Building an Online Store with Platform UI and Hugo
With the release of our CSS Framework, Platform UI, it might be fun to actually build something with it! At RitterIM, we have an interna...
CSS Frameworks Static SitesThe RIMdev team composition is a unique blend of disciplines forged in the crucible of time. We have backend developers, frontend developers, designers, quality assurance engineers, and data engineers. With that cauldron of experience, it isn’t a suprise that their are a multitude of opinions about the best way to build software in 2017. From my perspective, here is a short list of consensus:
Open questions:
This post focuses on the client-side questions and specifically my thoughts on Vue.js.
SPAs stir up a tempest of emotions in me. The first emotion is excitement:
“Cool, a new tool! It will solve all my problems and I love a challenge.”
The second emotion is dread:
“What if everything goes wrong and this makes everything worse?”.
Caution being the last emotion:
“I should think about this…”
Should we build only SPAs? The short answer is no
, but the long answer is more complicated.
For Ritter Insurance Marketing, there are two kinds of web properties our team builds: Marketing Sites
and Applications
. For marketing properties, it makes sense to sparingly use JavaScript in the form of components. Components give the appearance of a dynamic site while enhancing an otherwise static experience. This blog is a good example of that. Our search component is written by Nathan and it works amazingly. Applications
tend to have more interactions and center around complex resources. Applications is where it makes sense to leverage a SPA approach.
To provide a productive and enjoyable user experience, we should build an
application
that leverages client-side features. When buildingmarketing
sites, a JavaScript heavy or exclusive experience may detract from our goals and be counter productive.
How do we provide a great application
user experience? We want to start by picking a library or framework.
As of writing this post, there are three obvious contenders. I don’t feel as a team we have to use one framework mutually exclusive of the others: Angular, React, and Vue.js. The one that is my personal favorite is Vue.js. Why?
JavaScript-only
logic.this
is awesome magic.methods
, watch
, data
, and my favorite computed
.The Big Rewrite
risks.HTML
and JavaScript
in one file for compilation.components
definied on the Vue.js instance.Those are some of my personal highlights with my admittedly short time with Vue.js. Ultimately, I admire Vue.js and its opt-in approach. Choosing when it makes sense to use a component, an entire SPA approach, or even nothing at all gets a big thumbs up. Other frameworks come across as forcing you to drink directly from their philisophical Kool-Aid
firehose. Vue.js asks that you sip at your own pace :).