Microfrontends Tutorial with Docker and Nginx

Think of a website or web application like a puzzle. Traditionally, it's built as a single big puzzle where all the pieces fit together tightly. However, as the puzzle gets larger and more complex, it becomes difficult to manage and work on it efficiently.

Now imagine breaking that big puzzle into smaller, independent puzzles. Each small puzzle represents a specific part of the website, such as a login form, product listing, or user profile. These smaller puzzles are called microfrontends.

Microfrontends allow different teams or developers to work independently on their own puzzle piece without worrying about other parts. They can use different technologies, frameworks, or programming languages to build their microfrontend. Once each microfrontend is completed, they can be seamlessly combined to form the full website or application.

This approach provides several benefits. First, it enables parallel development, so multiple teams can work simultaneously without stepping on each other's toes. It also promotes scalability, as teams can easily add or remove microfrontends as needed. Additionally, it enhances maintainability, as updates or changes can be made to a specific microfrontend without affecting the entire application.

Overall, microfrontends help create a more flexible and manageable way to build complex web applications, making it easier to collaborate, scale, and maintain the different parts of the puzzle.

Microfrontends, as a concept, emerged as an extension of microservices and the desire for more independent and scalable frontend architectures. Here's a brief history of the evolution of microfrontends:

2016: The term "Micro Frontends" was coined by Cam Jackson in a blog post titled "Micro Frontends" in 2016. It introduced the idea of applying microservices principles to frontend development, enabling multiple teams to independently develop and deploy their frontend components.

2017: Zalando, a European fashion platform, shared their experience with microfrontends in a blog post titled "From Monolith to Microservices: How Zalando Took a Revolutionary Step" in 2017. They described their journey of breaking down a monolithic frontend into microfrontends and the benefits they achieved in terms of scalability and independent development.

2018: Spotify, the popular music streaming platform, showcased their frontend architecture in a blog post titled "Scaling Agile @Spotify with Tribes, Squads, Chapters & Guilds" in 2018. They highlighted the concept of "Squads," small cross-functional teams responsible for specific areas of the product, including frontend development. This approach aligned well with the microfrontends concept.

2019: The Micro Frontends website (https://micro-frontends.org/) was launched in 2019, providing a dedicated resource for promoting and discussing the principles, patterns, and best practices of microfrontends. The website serves as a central hub for the microfrontends community, featuring case studies, articles, and examples.

2020: Major technology companies and frameworks started to embrace the microfrontends concept. Angular, one of the popular frontend frameworks, introduced Angular Elements, enabling the creation of self-contained microfrontends. Other frameworks, like React and Vue.js, also explored solutions for building microfrontends, leveraging concepts like custom elements or using external libraries like single-spa.

Present: Microfrontends have gained increasing adoption and popularity in recent years, as more organizations seek scalable and independent frontend architectures. The community continues to explore different patterns, tools, and best practices for implementing microfrontends in various use cases.

Microfrontends have evolved as a solution to the challenges of monolithic frontends, enabling teams to work independently, scale their development efforts, and maintain flexibility and autonomy. While it is still a relatively new approach, microfrontends are gaining traction and becoming an important architectural paradigm in modern frontend development.

Building Microfrontends with Docker and Nginx

step-by-step guide on building microfrontends with Docker and Nginx:

Set up the project structure:

• Create a directory for your microfrontends project.
• Inside the project directory, create separate directories for each microfrontend. For example, microfrontend1 and microfrontend2.

Build microfrontends:

• In each microfrontend directory, build the respective microfrontend application as per its specific framework or technology. This typically involves using tools like npm or yarn to install dependencies and building the production-ready assets.
• Ensure that the build process generates the static files (e.g., HTML, CSS, JavaScript) required to serve the microfrontend.

Create Dockerfiles:

In each microfrontend directory, create a Dockerfile to define the Docker image for the respective microfrontend. Here's an example for one of the microfrontends: Dockerfile

  
# Specify the base image
FROM nginx:latest

# Copy the microfrontend build files into the NGINX default directory
COPY ./build /usr/share/nginx/html

# Expose the port on which NGINX will listen
EXPOSE 80

# Start NGINX
CMD ["nginx", "-g", "daemon off;"]

Create Nginx configuration:

In the project directory, create an nginx.conf file to define the Nginx configuration. This file will be used by the Nginx container to route requests to the respective microfrontends. Here's an example configuration: nginx

  
  events {}
http {
  server {
    listen 80;
    server_name localhost;

    location /microfrontend1/ {
      root /usr/share/nginx/html;
      try_files $uri /index.html;
    }

    location /microfrontend2/ {
      root /usr/share/nginx/html;
      try_files $uri /index.html;
    }

    # Add more location blocks for additional microfrontends

    location / {
      return 404;
    }
  }
}

Create Docker Compose file:

In the project directory, create a docker-compose.yml file to define the Docker Compose configuration for the microfrontends and Nginx. Here's an example: yaml

  
version: '3'
services:
  microfrontend1:
    build: ./microfrontend1
  microfrontend2:
    build: ./microfrontend2
  nginx:
    image: nginx:latest
    ports:
      - '8080:80'
    volumes:
      - ./nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Start the microfrontends and Nginx:

Open a terminal in the project directory. Run the following command to start the microfrontends and Nginx:
docker-compose up

This will build the Docker images for each microfrontend and start the containers for microfrontends and Nginx.

Access the microfrontends:

Open a web browser and visit http://localhost:8080/microfrontend1/ to access the first microfrontend. Similarly, access http://localhost:8080/microfrontend2/ to access the second microfrontend. That's it! You have now built and deployed microfrontends using Docker and Nginx. Nginx acts as a reverse proxy, routing requests to the appropriate microfrontend based on the URL path. The Docker Compose file manages the containers, allowing you to run and scale your microfrontends easily.

how nginix use for microfrontend

Nginx can be used effectively for serving microfrontends by acting as a reverse proxy and handling routing requests to the appropriate microfrontend applications.

Here's a high-level overview of how Nginx can be utilized for microfrontends:

Set up Nginx: Install and configure Nginx on a server or container.

Define routing: Define the routing rules in the Nginx configuration file to direct incoming requests to the corresponding microfrontend applications. This can be based on the URL path or any other criteria you choose.

Configure proxy_pass: Use the proxy_pass directive in the Nginx configuration to forward requests to the backend servers hosting the microfrontends. Each microfrontend application typically runs on its own server or container.

Handle static assets: If your microfrontends have static assets (e.g., HTML, CSS, JavaScript files), you can configure Nginx to serve them directly without passing the request to the backend servers. This improves performance by reducing unnecessary backend requests.

Load balancing: If you have multiple instances of the same microfrontend application running, you can use Nginx's load balancing capabilities to distribute the traffic across those instances. This helps with scalability and redundancy.

Caching: Nginx can be configured to cache static assets or even API responses, which can significantly improve performance and reduce the load on your backend servers.

SSL termination: If you need to enforce HTTPS, Nginx can handle SSL termination, decrypting the incoming HTTPS requests and forwarding them to the backend servers over HTTP.

By leveraging Nginx's reverse proxy capabilities, you can effectively manage the routing, load balancing, caching, and SSL termination for your microfrontends, providing a robust and scalable solution.

It's worth mentioning that the specific configuration and setup details may vary depending on your infrastructure, deployment model, and the technologies used for your microfrontends.