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Micro Frontends in Action
Micro Frontends in Action teaches you to apply the microservices approach to the frontend.
Summary
Browser-based software can quickly become complex and difficult to maintain, especially when it’s implemented as a large single-page application. By adopting the micro frontends approach and designing your web apps as systems of features, you can deliver faster feature development, easier upgrades, and pick and choose the technology you use in your stack. Micro Frontends in Action is your guide to simplifying unwieldy frontends by composing them from small, well-defined units.
Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.
About the Technology
Micro frontends deliver the same flexibility and maintainability to browser-based applications that microservices provide for backend systems. You design your project as a set of standalone components that include their own interfaces, logic, and storage. Then you develop these mini-applications independently and compose them in the browser.
About the Book
Micro Frontends in Action teaches you to apply the microservices approach to the frontend. You’ll start with the core micro frontend design ideas. Then, you’ll build an e-commerce application, working through practical issues like server-side and client-side composition, routing, and maintaining a consistent look and feel. Finally, you’ll explore team workflow patterns that maximize the benefit of developing application components independently.
What’s Inside
- Create a unified frontend from independent applications
- Combine JavaScript code from multiple frameworks
- Browser and server-side composition and routing
- Implement effective dev teams and project workflow
About the Reader
For web developers, software architects, and team leaders.
About the Author
Michael Geers is a software developer specializing in building user interfaces.
Table of Contents
PART 1 - GETTING STARTED WITH MICRO FRONTENDS
1 What are micro frontends?
2 My first micro frontends project
PART 2 - ROUTING, COMPOSITION, AND COMMUNICATION
3 Composition with Ajax and server-side routing
4 Server-side composition
5 Client-side composition
6 Communication patterns
7 Client-side routing and the application shell
8 Composition and universal rendering
9 Which architecture fits my project?
PART 3 - HOW TO BE FAST, CONSISTENT, AND EFFECTIVE
10 Asset loading
11 Performance is key
12 User interface and design system
13 Teams and boundaries
14 Migration, local development, and testing
Summary
Browser-based software can quickly become complex and difficult to maintain, especially when it’s implemented as a large single-page application. By adopting the micro frontends approach and designing your web apps as systems of features, you can deliver faster feature development, easier upgrades, and pick and choose the technology you use in your stack. Micro Frontends in Action is your guide to simplifying unwieldy frontends by composing them from small, well-defined units.
Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.
About the Technology
Micro frontends deliver the same flexibility and maintainability to browser-based applications that microservices provide for backend systems. You design your project as a set of standalone components that include their own interfaces, logic, and storage. Then you develop these mini-applications independently and compose them in the browser.
About the Book
Micro Frontends in Action teaches you to apply the microservices approach to the frontend. You’ll start with the core micro frontend design ideas. Then, you’ll build an e-commerce application, working through practical issues like server-side and client-side composition, routing, and maintaining a consistent look and feel. Finally, you’ll explore team workflow patterns that maximize the benefit of developing application components independently.
What’s Inside
- Create a unified frontend from independent applications
- Combine JavaScript code from multiple frameworks
- Browser and server-side composition and routing
- Implement effective dev teams and project workflow
About the Reader
For web developers, software architects, and team leaders.
About the Author
Michael Geers is a software developer specializing in building user interfaces.
Table of Contents
PART 1 - GETTING STARTED WITH MICRO FRONTENDS
1 What are micro frontends?
2 My first micro frontends project
PART 2 - ROUTING, COMPOSITION, AND COMMUNICATION
3 Composition with Ajax and server-side routing
4 Server-side composition
5 Client-side composition
6 Communication patterns
7 Client-side routing and the application shell
8 Composition and universal rendering
9 Which architecture fits my project?
PART 3 - HOW TO BE FAST, CONSISTENT, AND EFFECTIVE
10 Asset loading
11 Performance is key
12 User interface and design system
13 Teams and boundaries
14 Migration, local development, and testing
296 pages, Paperback
Published October 13, 2020
51 people are currently reading
386 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
August 22, 2021
Near-perfect technical book:
1. Interesting scope (valid problem to tackle)
2. Technology-agnostic (doesn't try to "sell" you any particular product)
3. Very well structured.
4. Presents various approaches and alternatives, while being very open about their pros and cons.
5. Examples and samples focus on practicalities and design and key decisions, instead of syntax and tutorialesque basics
As an engineer, I deal far more with the back-end than front-end, but in fact, I had encountered the problem of front-end composition quite a few times in my career. I can confirm that all the knowledge in this book is practical, comprehensible, and in the end - helpful in picking that approach that will work for you.
