When I was a fresh graduate and just got my first job, I didn’t realize that boilerplate (also known as framework) is a really important thing on my career especially as a freelancer. I don’t really want to call it framework because a framework for me is one step above a boilerplate.
A boilerplate is a code template or structure where you will begin every project using it. For me a back end boilerplate should have models, database connections, routing, and logic at the very minimum.
My first company had their own boilerplate made from scratch using Java. I thought that it was a really cool thing that they designed a complex boilerplate themselves. Back then what I know was that boilerplate were made by companies who dedicated their business to developing it. Having a company that had their own is something I thought was very cool.
Then I got my second job as a senior software engineer the next year using Node.js as the main language as I wrote on my previous article here. I needed to create my own boilerplate as a reference for the company to use in the future. I never built a proper boilerplate before, so I just started copying boilerplates from the Internet. I was on my own back then and don’t really know how the core function of a boilerplate should look like.
Copied a boilerplate from I think an article at scotch.io and voila, I just created (or should I say copied) my first boilerplate. It’s a decent and simple boilerplate and that’s the version 1 boilerplate of my second company. As the company grew and code got more complicated, we decided to update our boilerplate. We added standard way to make validators, routing, logging, and many more to make coding and debugging an easy task for us and everyone is on the same page when developing.
As I’m a freelancer too, I realized that I needed my own boilerplate. I’ve tried using popular frameworks but sometimes it’s just too complicated or uses stacks that I never used before. So I tried creating my own Javascript boilerplate.
#ruby-on-rails #beginners-guide #framework #coding #mvc-basics #development #backend #programming
