Why have a different configuration for development and production?

Prod: Build optimized React application and tell Express to serve the static files. While it is common practice now to separate your UI application from all other application logic which require a server side code, in this blog I’ll show how you can EASILY set up an environment where the UI and backend applications run as separate applications in your development environment but runs as a single application when deployed to cloud environment like CloudFoundry on Bluemix.Ĭreate REST API application using ExpressĬreate React application using create-react-app inside the Express applicationĭev: Run both applications on separate ports and set up react proxy to route API calls to Express server When they need to communicate with the backend, they do over the network using a REST call.

This also allows the UI developers to develop independently without having to worry about any server side logic. They can not be restricted by the requirements and constraints of the backend application. UI’s became their own separate application with its own lifecycle. We told ourselves that we’re maintaining clear boundaries and isolation between each layer of the application stack, but let’s be honest with ourselves…It didn’t take long for code to become tightly coupled and turn into spaghetti code.Īs the requirements for UI applications became more demanding, its technology evolved faster than anyone can imagine. All the code was in one IDE and one source repository. It feels like just yesterday that I was writing web applications in Java with JSP’s, Servlets, and JAX-RS API’s all in one application. React Web and Express API for development and production

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