Innovating in eCommerce means investigating new technologies and testing new ways to use them. With Broadleaf Microservices, we did this by moving our administrative console from a server-side application to a client-side application. The driving technology behind that change is the JavaScript library, React.


So, what are the main benefits we saw with React in choosing it as the tech behind our next-gen Microservices Admin? Here are three:


Reason #1: Composability


React is based around building isolated components and then composing them into a single application. Extending and enhancing Broadleaf’s admin console is now even easier! You can leverage any existing components, or develop your own from scratch. This allows you to avoid duplicating effort to produce similar visuals, and easily reuse code in new contexts.


Reason #2: Dynamic Interfaces


Building dynamic interfaces are simple and streamlined with React. Rendering everything within the client removes the confinement of needing the server to render something new. Routing Admin console users around the application is fast and efficient, eliminating the need to rely on the service defining where things are.


Reason #3: Decoupling view and data layers


Decoupling the view layer from the data layer provides the ability to isolate building services from building the Microservices Admin. This has improved our effectiveness and ability to divide-and-conquer problems as a team. The React Microservices Admin can have a separate release cycle than the rest of the services, making it easier to change the front-end code without having to restart the other resource services.



Switching to React required a shift in our development patterns, which has facilitated faster development and keeps up at the front of industry technology. We hope you’ll love the technology shift as much as we do!