Serverless frontend patterns with Architect Views

Kristofer Joseph’s avatar

by Kristofer Joseph
@dam
on

Sun breaking through the clouds Photo by Val Vesa

Architect projects can now use the src/views directory, which automatically shares code to all — or just some — of your project’s @http GET functions.

This might seem like a small change, but it opens the door for a multitude of common frontend patterns, such as sharing view components for the server side render of PWAs.

Try it out

Create a new Architect project:

mkdir arc-views
cd arc-views
npm init --yes
npm i @architect/architect

Create this app.arc file in the root of your project:

@app
arc-views
@http
get /

Generate your demo app locally:

npx create --local
mkdir src/views
mkdir src/shared

Here’s what your Architect project will look like:

arc-views
├── public/
├── src
│   ├── http
│   │   └── get-index/
│   ├── shared/
│   └── views/
└── .arc

Now let’s add a view. Create src/views/layout.js:

module.exports = function Layout (props) {
  props = props || {}
  let heading = props.heading || 'Architect views!'
  return `
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
 <meta charset="UTF-8">
 <title>Architect example</title>
</head>
<body>
 <h1>${heading}</h1>
</body>
</html>
`
}

Your new layout.js will be copied to src/http/get-index/node_modules/@architect/views/layout.js

Here’s how to require it in your Lambda: let Layout = require('@architect/views/layout')

Update src/http/get-index/index.js to use your new layout:

let Layout = require('@architect/views/layout')
exports.handler = async function http (request) {
  return {
    type: 'text/html; charset=utf8',
    body: Layout()
  }
}

Bonus points if you added your own heading to the layout with: body: Layout({heading: 'MY AWESOME HEADING!'})

Now start your local Architect sandbox server:

npx sandbox

Follow the terminal output and navigate to http://localhost:3333 to view your work.

That’s it! A few commands, two files, and you’re up and running with Architect Views.

The @views pragma

By default, src/views gets copied to the node_modules directory of every @http GET function, because those are the functions most likely to return HTML.

But what if you don’t want to share views to all HTTP get routes?

That’s what the @views pragma in your .arc file is for.

Update your .arc file to this:

@app
arc-views
@http
get /
get /about
get /css/:stylesheet
@views
get /
get /about

Run create to generate the new Lambda function stubs:

npx create --local
mkdir src/views

Now when you run your sandbox server your views will only be copied to node_modules/@architect/views in your get-index and get-about functions, leaving your get-css-000stylesheet function as is.

In conclusion

Architect views helps you share view specific code between Lambda functions. We can’t wait to see what you build!

View the complete example project on GitHub

– @dam 💕