4 Open-Source Technologies Every True Full-Stack Developer Should Master
Tags: webdev, productivity, react, softwaredevelopment
Published: 2023-09-11 15:48:48

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Full-stack development is a constantly evolving, dynamic field with new tools and technologies. Developers often find themselves in pursuit of the best resources to streamline their workflow and build exceptional applications. From the frontend user interface to the backend server logic and all the data management in between, the task can seem daunting, and using the right set of tools makes all the difference. There are multiple frameworks and tools with different capabilities for every part of full-stack applications, and choosing the proper set helps simplify and streamline the development process.

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In this article, we'll explore a powerful set of open-source frameworks and tools that can be a go-to option for a number of applications when building fully functional, full-stack projects.

The 4 technologies that we will discuss in this article are:

1. React.js for Frontend Development
2. Golang for Backend Development
3. PostgreSQL for the Database layer
4. Rig.dev for DevOps/Deployment

DevOps/Deployment has been added to expand the role of a full-stack developer within the entire development lifecycle.

## Frontend with Reactjs

React.js, developed and maintained by Meta (formerly Facebook), is an open-source JavaScript library for building user interfaces. React's component-based architecture sets it apart, which allows developers to break down user interfaces into reusable and encapsulated components. This approach fosters modular development and efficient rendering.

One of the great things about Reactjs is its popularity and community support. One will find a wealth of resources, tutorials, and third-party libraries to enhance your React projects, and it's also one of the most versatile front-end frameworks.

**Use Cases and Examples**

- Single-Page Applications (SPAs): React's component-based architecture is perfect for building SPAs, where dynamic content updates are essential.
- Progressive Web Apps (PWAs): React can create PWAs that provide a native app-like experience in the browser.
- Interactive User Interfaces: React simplifies the development of complex UIs with interactive elements, such as forms, dashboards, and real-time data displays.

**Benefits of React.js:**

- Component-Based Architecture: React's component-based approach encourages code reusability and maintainability by breaking user interfaces into reusable building blocks.
- Virtual DOM: React's virtual DOM minimizes browser updates, resulting in faster performance and a smoother user experience.
- One-Way Data Flow: React's unidirectional data flow simplifies data management and enhances application predictability and testability.

## Backend with Golang

Go, often referred to as Golang is an open-source, statically typed programming language created by Google. While not a traditional backend framework, Go is known for its efficiency, simplicity, and robust standard library, making it an excellent choice for building server-side applications.

**Primary Functionalities**

- Concurrency: Go's built-in concurrency primitives, like goroutines and channels, make writing highly concurrent and efficient backend code easy.
- Networking: Go provides robust networking support, making it suitable for building network-related applications, including network protocols, servers, and clients.
- Web Frameworks: Go has web frameworks like Gin and Echo that simplify building robust web services with routing, middleware support, and more.

**Benefits of Golang:**

- Simplicity and Readability: Go's clean and minimalistic syntax promotes code readability and reduces unnecessary complexity. It encourages good coding practices and makes code easier to understand and maintain.
- Concurrency Support: Go provides built-in support for concurrency with goroutines and channels, making it efficient for concurrent and parallel programming.
- Strongly Typed and Statically Checked: It is statically typed, which means variable types are checked simultaneously, ensuring code reliability and reducing runtime errors.
- Cross-Platform Compatibility: Go is highly portable and compiles machine code, allowing developers to create cross-platform applications for various operating systems.

## Database layer with PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL, often called Postgres, is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) known for its reliability and extensibility. It supports various data types, including JSON, and offers advanced features such as indexing, replication, and partitioning.

It is an ancient database management system and can be integrated with programming languages like Java, C, C++, etc. This feature allows developers to have customized functions.

**Features of PostgreSQL:**

- ACID Compliance: PostgreSQL is fully ACID-compliant, ensuring data integrity and reliability, even in complex transactional scenarios.
- Advanced Indexing: PostgreSQL provides various indexing methods, including B-tree, hash, and GiST (Generalized Search Tree), allowing developers to optimize queries for multiple data types.
- Concurrency Control: PostgreSQL can handle concurrent access because of its Multi-Version Concurrency Control (MVCC) system. This means that multiple users can access and modify data without conflicts.

**Benefits of using PostgreSQL:**

- Rich features and extensions: Robust features of PostgreSQL, like Multi-Version Concurrency Control (MVCC), recovery, granular access controls, tablespaces, asynchronous replication, nested transactions, and a refined query planner/optimizer make it stand out from other databases.
- Reliability and standards compliance: The large base of open source contributors lends it a built-in community support network. It's highly fault-tolerant, and since it's an ancient db, troubleshooting is also easy.
- Easy to use: You only need a little training before getting your hands dirty on PostgreSQL. It's pretty easy to learn.

## DevOps/Deployment on Kubernetes with Rig.dev

Kubernetes has become the de facto standard for how modern companies scale their applications. Developers interact with Kubernetes in one of two ways: either they are exposed to Kubernetes themselves either natively through something like Helm and Terraform, or they are working with an abstraction layer that takes control of the entire cluster, leaving no room to go out of the box without fragile external dependencies.

While the former gives flexibility for complex solutions, it enforces a high learning curve with no abstractions. The latter, on the other hand, removes the flexibility that is often needed when scaling or building complex solutions.

This is where Rig.dev comes into the picture!

Rig.dev is an open-source application platform for Kubernetes, designed to eliminate its inherent complexities. It seeks to empower developers with a developer-friendly deployment engine that simplifies rolling out, managing, debugging, and scaling applications on Kubernetes. With features like Capsules and Rollouts, a slick Dashboard, and a CLI for terminal operations, Rig.dev aims to provide developers with powerful and intuitive tools.

Rig.dev is not just another platform; it's the vision for the future of application development. It promises an application platform that evolves with your needs, all while ensuring the freedom to choose and transition between any cloud provider that supports Kubernetes.

**Features of Rig.dev:**

- Capsules: Rig.dev comes with a deployment engine that wraps resources in what we call *Capsules*. A Capsule contains a bundle of resources that will be deployed as a unit.
- Rollouts: Deployments of a build to a specific environment and network configuration. Rollouts are immutable and are used to manage the lifecycle of the application.
- Dashboard and CLI compatible: Rig.dev provides a Dashboard that easily lets developers work with Application resources and the CLI where all operations are available.

**Benefits of Rig.dev:**

- Capsules and Rollouts are modern takes on developer-friendly abstractions.
- Deploy well-configured applications in Kubernetes without the complexity.
- CI/CD pipelines that seamlessly integrate with GitHub Actions.
- Having both Dashboard and CLI increases the development experience.

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