Micro-Frontend Advanced 2 - Local Development Guide
After building our microservices front-end application using single-spa, there’s actually a problem that will always trouble us, That is how to develop effectively? How to be as simple and easy to use as our usual front-end application development. Today using umi sub-module as an example, hoping to give everyone an idea
Today I’ll introduce one method, hoping it helps everyone.
Module Loader
Do you remember my previous module loader, https://alili.tech/archive/1a60cede/
We just need to encapsulate the original module loader into an npm package.
Then when we develop sub-module projects, run our loader 
// umi src/app.js
import bootstrap from '@demo/demo-module-dev-loader' // Encapsulated npm package
import store from 'store'; // Our store file for communication
export async function render(oldRender) {
if (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development') {
const main = oldRender();
const res = await window.fetch('./project.json');
let currentProject = await res.json();
bootstrap({
main,
store,
prefix: currentProject.prefix
});
} else {
oldRender();
}
}
module-dev-loader
Our demo-module-dev-loader will also have a Bootstrap.js file, we make some small modifications to it.
import * as singleSpa from 'single-spa';
import { registerApp,registerLocal } from './Register'
export default async function bootstrap (local) {
// Get our project configuration file, but we don't have this file locally.
// We need to proxy to our online test environment through webpack to get this file
// We need to proxy to our online test environment through webpack to get this file
// We need to proxy to our online test environment through webpack to get this file
// Important things said three times
const projectConfig = await window.SystemJS.import('/project.config.js')
const res = await window.fetch('/project.json')
const currentProject = await res.json()
let {projects} = projectConfig;
// Remove current project, because current project will use registerLocal method to register
projects = projects.filter(ele => ele.name !== currentProject.name)
// Register our online test environment
for (let index = 0; index < projects.length; index++) {
const project = projects[index];
await registerApp({
name: project.name,
main: `${project.main}`,
store: project.store,
base: project.base,
prefix: project.prefix
});
}
// Key point!!!
// Register locally developing module
local && registerLocal(local)
singleSpa.start();
}
registerLocal Method Display
// Register.js
// Made some deletions on original registerApp, general principle is exactly the same
export function registerLocal({base,main,prefix,store,name='local'}){
// Import store module
let storeModule = {}, customProps = { globalEventDistributor: globalEventDistributor };
storeModule = store && { storeInstance: null };
// Register application to event distributor
if (storeModule.storeInstance && globalEventDistributor) {
// Extract redux storeInstance
customProps.store = storeModule.storeInstance;
// Register to global
globalEventDistributor.registerStore(storeModule.storeInstance);
}
singleSpa.registerApplication(name, async ()=> main, base ? (() => true) : hashPrefix({prefix}),customProps);
}
// Original registerApp method, exactly the same as before, no changes.
// For convenient comparison with registerLocal, so listed for everyone's reference
export async function registerApp(params) {
// Import store module
let storeModule = {}, customProps = { globalEventDistributor: globalEventDistributor };
// Try to import store
try {
storeModule = params.store ? await window.SystemJS.import(params.store) : { storeInstance: null };
} catch (e) {
console.log(`Could not load store of app ${params.name}.`, e);
// If failed, don't register this module
return
}
// Register application to event distributor
if (storeModule.storeInstance && globalEventDistributor) {
// Extract redux storeInstance
customProps.store = storeModule.storeInstance;
// Register to global
globalEventDistributor.registerStore(storeModule.storeInstance);
}
singleSpa.registerApplication(params.name, async ()=> await window.SystemJS.import(params.main), params.base ? (() => true) : hashPrefix(params), customProps);
}
umi Plugin
Our umi plugin also needs modification
// Still original element loading method
const domElementGetterStr = `
function domElementGetter() {
let el = document.getElementById('submodule-page')
if (!el) {
el = document.createElement('div')
el.id = 'submodule-page'
}
let timer = null
timer = setInterval(() => {
if (document.querySelector('#submoduleContent.submoduleContent') && !document.querySelector('#submodule-page')) {
document.querySelector('#submoduleContent.submoduleContent').appendChild(el)
clearInterval(timer)
}
}, 100)
return el
}`
// Import single-spa-react module in umi
// And encapsulate our rootElement component, get our lifecycle instance
api.addEntryCodeAhead(`
import singleSpaReact from 'single-spa-react';
let reactLifecycles;
reactLifecycles = singleSpaReact({
React,
ReactDOM,
rootComponent: (spa) => window.g_plugins.apply('rootContainer', {
initialValue: React.createElement(require('./router').default),
}),
domElementGetter: ${options.base?`() => document.getElementById('root')`:domElementGetterStr}
});
`);
// Development environment
if (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development') {
// Replace our render function with the following content, directly return sub-module lifecycle
// This way we can get these returned things in the render function written in app.js at the beginning
// Register to single-spa through our modified module loader
api.modifyEntryRender(`
const bootstrap = [
reactLifecycles.bootstrap,
];
const mount = [
reactLifecycles.mount,
];
const unmount = [
reactLifecycles.unmount,
];
return {
bootstrap,
mount,
unmount
}
`);
}
// After the above modifications, our umi will lose hot reload functionality,
// Can only settle for actively refreshing browser, but not a big deal
// After compilation completes, actively refresh browser
api.onDevCompileDone(() => {
api.refreshBrowser()
});
webpack Proxy
Don’t forget to modify proxy configuration, to directly get all project locations
{
devServer: {
proxy: {
'/project.config.js': {
// Your test environment address
target: 'https://demo.xyz/',
}
}
},
}
Afterword
All key points of front-end microservices are written today. After more than half a year of thinking and exploration, for the self-questioning and answering in September last year:
Micro-Frontend Solution 1 - Thinking We will face the following problems:
- How do we implement rendering multiple technology stacks in one page?
- How do independent modules between different technology stacks communicate?
- How to render to the correct module through routing?
- How should routing between different technology stacks be correctly triggered?
- After project code is split, how to merge together?
- How do we package each module project?
- How should we write our code after front-end microservices?
- How should independent teams collaborate?
Now all answers have been obtained.
Related Series Articles
https://alili.tech/tags/microfrontend/