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diff --git a/doc/decisions_history.md b/doc/decisions_history.md index fd114ff0..3ced1889 100644 --- a/doc/decisions_history.md +++ b/doc/decisions_history.md @@ -1,39 +1,31 @@ # Technical decisions and issues log ## 2019.07-2020.04 Full Kotlin migration -[@joffrey-bion][1] — :key: *Frontend, Kotlin* Synchronizing backend and frontend when making changes to the API is a pain. Model classes need to be written and modified twice to be kept in sync. -Moreover, a Java client also needs to be maintained to run integration tests -for the server. - -This is why I decided to leverage Kotlin multiplatform capabilities to define -a reusable common model and client. +Moreover, a Java client also needs to be maintained to run integration tests for the server. +This is why I decided to leverage Kotlin multiplatform capabilities to define a reusable common model and client. It took some time because Kotlin itself changed a lot during the past year. -Also, there was no existing solution for a multiplatform STOMP client, so I -ended up building [Krossbow](https://github.com/joffrey-bion/krossbow). -This took a bit of time too. +Also, there was no existing solution for a multiplatform STOMP client, so I ended up building +[Krossbow](https://github.com/joffrey-bion/krossbow). +This took a lot of time too. -Once a common client and model was defined, there is the problem of the local -project dependencies. -Using a TypeScript/React frontend built with npm, it wasn't possible to depend -on a local gradle subproject. +Once a common client and model was defined, there is the problem of the local project dependencies. +Using a TypeScript/React frontend built with npm, it wasn't possible to depend on a local gradle subprojects for the +model and the client. That's why it was time to try out Kotlin React. -Kotlin React is easy to use in itself, but using React component libraries -from Kotlin is quite tedious at the time. -Dukat, the TypeScript to Kotlin externals conversion tool, doesn't work -reliably and doesn't work at all for React stuff, so the declarations have to -be written manually. +Kotlin React is easy to use in itself, but using React component libraries from Kotlin is quite tedious at the time. +Dukat, the TypeScript to Kotlin externals conversion tool, doesn't work reliably and doesn't work at all for React +stuff, so the declarations have to be written manually. ## 2019.05.02-07 Frontend migration to TypeScript -[@joffrey-bion][1] — :key: *Frontend, TypeScript* Flow is nice, but doesn't give me the safety I expect. In its nature, Flow is a type checker aside from the build of -the project. This means that it is possible to build the project successfully even with type errors in it, depending on how it is -configured. +the project. This means that it is possible to build the project successfully even with type errors in it, depending on +how it is configured. I also wasn't too happy about the performance of the IDE integration of Flow. Maybe I didn't put much effort into configuring things properly, but I did try multiple settings with more or less safety/performance. The overall @@ -43,7 +35,6 @@ TypeScript came and saved the day. During the migration, it spotted several plac where the types were incorrect. Also, I could clean up a bit the types of the redux actions and their creators. ## 2018.07.05-10 Backend migration to Kotlin -[@joffrey-bion][1] — :key: *Backend, Kotlin* Kotlin really improves on Java on multiple aspects: @@ -59,7 +50,6 @@ I migrated the game engine and backend server of Seven Wonders to see how it goe kind of change at work. For now, this has been quite a success. ## 2017.08-2018.04 Livedoc development -[@joffrey-bion][1] — :key: *API, Documentation* Not much has been done on the Seven Wonders project for a while, because I stopped to build [Livedoc](https://joffrey-bion.github.io/livedoc/). @@ -72,7 +62,6 @@ It still lacks a couple features: I feel like we're not far from having something very useful now. ## 2017.05.25-28 Flow type-checking + ImmutableJS -[@joffrey-bion][1] — :key: *Frontend* Javascript can easily become a mess when the code base grows, and static typing helps wrapping one's head around what's going on, especially when multiple people are involved in writing code in the same project. @@ -90,7 +79,6 @@ Of course, there is still the problem of debugging immutable structures in the c that for now. Here we are, back to Immutable JS. ## 2017.05.25-27 Web socket integration tests - Jackstomp -[@joffrey-bion][1] — :key: *Backend, Tests* Unit tests are great, but only check individual components. To build a more robust test suite, we needed to add tests that validate: @@ -107,7 +95,6 @@ Since the configuration of such a client was not as smooth as I expected, I crea running with sensible defaults. ## 2017.05.13 Migration to seamless-immutable -[@joffrey-bion][1] — :key: *Frontend, Immutable* Using Immutable JS has proved to be a pain, especially because the cumbersome API is not contained in the reducers but leaks out in the React components. As far as accessing the data is concerned, I dislike not being able to do it the @@ -126,7 +113,6 @@ Seamless Immutable required using [redux-seamless-immutable](https://github.com/ seamless-immutable-compatible `combineReducers()` and `routerReducer()` functions. ## 2017.04.06 Live API documentation -[@joffrey-bion][1] — :key: *Backend, API, Documentation* As frontend development was starting, we felt the need for a better API doc than a plain shared Google Sheet. The best doc is an up-to-date doc that stays so. The easiest way I found to keep it up-to-date is to generate it. @@ -144,23 +130,22 @@ That being said, Fabio Mafioletti does not seem to have a lot of time available this support, so I might have to release from my own fork of the project, or create a new project based on JsonDoc. ## 2017.01.20 Frontend architecture refactoring -[@victorchabbert][2] — :key: Frontend, Redux* -I based the frontend architecture on [mxstbr](https://twitter.com/mxstbr)'s +[@victorchabbert][2] based the frontend architecture on [mxstbr](https://twitter.com/mxstbr)'s [react-boilerplate](https://github.com/mxstbr/react-boilerplate) (thanks Max!). The recommended structure for his boilerplate is to group files by features. As such, in a feature folder, you would find reducers, actions types and creators, selectors, sagas as well as containers. -At first, this choice seemed suitable for our project but with time, I found out that it was causing us headaches -because of the amount of shared data and logic we have between containers and pages. This is when I remembered +At first, this choice seemed suitable for our project but with time, we found out that it was causing us headaches +because of the amount of shared data and logic we have between containers and pages. This is when Victor remembered [Matteo's](https://twitter.com/mazzarolomatteo) blog post on -[a maintainable project structure](https://hackernoon.com/my-journey-toward-a-maintainable-project-structure-for-react-redux-b05dfd999b5#.o9pn60cv9) from last october. I highly recommend reading. +[a maintainable project structure](https://hackernoon.com/my-journey-toward-a-maintainable-project-structure-for-react-redux-b05dfd999b5#.o9pn60cv9) +from last october. He highly recommends reading it. -I refactored our code to use the `Ducks` principle (the word comes from re*DUX*) and I can already see the ease to -import all redux specific files. I will update this section with more info after using it more extensively. +He refactored our code to use the `Ducks` principle (the word comes from re*DUX*) and can already see the ease to +import all redux specific files. ## 2017.01.20 Unified build Spring Boot + React -[@joffrey-bion][1] — :key: *Build, CI, Deployment* Some nice plugins allowed for bundling, minification etc. directly from Gradle, but I wanted to make use of the local `package.json` scripts to be consistent with the frontend development workflow. @@ -192,12 +177,11 @@ to add a Procfile to manually specify the `backend` subproject in the process co web: java -Dserver.port=$PORT $JAVA_OPTS -jar backend/build/libs/*.jar ## 2016.12.08 React frontend -[@joffrey-bion][1] — :key: *Frontend* We decided to put the react stuff into `src/main/js` as it matches maven/gradle project structure conventions. As `src/main/java` contains the Java sources, why not put the JavaScript sources in `src/main/js`? -The technical choices were mostly guided by [@victorchabbert][1], as I had little experience with React, and the +The technical choices were mostly guided by [@victorchabbert][2], as I had little experience with React, and the frontend stuff in general. Technical decisions: @@ -214,7 +198,6 @@ So far, no special build including the produced static inside the webapp's Jar. independently and both the frontend dev server and the spring boot server can run locally and communicate. ## 2016.12.04 Spring Boot backend -[@joffrey-bion][1] — :key: *Backend* Technical decisions: |