What is a micro front end?
The Micro Frontend is a design patternthat uses the strengths and advantages of microservices to improve the user experience of a web frontend. At the same time, the micro frontend is more robust, easily scalable, flexible and easy to maintain.
Development of the micro-frontend trend
The micro front end extends the concepts of microservices with a focus on Internet applications as web front-ends and WebApps. The micro front-end pattern is aimed at a powerful browser application with convincing functions that is based on a microservice architecture. Such micro frontends are also called single page apps.
Why are there micro front ends?
Typically, a web frontend grows massively as a classic monolith over the course of the development period. With each frontend extension, such web monoliths become increasingly difficult to maintain and slower for users. For the user, this results in sluggish loading times and often confusing functions. The historically grown frontend layer, which is often developed by a separate frontend team, is therefore increasingly difficult to adapt and maintain. Developers call such a web application a frontend monolith.
Categorization of the micro front-end concept
The “micro frontend” refers to an approach in software architecture that is used to break down the frontend architecture of a web application into smaller, independent parts, much like microservices do for the backend area. This is because the micro frontend concept is directly related to the structure and design of software solutions, which places it squarely in the realm of software architecture.
Concept & idea of the microfrontend
The web microservices optimized for the web are based on a proven concept good software architecture:
Break down a large problem into several sub-problems. Solve these sub-problems separately.
This software architecture approach goes one step further than the mere modularization of a software application.
Functional separation and creation of independent components
Not only is there a functional decomposition within an application, but the functions connected to the backend logic of the monolithic application are also divided into individual, independent components.
APIs connect the microservice components
All individual components are then connected to each other via functional interfaces – the so-called APIs.
Advantages of the micro front-end strategy
The advantages for the microfrontends resulting from such a web microservice architecture are:
- Simplicity: The complexity of small services is significantly lower than that of a monolithic application that covers the entire range of functions. Software developers gain clarity and better maintainability of their applications. In addition, the services can be developed independently and by several teams in parallel.
- Scalability: In contrast to the monolith, the individual microservices can be scaled independently of each other. If a service is under load, the cloud additional instances can be automatically started up in the cloud. All other web services remain unaffected by this change.
- Robustness: The failure of a service does not necessarily lead to the failure of the entire system. Thanks to a clean separation in the software architecture, it is always possible to maintain an individual service or offer service alternatives at any time.
- Flexibility: With microservice architectures, the best tool for a task can always be used. As the services are independent of each other, it is now also possible to use different technologies for different services. If a Java service offers advantages for one feature and a Kotlin application for another service, this is exactly what can be implemented with microservices.
How do microfrontends work?
Microfrontends are feature-driven. This means that we as software developers focus on the elements defined for the user. This increases the interoperability of the individual components, as small-scale web components are a good basis for integration into the browser. To this end, each software team creates its component using the technology of its choice. The component defines a user-defined element (e.g. ) and provides its functions via an API. The DOM specification of this particular element (tag name, attributes and events) thus defines its functions as a public API for other teams. This approach offers the enormous advantage that the component with all its functionality can be used independently. The other team that wants to use this API does not need to know how the functions are implemented in detail. The API only needs to be able to interact with the DOM or a backend component.
Improvements through progressive extensions, universal rendering and flexible routing
Our flexible API services and web front-ends created in this way offer further advantages such as the option of progressive extensions, universal rendering and flexible routing. To do this, we divide a single web page into two main areas. The page composition design determines how a page can best be composed of individual components. The product owners of these feature components can in turn be different teams. The backend logic can also be encapsulated using this approach.
Prototyping of web front-ends and microservice components
Prototyping is ideal for designing user-centered services. On the basis of a design prototype is ideal for defining the design and usability. This prototype type is then developed in sprints with each iteration stage into an optimized engineering prototype further developed in sprints.
Try it out for yourself!
Why not get started right away and design your own web app as a microfrontend? The advantages speak for themselves: independence in development, better scalability and a more robust architecture. Take the opportunity to start with a small functionality and turn it into a microfrontend. This will give you a feel for the architecture and show you how seamlessly different components can interact with each other. Let your creativity run wild and see how powerful and flexible your web project can become with microfrontends!
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