This discussion seems exactly what we have a Frontend Standards group for: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Front-end_standards_group https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/profile/1616/
DJ On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 2:57 PM, Jan Dittrich <jan.dittr...@wikimedia.de> wrote: > Hello Wikitext-l, > > ----------------------------------- > TL;DR: The Wikidata team is considering to use a MVVM/Single-State solution > for Wikidata’s UI. What are requirements and concerns would be important to > consider? > ----------------------------------- > > Wikidata’s current UI is built on jQuery UI. Since jQueryUI shall be faded > out, we are looking at possible future frameworks or paradigms to build our > UI on. Our needs are: > > - Having a sustainable foundation > - Being able to handle complex state dependencies (simplest are like: "if > element x is in edit mode, set element y to saving mode") > - A solution that is easy to learn for beginners and easy to read and > reason about for our engineers. > > > State management and data/event propagation goes beyond of what OOUI can > provide, as far as I (Jan) know. So an obvious candidate was looking into > MVVM solutions of which the most well known is the React library. > > We had a deeper look at Vue.js which is known for having a large community, > too, but being easier to understand and not using an additional patent > clause in its licensing. > > > We see the following possible advantages: > > - Better modularization > - understandability of our code, in particular reasoning about event- and > data-flow > - better separation of concerns and testability for: > -- HTML templates > -- Component interactivity > -- Data manipulation > -- connection to backend-API > > > - If we use a well documented framework, learning to contribute is much > easier compared to software for which there is only auto-generated > code-level-docs > > > Here are some answers to obvious questions: > > 1) Does using a MVVM mean we need to write mixed JS/CSS/HTML in a new > syntax? (aka JSX)? -> No, it is possible, but for most frameworks (Vue, > too) normal HTML templates are used > > 2) Does that mean that people coming from Object oriented languages will > need to learn a whole new paradigm – reactive, pure-functional programming? > -> While there are some elements of functional programming used in > react-like-frameworks, I would (subjectively) say that few additional, > totally new knowledge is needed and most can be covered by "take > parameters, work with them, return values; don't manipulate non-local > values" > > 3) How does DOM access work? Does this mean no jQuery? > > > -> DOM can be still be directly accessed. Libraries like jQuery can still > be reused (even if they might not be necessary in many points any more). > However, to change data or dom persistently, you need to tell the library > (which is not unusual, afaic) > > > There are also some other concerns: > > - Should we introduce a new dependency like a framework as Vue? > - What would be the process of introducing such a dependency (if we agree > on one)? > - Can we agree on this (or another?) paradigm for managing complex UIs, so > that it is not a Wikidata-only solution, but could be used by other > Wikimedia projects in the future, too? > - How will this work with OOUIjs? OOUI seems to be mainly responsible for > creating DOM elements and this actions are usually owned by the MVVM > framework. One can use hooks to use libraries like OOUI and such, but it > feels like having the same functionality twice. A possible solution would > be using OOUI styles and markup but leaving DOM creation to the framework. > > > Do you think using Vue (or a similar framework) is an option for us? What > are requirements and concerns which would be important? > > > Kind Regards, > Jan > > -- > Jan Dittrich > UX Design/ User Research > > Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin > Phone: +49 (0)30 219 158 26-0 > http://wikimedia.de > > Imagine a world, in which every single human being can freely share in the > sum of all knowledge. That‘s our commitment. > > Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. > Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter > der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für > Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207. > _______________________________________________ > Wikitech-l mailing list > Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
