Fun with Micro-frontend in a single-spa way💡

🏃‍♂️
To give everyone the context this post will be based on the experiments which I used to run the multiple front-end applications under a vanilla js container app.

What is a Micro-frontend application?

This application is based on a single-spa framework that allows you to run multiple front-end applications under the same route. Things to notice related to the Micro-frontend app

• Deploy the micro front-end applications independently.
• Without re-writing the existing application, you can create a new application with the new framework.
• Lazy loading the code base for improved performance.

Pre-requisites

• Knowledge of any JavaScript framework
• JavaScript
• single-spa should be globally installed in your machine

Build the application

We will create three applications using the single-spa framework that are as follow:-

• root-config
• react-app
• angular-app

We will render the react and angular apps based on the routes.
So if the route is

• /react then react app will load
• /angular then the angular app will load

Step 1:

Create a folder where you want to put all three applications together.
Navigate to the root of the folder and run the following command and follow the instructions as provided in the image:

$ npx create-single-spa

The root-config setup will complete in sometime.

Step 2:

Now we will create an react application using the single-spa. So in the same root folder run the following command and follow the instructions as provided in the image:

$ npx create-single-spa

Step 3:

Now we will create an angular application using the single-spa. So in the same root folder run the following command and follow the instructions as provided in the image:

$ npx create-single-spa

Few more agreements for the angular app 😀

You need to additionally install few dependencies for the angular project

$ npm i -D @angular-builders/custom-webpack single-spa

Step 4:

Now we will add few minor tweaks in the files present in our newly created projects :-

• root-config

  • Update the imports in the index.ejs

   {
    "imports": {
      "@orgname/root-config": "//localhost:9000/orgname-root-config.js",
      "@orgname/react-app": "//localhost:8080/orgname-react-app.js",
      "angular-app": "//localhost:4200/main.js"
    }
  }
  

  

  • Update the configuration file named as orgname-root-config.ts
  • Add the navigation bar in index.ejs inside the body

  <style>
  .navbar {
    position: fixed;
    top: 0;
    left: 0;
    background-color: #111D4A;
    color: white;
    font-size: 18px;
    font-weight: bold;
    width: 100%;
    height: 75px;
    display: flex;
    align-items: center;
  }
  
  .navbar ul {
    display: flex;
    align-items: center;
    list-style-type: none;
    height: 100%;
  }
  
  .navbar li {
    padding-right: 24px;
    height: 100%;
  }
  
  .navbar li:hover {
    opacity: 0.8;
  }
  
  .navbar a {
    text-decoration: none;
    color: white;
  }
  </style>
  <div class="navbar">
  <ul>
    <a onclick="singleSpaNavigate('/react')">
      <li>
        React
      </li>
    </a>
    <a onclick="singleSpaNavigate('/angular')">
      <li>
        Angular
      </li>
    </a>
  </ul>
  </div>
  

• react-app

  • Update the root.component.tsx as below

• angular-app

  • Import the zonejs as a dependency in main.single-spa.ts
  • Add { provide: APP_BASE_HREF, useValue: '/angular' } to the providers array in the app.module.ts and import APP_BASE_HREF from @angular/common module

Step 5:

Run the applications

• root-config

$ npm start

The root-config app will be running on http://localhost:9000

• react-app

$ npm start

The react-app will be running on http://locahost:8080

• angular-app

npm run serve:single-spa:angular-app

The angular-app will be running on http://localhost:4200

Now when you navigate to http://localhost:9000 you should see

When you click on React you should see

When you click on Angular you should see

When the route changes the new application mounts and the previously loaded application unmounts.

GitHub Repositories for different applications

• root-config
• react-app
• angular-app
• react-ng-spa-app

Resources to catch up with single-spa

• single-spa
• YouTube

Do let me know about your experience with single-spa, till then keep on learning new stuffs and enjoy!!!
📖

Nitin ReddyFollow

Seasoned JavaScript Developer who loves to explore other programming languages like Python. A problem solver, tech lover by heart. Loves reading booking, and cooking. 🤩🚀🔬