A New Approach to Web Application Development using WebComponents

[rtweed]

I don't think I'm alone in having become increasingly dismayed at the sheer complexity of modern web application development, using frameworks such as React, Vue and Angular, requiring a compilation step using WebPack etc.

These approaches produce compiled JavaScript bundle files of ever increasingly massive size, and have

introduced mind-boggling concepts. These frameworks risk collapsing under their own weight.

So I decided to rethink the whole thing, but using the very latest ES6 Modules and WebComponents. Take a look at the results and see what you think. It's called mg-webComponents and you can find it here:

https://github.com/robtweed/mg-webComponents

I've been using this new framework to build out applications very quickly, around a WebComponent module

library I've created around the Bootstrap 4-based SB Admin 2 UI (https://startbootstrap.com/themes/sb-admin-2/)

You can also use this WebComponent Module Library yourself. See:

https://github.com/robtweed/wc-admin-ui

mg-webComponents does not have any dependency on QEWD and can be used with any back-end technology. However it works particularly well with QEWD, allowing extremely rapid front and back-end development

Why not give it a try and see what you think?

Each of the repositories (mg-webComponents and wc-admin-ui) include comprehensive tutorials to get you started

Rob

[rtweed]

I've put up a demo here:

http://178.62.26.29:8080/demo

This uses the latest QEWD Docker Container, which, of course, includes YottaDB as the back-end QEWD-JSdb database

[Sam Habiel]

> I don't think I'm alone in having become increasingly dismayed at the sheer complexity of modern web application development, using frameworks such as React, Vue and Angular, requiring a compilation step using WebPack etc.

When I worked on Panorama, I tried really hard to avoid using
frameworks, but had to give in to use JQuery and Bootstrap. It is very
distressing on how complicated we made things. The problem is that
everybody assumes that what comes out of Silicon Valley with Silicon
Valley budgets will fit smaller operations that need the code to last
longer than the life of a framework (which is usually < 2 years).

--Sam

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[Rob Tweed]

That's in many ways why I've designed this the way I have.  It adopts some of the simpler and most effective concepts of the modern web development frameworks, but implements them using what are now standards built into modern browsers.

As far as possible I've avoided jQuery except where it's required for the SB Admin 2 UI theme which is based on Bootstrap 4 (plus dataTables and Charts).  You'll find that the core of mg-webComponents itself is pure vanilla JavaScript.

Personally, I don't particularly regard jQuery or Bootstrap 4 as too troublesome.  Bootstrap provides one of the best and most accessible UI design frameworks, looking after a lot of very useful and good-looking design/styling complexity, plus a good reactive capability allowing your apps to work automatically across a wide range of devices and browsers.

Interestingly the primary goal of Bootstrap 5  is to remove any dependency on jQuery.

In any case, the idea of the wc-admin-ui WebComponent Module library that I've put together is to largely look after the Bootstrap-specific stuff for you.  You just build your Admin UI themed apps using the WebComponent modules as if they were Lego bricks

Rob

[OldMster]

Looks good Rob.  After I complete the conversion of my main system from Caché to Yottadb, the next major task is redeveloping all the web front end I did in Flex (RIP).  Flex was a great framework, but the ongoing issues with Flash doomed it.  I'll take a hard look at this then.  I was pretty much leaning toward Vue, but I like simpler and more standard for sure!

Mark

[rtweed]

Hot off the press - I decided to create a RealWorld Conduit client using the mg-webComponents technology and approach.

It's small, fast, easy to install and configure, with no messing about with WebPack etc to build it.  But it looks and feels identical to all the other RealWorld Conduit front-ends that have been built using other technologies and frameworks (such as React, Angular and Vue).

Take a look, read all about it, try it out:

https://github.com/robtweed/wc-conduit

You don't even need a working back-end - just reconfigure it to use the reference/demo Conduit back-end.  Alternatively, use it with qewd-conduit!