira is Principal Serverless Specialist Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS), and in this series he shares some key best practices for Micro-Frontends. Believe us, it will take your project to another whole level!
Tips for micro-frontend development
When it comes to developing micro frontends, there are several best practices to keep in mind. Here are some key considerations that Mezzalira suggests in his video. (Watch the full video for more in-depth insights!)
- Applying API first design principles: By establishing a clear boundary between frontend and backend, you can ensure smoother communication and more efficient development. Adopting an API-first approach also enables newer teams to work independently, without prior knowledge of what has been built.
- Prefer Duplication over-abstraction “the wrong abstraction is more expensive than code duplication:” Although code duplication may seem inefficient, it should not be completely avoided. Over-abstraction can lead to complex codebases that are difficult to maintain in the long run.
- Consider performance: Micro frontends can improve website performance, but it’s important to ensure that nothing is slowing things down. By using an integrated approach, developers can make sure that each component runs efficiently.
- Consider business evolution: Just as a company’s products and services can evolve, so too can its micro frontend architecture. It’s important to have a flexible approach to micro frontend development, so that the architecture can be adjusted as the needs of the business change.
- SEO: In order to improve SEO, it’s important to ensure that web crawlers can easily access and understand the content on the website. By using server-side rendering or dynamic rendering, developers can help search engines crawl and index the website more effectively.
- Invest in automation. There are pros and cons both for monorepo or polyrepo. Consider them depending on the project specifics: By investing in automation, teams can streamline their micro frontend development process. Whether working with a monorepo or polyrepo, automation can help to ensure that each component meets the necessary quality standards, and is integrated correctly into the larger system.
- Continuous integration: One of the most important best practices to keep in mind when developing micro frontends is continuous integration. By using CI tools, teams can ensure that the components are tested and deployed quickly and efficiently. This can lead to decreased development time, improved performance, and better overall quality. Continuous integration also makes collaboration between teams easier by ensuring that all code changes are tracked and monitored.
Overall, implementing these best practices for micro-frontends will help to achieve a more efficient, flexible, and effective product. By being mindful of these considerations, teams can create robust, scalable micro frontend systems that perform well and evolve with the needs of the business.
More tips from Luca Mezzalira
Mezzalira is a top expert in Micro-frontends. Here are some more recommendations for working with micro-frontends and some other resources you might want to explore to dive deeper into this architecture.
Keep microservices small: Microservices should be small and focused on doing one thing well. This makes them easier to understand, develop, and test.
Use an event-driven architecture: An event-driven architecture can help decouple microservices and enable them to communicate asynchronously.
Use containerization and orchestration: Containerization allows you to package microservices and their dependencies into containers, making them portable and easier to manage. Orchestration tools like Kubernetes can help you manage and scale your containers.
Choose the right data storage solution: Microservices often require different types of data storage solutions depending on their specific needs. Consider using a combination of SQL and NoSQL databases, depending on the use case.
Design for resiliency: Microservices should be designed to be resilient to failures. Implement retry and circuit breaker patterns to handle errors and avoid cascading failures.
Monitor and log everything: Use tools to monitor your microservices and collect logs, metrics, and traces. This can help you quickly identify and diagnose issues.
Foster a culture of collaboration: Microservices require collaboration between teams. Foster a culture of communication and collaboration to ensure that teams are aligned and working toward a common goal.
Also check out Mezzalira’s book: Building Micro-Frontends: Scaling Teams and Projects, Empowering Developers 1st Edition
Also check out the video below for more tips for micro-frontends:
Here’s another piece about micro-frontends: Micro Frontends: the Future of Web Development?
