Cloudflare's Vertical Microfrontends: Code Silos!

Architecting the Modern Web

Cloudflare's introduction of a Vertical Microfrontend (VMFE) template is a significant step, offering a streamlined approach to building and deploying independent application components on a single domain. The key insight lies in the path-based separation, allowing teams to own entire vertical slices of an application's functionality. This contrasts with horizontal microfrontends, which often lead to more complex integration challenges. The use of CSS View Transitions and Speculation Rules for seamless navigation between these disparate components is particularly innovative, addressing a crucial user experience concern. The article effectively demonstrates how Cloudflare Workers, Service Bindings, and HTMLRewriter can be leveraged to achieve this architectural pattern, providing a practical guide for developers. However, the reliance on Cloudflare's ecosystem is a limitation, making the solution less portable to other platforms. The complexity of managing multiple independent codebases and the potential for increased debugging overhead are also concerns. Further exploration of error handling, monitoring, and cross-cutting concerns across the vertical slices would enhance the robustness of the solution. The article could also benefit from outlining more advanced use cases, showcasing the scalability of the VMFE approach for larger applications.

Key Points

• Cloudflare introduces a Vertical Microfrontend (VMFE) template for path-based application decomposition.
• Uses Cloudflare Workers, Service Bindings, and HTMLRewriter to stitch together independent application slices.
• Leverages CSS View Transitions and Speculation Rules for a seamless user experience between different app components.
• Offers developers true ownership of their code, frameworks, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Addresses common challenges of monolithic applications and horizontal microfrontends, especially in large teams.

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📖 Source: Building vertical microfrontends on Cloudflare’s platform