Is there anything I did not like? Well, the two final chapters may appear important when it comes to the 'completeness' of addressing the topic, but IMHO these are topics for separate books, so they don't bring much to the table anyway.
However, this doesn't change my rating: fully deserved 5 stars.
1. Interesting scope (valid problem to tackle)
2. Technology-agnostic (doesn't try to "sell" you any particular product)
3. Very well structured.
4. Presents various approaches and alternatives, while being very open about their pros and cons.
5. Examples and samples focus on practicalities and design and key decisions, instead of syntax and tutorialesque basics
As an engineer, I deal far more with the back-end than front-end, but in fact, I had encountered the problem of front-end composition quite a few times in my career. I can confirm that all the knowledge in this book is practical, comprehensible, and in the end - helpful in picking that approach that will work for you.
Is there anything I did not like? Well, the two final chapters may appear important when it comes to the 'completeness' of addressing the topic, but IMHO these are topics for separate books, so they don't bring much to the table anyway.
However, this doesn't change my rating: fully deserved 5 stars.
Read
December 12, 2020This is how a technical book should be written. A solid high level overview backed up by plenty of code examples while avoiding the code along nonsense and minutia that plagues most technical books.
July 16, 2020
Great book on how to get started with micro frontends. It's a real new things for many people as we pushed for micro services for a few years now, but kept our frontends as monoliths. The book has great examples, diagrams and it gives a wide spectrum of choices with pros and cons. It will definitely helpe me and my team moving to a micro frontend architecture. A lot of the research needed to get started will be facilitated because of this book. I can't recommend it enough.
I also really like they way we follow teams developing an e-commerce app and how they gradually implement micro frontends as problem arise. It's an interesting way of putting things into perspective and guiding the into the various steps the book talks about.
I also really like they way we follow teams developing an e-commerce app and how they gradually implement micro frontends as problem arise. It's an interesting way of putting things into perspective and guiding the into the various steps the book talks about.
October 10, 2020
Excellent book, I wish all the technical books were written that way.
The only missing part I would say is a chapter with the challenges someone could face in a micro-frontends setup in terms of Responsive Design and how the teams can ensure that they dont have "broken experiences" specially when they use the fragments pattern.
The only missing part I would say is a chapter with the challenges someone could face in a micro-frontends setup in terms of Responsive Design and how the teams can ensure that they dont have "broken experiences" specially when they use the fragments pattern.
March 10, 2021
(promo)
Best notes:
"Here are the three main reasons why companies adopt a micro frontends architecture:
-Optimize for feature development —A team includes all skills needed to develop a feature. No coordination between separate frontend and backend teams is required.
- Make frontend upgrades easier—Each team owns its complete stack from frontend to database. Teams can decide to update or switch their frontend technology independently.
- Increase customer focus—Every team ships their features directly to the customer.
No pure API teams or operation teams exist. "
"The most significant difference between micro frontends and other architectures is team structure. "
"Teams have end-to-end responsibility for a given functionality. They deliver the associated user interface as a micro frontend. A micro frontend can be a complete page or a fragment that other teams include."
