Pragmatic frontend for Symfony developers

Transcript

1. Pragmatic frontend for Symfony developers Titouan GALOPIN
2. 2 Titouan Galopin Product Manager SymfonyInsight insight.symfony.com
3. 3 The Why
4. 4 Why is frontend development so complex?
5. 5 Thinking about modern software architectures requires frontend choices
6. 6 Let’s discuss!
7. Agenda 1. A bit of history 2. Modern frontend 3. The least complex technology possible 4. Approaches to frontend with Symfony 7
8. 8 1. A bit of history
9. 9 1990–1995 HTML, CSS and JavaScript are invented
10. 10 1996–1999 Standardization efforts begin Browser compliance is terrible
11. 2000–2004 CSS frameworks begin to emerge jQuery is born 11
12. 2005–2009 W3C specification is met Responsive designs and frameworks introduced 12
13. 13 2010–2015 JS frameworks are born (Backbone, Ember, Angular, React, Vue, ...) HTML5 is announced
14. 14 2016–2020 New technologies and platforms built around modern frontend emerge: GraphQL, Service Workers, Cordova, Electron, React Native, …
15. 15 Modern frontend development is a direct consequence of this history
16. 16 What is Modern Frontend?
17. 17 2. Modern frontend
18. 18 Modern frontend is supposed to be about user experience
19. 19 “Nowadays, users expect more from websites (performance, help, productivity, …)”
20. 20 Ever wondered whether a loader was actually loading or was broken?
21. 21 Ever been frustrated about a Back button click returning to the wrong page?
22. 22 Ever been disappointed by a link you couldn’t open in a new tab?
23. 23 Ever been angered by a website you couldn’t open in multiple tabs without messing with the data?
24. 24 Ever had to disable your adblocker to make a website work?
25. 25 Ever had to use a screen reader on a full Javascript interface?
26. 26 Full-page apps (for instance create-react-app) is not an answer to the UX problem
27. 27 It’s easy to do it really wrong and hurts UX a lot
28. 28 Modern frontend != Full-page app
29. 29 Full-page app is a solution to a different problem
30. 30 How to build a website and a mobile application with the same backend?
31. 31 3. The least complex technology possible
32. How many times did you experience PHP failing between a function call and the first line of the function? 32
33. How many times did you experience an AJAX call failing between the request and the response? 33
34. 34 The network is a huge source of complexity
35. How many times did you develop your own session system in PHP? 35
36. How many times did you develop your own session history stack in PHP? 36
37. 37 Not using the features of the browser is a source of complexity
38. How many developers in your team know perfectly well both React and Symfony? 38
39. 39 Dealing with backend vs with interfaces are two different jobs: human complexity
40. KISS Keep It Super Simple 40
41. By default, use the simplest option available Migrate to something more complex only if necessary 41
42. The simplest option = HTML + CSS built with PHP 42
43. But it’s sometimes not enough... 43
44. 44 4. Approaches to frontend with Symfony
45. 45 No JS Misses the real UX gain of Javascript, but still possible
46. 46 Full-page app + API Has a lot of drawbacks but is the only option for multiple clients (web + mobile)
47. 47 Progressive enhancement A pragmatic in-between
48. 48 Most recent JS frameworks (React, Vue, …) can be used in limited parts of the page
49. 49 What about using React only where it brings actual improvements?
50. 50 Using React to enhance your Symfony application
51. 51 1. Develop your application as usual
52. 52 {# index.html.twig #} {% extends 'base.html.twig' %} {% block body %} <div> Hello world <div> <input type="text" placeholder="Color in hexadecimal" /> </div> </div> {% endblock %}
53. 53 {# index.html.twig #} {% extends 'base.html.twig' %} {% block body %} <div> Hello world <div> <input type="text" placeholder="Color in hexadecimal" /> </div> </div> {% endblock %} This could be a Symfony Form field
54. 54 2. Add React only where it’s useful
55. 55 composer req --dev webpack yarn install https://symfony.com/doc/current/frontend.html
56. 56 Webpack is a build tool It lets you manipulate your Javascript and CSS before using it in production (JSX, minification, …)
57. 57 Webpack Encore wraps Webpack around a nice API to improve its Developer Experience
58. 58 Webpack Encore is awesome to compile React apps to normal Javascript
59. 59 yarn add @babel/preset-react react react-dom prop-types
60. 60 // webpack.config.js Encore.enableReactPreset()
61. 61 {# index.html.twig #} {% extends 'base.html.twig' %} {% block body %} <div> Hello world <div data-color-chooser> <input type="text" placeholder="Color in hexadecimal" /> </div> </div> {% endblock %} Marker to find where to inject a React component
62. 62 // app.js import ReactDOM from 'react-dom'; import {ColorChooser} from './ColorChooser/ColorChooser'; $('div[data-color-chooser]').each((key, node) => { const input = $(node).find('input'); ReactDOM.render( <ColorChooser color={input.val()} onColorChange={(color) => input.attr('value', color)} />, node ); });
63. 63
64. 64 ✓ Allow to use great React components where it’s useful ✓ Do not add unnecessary complexity ✓ 100% compatible with Symfony, HTTP and default browser behaviors
65. 65 3. How to transfer data?
66. 66 namespace App\DataExposer; class DataExposer { private $data = []; public function expose(string $name, $value) { $this->data[$name] = $value; } public function getExposedData(): array { return $this->data; } }
67. 67 namespace App\Twig; class DataExposerExtension extends AbstractExtension { private $exposer; public function __construct(DataExposer $exposer) { $this->exposer = $exposer; } public function getFunctions(): array { return [ new TwigFunction('expose', [$this, 'exposeData']), new TwigFunction('get_exposed_data', [$this, 'getExposedData']), ]; } // ... }
68. 68 {# base.html.twig #} <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <title>Welcome!</title> </head> <body> {% block body %}{% endblock %} <script type="application/json" id="exposed-data"> {{- get_exposed_data()|json_encode|raw -}} </script> {{ encore_entry_script_tags('app') }} </body> </html>
69. 69 const data = JSON.stringify( document.getElementById('exposed-data') );
70. 70 ✓ Easy to parse (JSON.stringify) ✓ Compatible with Content Security Policy ✓ Easy to use in automated testing
71. 71 Conclusion
72. Thanks! 72 For any question: ▪ @titouangalopin on Twitter ▪ titouan.galopin @symfony.com