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diff --git a/doc/development/fe_guide/index.md b/doc/development/fe_guide/index.md index 3d05d395ef1..8675866fce6 100644 --- a/doc/development/fe_guide/index.md +++ b/doc/development/fe_guide/index.md @@ -19,13 +19,68 @@ Be wary of [the limitations that come with using Hamlit](https://github.com/k0ku <!-- vale gitlab.Spelling = YES --> +When it comes to CSS, we use a utils-based CSS approach. GitLab has its own CSS utils which are packaged inside the `gitlab-ui` project and can be seen [in the repository](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ui/-/tree/main/src/scss/utility-mixins) or on [UNPKG](https://unpkg.com/browse/@gitlab/ui@latest/src/scss/utility-mixins/). Please favor using these before adding or using any SCSS classes. + We also use [SCSS](https://sass-lang.com) and plain JavaScript with modern ECMAScript standards supported through [Babel](https://babeljs.io/) and ES module support through [webpack](https://webpack.js.org/). +When making API calls, we use [GraphQL](graphql.md) as [the first choice](../../api/graphql/index.md#vision). There are still instances where GitLab REST API is used such as when creating new simple HAML pages or in legacy part of the codebase, but we should always default to GraphQL when possible. + Working with our frontend assets requires Node (v12.22.1 or greater) and Yarn (v1.10.0 or greater). You can find information on how to install these on our [installation guide](../../install/installation.md#5-node). +## Vision + +As Frontend engineers, we strive to give users **delightful experiences**. We should always think of how this applies at GitLab specifically: a great GitLab experience means helping our userbase ship **their own projects faster and with more confidence** when shipping their own software. This means that whenever confronted with a choice for the future of our department, we should remember to try to put this first. + +### Values + +We define three core values, Stability, Speed and Maintainability (SSM) + +#### Stability + +Although velocity is extremely important, we believe that GitLab is now an enterprise-grade platform that requires even the smallest MVC to be **stable, tested and with a good architecture**. We should not merge code, even as an MVC, that could introduce degradation, poor performance, confusion or generally lower our users expectations. + +This is an extension of the core value that want our users to have confidence in their own software and to do so, they need to have **confidence in GitLab first**. This means that our own confidence in our software should be at the absolute maximum. + +#### Speed + +Users should be able to navigate through the GitLab application with ease. This implies fast load times, easy to find pages, clear UX and an overall sense that they can accomplish their goal without friction. + +Additionally, we want our speed to be felt and appreciated by our developers. This means that we should put a lot of effort and thoughts into processes, tools and documentation that help us achieve success faster across our department. This benefits us as engineers, but also our users that end up receiving quality features at a faster rate. + +#### Maintainability + +GitLab is now a large, enterprise-grade software and it often requires complex code to give the best possible experience. Although complexity is a necessity, we must remain vigilent to not let it grow more than it should. To minimize this, we want to focus on making our codebase maintainable by **encapsulating complexity**. This is done by: + +- Building tools that solve commonly-faced problems and making them easily discoverable. +- Writing better documentation on how we solve our problems. +- Writing loosly coupled components that can be easily added or removed from our codebase. +- Remove older technologies or pattern that we deem are no longer acceptable. + +By focusing on these aspects, we aim to allow engineers to contain complexity in well defined boundaries and quickly share them with their peers. + +### Goals + +Now that our values have been defined, we can base our goals on these values and determine what we would like to achieve at GitLab with this in mind. + +- Lowest possible FID, LCP and cross-page navigation times +- Minimal page reloads when interacting with the UI +- Have as little Vue applications per page as possible +- Leverage Ruby ViewComponents for simple pages and avoid Vue overhead when possible +- Migrate existing VueX stores to Apollo, but more urgently **stop using both together** +- Remove jQuery from our codebase +- Add a visual testing framework +- Reduce CSS bundle size to a minimum +- Reduce cognitive overhead and improve maintainability of our CSS +- Improve our pipelines speed +- Build a better set of shared components with documentation + +### Frontend onboarding course + +The [Frontend onboarding course](onboarding_course/index.md) provides a 6-week structured curriculum to learn how to contribute to the GitLab frontend. + ### Browser Support For supported browsers, see our [requirements](../../install/requirements.md#supported-web-browsers). @@ -108,8 +163,8 @@ How we implement [keyboard shortcuts](keyboard_shortcuts.md) that can be customi ## Editors -GitLab text editing experiences are provided by the [Source Editor](source_editor.md) and -the [Content Editor](content_editor.md). +GitLab text editing experiences are provided by the [source editor](source_editor.md) and +the [rich text editor](content_editor.md). ## Frontend FAQ |