"The micro frontends architecture is all about being able to work in small autonomous teams that have everything they need to create value for the customer. "
"Reducing waiting time between teams is micro-frontends' primary goal. "
"With the micro frontends model, all people involved in creating a feature work in the same team. The amount of work that needs to be done is the same. But communication inside a team is much faster and less formal. Iteration is quicker—no waiting for other teams, no discussion about prioritization. "
"A micro frontend
- Is independently deployable
- Isolates the risk of failure to a smaller area
- Is narrower in scope and thereby easier to understand
-Has a smaller codebase that can help when you want to refactor or replace it
- Is more predictable because it does not share state with other systems "
"Autonomy is one of the critical benefits of microservices and also of micro frontends. "
"In larger groups, communication overhead increases, and decision making gets complicated. In practice, this means that the perfect team size is between 5 to 10 people. "
"Micro frontends are an architectural approach and not a specific technique. "
"Micro frontends remove the team barrier between frontend and backend developers by introducing cross-functional teams. "
"With the micro frontends approach, the application gets divided into multiple vertical slices that span from database to user interface "
"Each vertical system is smaller and more focused. It’s therefore easier to understand, test, and refactor than a monolith. "
"Nginx loads all SSI includes in parallel, but only starts sending data to the client when the last fragment arrives. "
"Integrating markup on the server usually leads to better page load performance because latency inside the datacenter is much shorter than to the client. "
Best notes:
"Here are the three main reasons why companies adopt a micro frontends architecture:
-Optimize for feature development —A team includes all skills needed to develop a feature. No coordination between separate frontend and backend teams is required.
- Make frontend upgrades easier—Each team owns its complete stack from frontend to database. Teams can decide to update or switch their frontend technology independently.
- Increase customer focus—Every team ships their features directly to the customer.
No pure API teams or operation teams exist. "
"The most significant difference between micro frontends and other architectures is team structure. "
"Teams have end-to-end responsibility for a given functionality. They deliver the associated user interface as a micro frontend. A micro frontend can be a complete page or a fragment that other teams include."
"The micro frontends architecture is all about being able to work in small autonomous teams that have everything they need to create value for the customer. "
"Reducing waiting time between teams is micro-frontends' primary goal. "
"With the micro frontends model, all people involved in creating a feature work in the same team. The amount of work that needs to be done is the same. But communication inside a team is much faster and less formal. Iteration is quicker—no waiting for other teams, no discussion about prioritization. "
"A micro frontend
- Is independently deployable
- Isolates the risk of failure to a smaller area
- Is narrower in scope and thereby easier to understand
-Has a smaller codebase that can help when you want to refactor or replace it
- Is more predictable because it does not share state with other systems "
"Autonomy is one of the critical benefits of microservices and also of micro frontends. "
"In larger groups, communication overhead increases, and decision making gets complicated. In practice, this means that the perfect team size is between 5 to 10 people. "
"Micro frontends are an architectural approach and not a specific technique. "
"Micro frontends remove the team barrier between frontend and backend developers by introducing cross-functional teams. "
"With the micro frontends approach, the application gets divided into multiple vertical slices that span from database to user interface "
"Each vertical system is smaller and more focused. It’s therefore easier to understand, test, and refactor than a monolith. "
"Nginx loads all SSI includes in parallel, but only starts sending data to the client when the last fragment arrives. "
"Integrating markup on the server usually leads to better page load performance because latency inside the datacenter is much shorter than to the client. "
February 21, 2022
The book contains all you may need to get started with micro frontends. From the very beginning, the author explains different integration approaches. Starting with the most simple ones and incrementally updating a codebase to the more complex ones. There is a lot of code, and it's all technology agnostic! For a better understanding, the author provides a context of an imaginary organization, teams, and product.
Later on, it guides you in making a decision process on which architecture fits your needs. Everything, through examples and a detailed comparison of pros and cons. The last part explains how to avoid common pitfalls, testing approaches, local development, and a lot more.
The book is totally complete and covers every topic you can imagine.
Some things I can complain about are parts of chapter 13, about teams and DDD. It is so broad that the author could simply omit that part. It doesn't add any value to the book.
Later on, it guides you in making a decision process on which architecture fits your needs. Everything, through examples and a detailed comparison of pros and cons. The last part explains how to avoid common pitfalls, testing approaches, local development, and a lot more.
The book is totally complete and covers every topic you can imagine.
Some things I can complain about are parts of chapter 13, about teams and DDD. It is so broad that the author could simply omit that part. It doesn't add any value to the book.
September 5, 2021
Excellent!
I am positively surprised by the book. I wasn't expecting to get so much from about 270 pages. I immediately felt the sentiment when I read that micro frontends enable cross-functional teams and that sentiment stayed throughout the book.
