Micro-frontend is a new and effective approach to building data-dense or heavy applications as well as websites. Building micro-frontend applications enables monolithic applications to divide into smaller, independent units.
Just like microservices architecture in backend development, the term micro-frontend came into existence by Thoughtworks Technology. Thoughtworks included micro-frontend for the first time in its technology radar in 2016.
Since this is a new approach, it can be a tad confusing to work with. Moreover, there is not much information available online. Unless you practice repeatedly, it can be difficult to master.
As a well-reputed web design agency, we have worked on several projects using React micro-frontend approach. Our front-end team encountered various complications in the process. But in the end, they were able to build feature-rich React micro-frontend websites and applications perfectly.
Read further to learn how to master building scalable micro-frontend applications using React.
Moreover, if you have never used the micro-frontend approach or want to build a website or application that provides a better user experience, this article will help you develop the applications using the React micro-frontend approach. This way you will have more dynamic and interactive user interfaces that will enhance user experience.
But first, you must understand how micro-frontend architecture works.
Understanding Micro-Frontend Architecture
It is when you make large and heavy websites or applications that have extensive data by splitting them into various modules and independent parts. It will provide a great level of flexibility as well as incredible speed for front-end teams to develop an impressive application.
In this approach, your monolith team is divided into various independent teams that are assigned a specific feature of the website or application to build. For example, if your teams are working on an e-commerce website, one team will work on developing and improving the product page while another team will work on developing the checkout page. There are many more benefits to using this approach:
- Front-end developers will use simple and decoupled code.
- Front-end teams will have complete freedom over their segments of application.
- Not to mention that if you need to edit or change a particular part, it will not affect your application as a whole.
Steps to Build Micro-Frontend Applications Using React
If you develop an application by using React micro-frontends, your monolithic application will be further split into tiny and more manageable elements.
This process requires developers to build a parent React application. Further, they will work on building various elements, which will be composed into the parent application. In the end, they will deploy those micro-frontend applications to build a first-class application that will help provide seamless user experience.
Here are the steps to build a micro-frontend application with React:
Step 1: Building a Parent React Application
Start your new React project and then start the process of building a React application. This application will act as the parent application that has arranged React micro-frontends.
You can use the command below to build your parent application:
npx create-react-app new-parent
Step 2: Building Components
In the next step, all the micro-frontends will have separate designed components, representing the functionalities of your application.
For each micro-frontend, you should build new React projects like a parent application. Below-written commands will build two individual React applications such as microfrontend1 and microfrontend2.
npx create-react-app mfrontend1
npx create-react-app mfrontend2
Furthermore, if you want to better organize as well as manage those micro-frontends, you can go ahead to install a single-spa library.
npm install single-spa
After this, you should build a root file in the main application and start using single-spa.
Step 3: Compose Micro-Frontends Within the Parent Application
After you have built the micro-frontends, now is the time to put them together into the main application. This step further requires you to import and render all the elements of the micro-frontend in a perfect location in your main application.
Step 4: Incorporating Micro-Frontend Components into the Parent Application
In this step, you will integrate those micro-frontend elements into the main application, thus ensuring all the elements of the micro-frontends are only loaded while there is a requirement.
Step 5: Configuring Parent Application
This step requires you to build a route in the main application for each micro-frontend you create. To help you with this, developers are free to use React router or other routing systems.
Step 6: Deploying Micro-Frontends to a Cloud Platform
In this step, you will be required to deploy those micro-frontends as well as the parent application to a web server or content delivery network (CDN).
Now is the time to launch this application housing all the micro-frontends. On the other hand, single-spa will do its work to load as well as organize those micro-frontends as per the instructions set up by you.
This is how you can use single-spa to incorporate various micro-frontends into your parent React application. Moreover, the specifications of the execution process might differ as it depends on your project requirements and the type of technologies you have used to build the mini frontends.
Step 7: Testing and Maintenance of the React Micro-Frontend Application
Developers should analyze whether all the functionalities of the newly built parent application containing all the micro-frontends are working efficiently.
This process does not end here; it is a continuous process to make sure that your React micro-frontend application is operating at its best. You can do so by performing tasks like updating your application and fixing it if there are any bugs.
Effective Approaches to Best Use React Micro-Frontends
Use these best approaches to build your React micro-frontend application easily and without any errors:
Lazy Loading
Lazy loading is one of the best techniques utilized by front-end developers. This technique improves the performance of websites or applications.
The lazy loading process only loads micro-frontends that are needed for a particular page. It automatically reduces load times since it will load micro-frontends that are needed for a particular page instead of loading every one of them used in the main application.
Shared Library
In order to reuse codes and keep consistency in all the mini frontends, front-end developers can use the shared library. Assign one front-end team to successfully create and update a shared library.
Cross-Origin Resource Sharing
When you are working to build a React application using micro-frontends, it becomes more than necessary to use cross-origin resource sharing. Thus, those micro-frontends will be able to communicate and transfer data with each other easily without the risk of jeopardizing the security of the whole application.
Testing Strategies for React Micro-Frontend Application
To make sure that the micro-frontend React application is working properly, you should use the best strategies such as integrating testing and end-to-end testing. Test if the application is running properly on different devices as well as browsers.
