Micro-Frontend Architecture and Its Prevalence in the Frontend World
With the advancement of technology, the complexity of applications has increased, creating challenges in performance, maintenance, and scalability. To solve these issues, micro-frontend architecture was developed to break large web applications into more manageable pieces, simplifying the development process and improving overall performance. Traditional monolithic structures were replaced by micro-frontend as a solution, especially for organizations working with large and dynamic teams.
What is Micro-Frontend?
Micro-Frontend is used to simplify the management of large and complex software, ease the maintenance process, and divide it into smaller and autonomous units that teams can work on. In this way, each unit can have full control over the part it works on and develop it quickly, independently of other units.
One of the differences between Micro-Frontend and the standard frontend architecture is its capacity to be divided into pieces and distributed. While it works as a single block in the traditional frontend architecture, each component can function and be tested independently in the micro-frontend model.
Its connection with the microservice architecture is that both approaches are based on the principle of dividing large systems into smaller, manageable, and scalable services. While microservices apply this principle on the backend side, micro-frontend uses the same logic to divide the frontend into small pieces.
Why is Micro-Frontend Architecture Popular in Today's Technology?
Micro-Frontend architecture has become one of the most popular trends in today's technology. The micro-frontend approach responds to the basic problems encountered in enterprise projects.
Team-Based Development Advantages
Micro-Frontend Architecture allows development teams to focus on specific functional areas. The distributed structure allows team members to work on multiple features simultaneously, speeding up project processes.
Independent Deployability
The ability to deploy micro-frontends separately eliminates the need to restart the entire system when a single part of a large application needs to be changed. It reduces service interruptions and enables faster updates.
Paving the Way for More Agile Projects
Micro-frontend helps projects become more agile. Changes made throughout the development process can be easily managed and tested. It also allows for faster response to different user experiences and needs without being tied to a technology stack that everyone agrees on.
Challenges of Micro-Frontend Architecture
Like every innovation, micro-frontend also brings some challenges.
Versioning and Dependency Management
Micro-frontend architecture requires multiple modules developed by different teams to work together. This interoperability model can make versioning and dependency management difficult. If each team updates its module independently, incompatible versions or dependencies can cause system-wide problems.
Performance Management
Loading and running each micro-frontend separately can have a negative impact on performance. This means more HTTP requests and, therefore, longer load times. Reduced code reuse across different micro-frontends can also negatively impact performance.
Shared Style and UX Consistency
It can be difficult to maintain a common style and UX consistency across micro-frontends developed by different teams. This is important for preserving brand identity and ensuring a consistent user experience. Lack of communication or ambiguity between teams can lead to a breakdown in style and UX consistency.
Building a Compatible Team Culture with Micro-Frontend
For micro-frontend applications to be successful, the team needs to create a compatible culture in this area. The process begins with each team member understanding and supporting the micro-frontend architecture.
First, a clear technology standard that everyone understands and accepts must be established. The standard should provide a general framework for how the application will be structured.
Team members should meet regularly to ensure that they have a common understanding of the overall goals of the project.
It is also important for team members to embrace the discrete nature of micro-frontend. Each individual or sub-team should be responsible for specific frontend parts and manage them independently.
Organizing regular seminars and training sessions on micro-frontend technology can encourage the development of team members.
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