After short intro we can get our hands dirty with real code - the book is project based. The project is simple enough to guide You through most important code in the book without hassle. Micheal starts with most simple techniques and gradually introduces new and more complicated integration & composition techniques. All of that happens in a context which in a great way helps in considerations about pros/cons when "we decide" to make a next step in "our project".
All of that is framework agnostic. Yes! React, Angular, Svelte, whatever - it doesn't matter! Just pick one (the one for the job right?) and then think on composition.
The chapter "Which architecture fits my project?" is pure gold. The book overall feels very complete - stuff not covered by the project adventure is also there, plus I needlessly feared that the author will try avoid some topics. Caching, additional assets downloading, local development - Michael got You covered.
I will keep the book nearby; this will be an invaluable asset while making next big steps in web apps building.
I am positively surprised by the book. I wasn't expecting to get so much from about 270 pages. I immediately felt the sentiment when I read that micro frontends enable cross-functional teams and that sentiment stayed throughout the book.
After short intro we can get our hands dirty with real code - the book is project based. The project is simple enough to guide You through most important code in the book without hassle. Micheal starts with most simple techniques and gradually introduces new and more complicated integration & composition techniques. All of that happens in a context which in a great way helps in considerations about pros/cons when "we decide" to make a next step in "our project".
All of that is framework agnostic. Yes! React, Angular, Svelte, whatever - it doesn't matter! Just pick one (the one for the job right?) and then think on composition.
The chapter "Which architecture fits my project?" is pure gold. The book overall feels very complete - stuff not covered by the project adventure is also there, plus I needlessly feared that the author will try avoid some topics. Caching, additional assets downloading, local development - Michael got You covered.
I will keep the book nearby; this will be an invaluable asset while making next big steps in web apps building.
June 8, 2021
Interesting topics. Clear, concise explanation with examples and links. Talks over very broad, hard to master from documentations topics. A must read book for anyone who's interested in topics beyond act of writing code. Even if you've never heard of micro frontends.
November 22, 2020
Great and detailed view of microfrontends with development and developer in mind.
January 1, 2021
Many of the concepts were familiar from my own explorations and reading online but this is an excellent survey of micro frontend architectures. The book offers practical suggestions (inc. code) along with tradeoffs between the various approaches it suggests. I also liked that it gave a standard vocabulary I could use when talking with others at work.
January 11, 2021
Practical learning for approaching microfrontend architecture
October 18, 2020
It was a really nice introduction into micro frontends. The book starts from really simple concepts and gradually introduces more complex ones. Bonus points for being framework-agnostic.
July 14, 2021
The missing piece in my microservices journey. Very abstract and actionable at the same time - well balanced. Would still need time to master it, but I have rarely read a book with so much impact.
November 18, 2023
This book is a gem and must read for anyone interested in Frontend development. To me it was a trip down memory lane with some added depth. The code that comes with it works without a problem even 3-4years later. Which is not a given for any software development related book.
In comparison with the books about micro frontends that came after this one. I honestly think it's a shame those books even exist. They bring nothing new to the table and are far from useful.
Building Micro Frontends is of course a more executive approach. Makes it easy for not working examples to be shipped with it.
The Art of Micro Frontends, well not much to say about that, although it came 2 years after this one, most code is not working due to Lerna changing API's etc..
Which to me was another reason why this book and the code it has was so valuable to look into. If you build software, you probably don't want to fight against any implementation you did a few years back in order to keep your head above the water while implementing new features. This book shows it is possible to create such software and visualizes it with nice infographics.
I read it cover to cover and I wish I had read this earlier. If you only have time to read one book about the subject, make sure it's this one. You will learn not only about micro frontends, but also tools and approaches in general to make stable and future proof software.
In comparison with the books about micro frontends that came after this one. I honestly think it's a shame those books even exist. They bring nothing new to the table and are far from useful.
Building Micro Frontends is of course a more executive approach. Makes it easy for not working examples to be shipped with it.
The Art of Micro Frontends, well not much to say about that, although it came 2 years after this one, most code is not working due to Lerna changing API's etc..
Which to me was another reason why this book and the code it has was so valuable to look into. If you build software, you probably don't want to fight against any implementation you did a few years back in order to keep your head above the water while implementing new features. This book shows it is possible to create such software and visualizes it with nice infographics.
I read it cover to cover and I wish I had read this earlier. If you only have time to read one book about the subject, make sure it's this one. You will learn not only about micro frontends, but also tools and approaches in general to make stable and future proof software.
December 17, 2021
Micro Frontend is a fairly new architecture and when I came to know about the architecture I had lots of questions in my mind, how is it possible? What are the pitfalls? Is it required for my project, how the design system works? How will the team work? This book just answered all my questions , the author has given examples for all the scenarios and given solutions for all the problems. If you are new to micro frontend like me definitely go for it.
May 8, 2023
Very well written book - clear structure, code examples, fully focused on the main topic with deep dives where necessary. I'd definitely recommend it for most FE engineers and it's a must if you are working with (FE, but not only) architecture.
This book doesn't praise the microfrontend approach (although slightly leans in its favor) - just describes various approaches and trade offs in a rather objective manner, and does it very well in my opinion
This book doesn't praise the microfrontend approach (although slightly leans in its favor) - just describes various approaches and trade offs in a rather objective manner, and does it very well in my opinion
January 17, 2021
Great book to get into a lot of technical details on microfrontend. The fact that it is framework agnostic is good as we can really understand the basic building blocks. On the other hand, we do not have an end to end solution proposed by the authors. It is up to us to create our solution, which might be difficult depending on how much experiments you can do at your company.
but for anyone who has been working on microservices and understand the concepts of isolation, microfrontends make a lot of sense. It is a natural evolution and there is no doubt that it is the go to solution for general frontend development at scale
great book.
but for anyone who has been working on microservices and understand the concepts of isolation, microfrontends make a lot of sense. It is a natural evolution and there is no doubt that it is the go to solution for general frontend development at scale
great book.
March 4, 2023
Good content/topics for a reader who is new to micro frontend architecture/pattern. Unfortunately it doesn’t have much technical depth that I was looking for. Enjoyed the book and it was an easy read and nice flow.
Recommend for developers and solution designers.
Recommend for developers and solution designers.
July 2, 2024
Good technical overview of the alternatives without picking a specific technology stack.
The only nitpick would be the authors aversion to monorepos, as if a monorepo equals monolith or single CI pipeline.
The only nitpick would be the authors aversion to monorepos, as if a monorepo equals monolith or single CI pipeline.
November 16, 2023
Well written technical book
good insights
good insights
October 26, 2023
I think that's an excellent book and I recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.
Here a few thoughts about the book:
* It gives you multiple approaches to dealing with the different aspects of micro frontends.
* It explains well what micro frontends are.
* It highlights how the impact of a micro frontend architecture influences the team organization and vice-versa
* It gives you examples that you can even run on your machine.
* It doesn't advocate much about specific technologies but tries to present micro frontends as a concept.
It sells micro frontends a lot and highlights only some of the drawbacks. When it does, it gives you ways of dealing with it -- at times I wondered if there could be more ugly sides to it I could't find in the book. However, that isn't a problem for me.
Here a few thoughts about the book:
* It gives you multiple approaches to dealing with the different aspects of micro frontends.
* It explains well what micro frontends are.
* It highlights how the impact of a micro frontend architecture influences the team organization and vice-versa
* It gives you examples that you can even run on your machine.
* It doesn't advocate much about specific technologies but tries to present micro frontends as a concept.
It sells micro frontends a lot and highlights only some of the drawbacks. When it does, it gives you ways of dealing with it -- at times I wondered if there could be more ugly sides to it I could't find in the book. However, that isn't a problem for me.
April 4, 2025
I listened to this as an audiobook. Unfortunately, it doesn't lend itself to the audio format because of the many (useful) diagrams. Also, the audio recording was of low quality ("statistically typed language", "see this link").
I didn't go into the code examples. The high-level concepts were helpful.
I didn't go into the code examples. The high-level concepts were helpful.
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