samrose

samrose

Custom restructuring Phoenix Framework tradeoffs question

Looking for opinions.

I am in discussion with someone who would like to restructure phoenix project file structure so that model, view, controller, and tests will be all in one folder per named “feature” (let’s say “blog”)

I am looking for feedback on what the tradeoffs would be for doing this.

The argument for it is that “everything you need to find for the feature would be in one folder. This should be easier for everyone to find and use these files”. But are there fundamental reasons not to restructure a phoenix project in this way? I know it would lose compatibility with with code generators. However, would this also push people off track in their reasoning about he code? What are the impacts if any, for doing this?

Thanks!

Marked As Solved

Also Liked

benwilson512

benwilson512

Author of Craft GraphQL APIs in Elixir with Absinthe

Controller / view code isn’t really this way though. I definitely agree with you that "model" code definitely doesn’t belong to a specific controller. However for controller / view stuff there’s a decent argument for favoring a “pod” structure.

While not exactly the same, LiveView definitely takes more of a “page” oriented structure since with a given live view + leex / heex template you generally have a bunch of functionality all right next to each other.

stefanchrobot

stefanchrobot

I use that approach in my app and I’m pretty happy with it! I don’t use generators though. I even have two separate “myapp_web.ex” files - one for the SSR app and one for the API:

- lib
  - foo
    - ...
  - foo_web
    - app
      - session
        - new.html.heex
        - session_controller.ex (use FooWeb.App, :controller)
        - session_view.ex
      - ...
    - mobile_api
      - message
        - message_controller.ex (use FooWeb.MobileApi, :controller)
        - message_view.ex
      - ...
    - app.ex
    - mobile_api.ex
BartOtten

BartOtten

In practice, it’s never about the extremes though. As there is a ‘data’ App and a separate ‘web’ AppWeb both styles can be used together.

If we look at how the phx generator creates the data app, we see vertical slicing as far as I can remember. Except for migrations which are all in one folder*. It’s the web app that (historically) uses horizontal slicing and although it can be beneficial, I rather use vertical slicing there too.

LiveView seems to move towards vertical slicing, with the template files next to the rest of the code for a page/view.

*Django puts migrations within the ‘feature’. Con: touch two features at once and you have two separated migration files.

Last Post!

stefanchrobot

stefanchrobot

I use that approach in my app and I’m pretty happy with it! I don’t use generators though. I even have two separate “myapp_web.ex” files - one for the SSR app and one for the API:

- lib
  - foo
    - ...
  - foo_web
    - app
      - session
        - new.html.heex
        - session_controller.ex (use FooWeb.App, :controller)
        - session_view.ex
      - ...
    - mobile_api
      - message
        - message_controller.ex (use FooWeb.MobileApi, :controller)
        - message_view.ex
      - ...
    - app.ex
    - mobile_api.ex

Where Next?

Popular in Questions Top

vertexbuffer
Hello, can anybody help here..? I have a list of players and I what to delete an element, but every for loop the list is reverting to ori...
New
Qqwy
Original source of discussion: This topic on the Pragmatic Programmers’ Functional Web Development with Elixir, OTP, and Phoenix forum. ...
New
hariharasudhan94
lets say i have a sample like a = 20; b = 10; if (a > b) do {:ok, "a"} end if (a < b) do {:ok, b} end if (a == b) do {:ok, "equa...
New
jononomo
For some reason my phoenix channels are working for me in my local dev environment, but as soon as I deploy via Docker, I get a 403 error...
New
fireproofsocks
Forgive me if this is obvious, but how does one delete a database record WITHOUT selecting it first? Ecto.Repo — Ecto v3.14.0 has exampl...
New
alice
Hey, Just curious what are the main benefits of Elixir compared to Clojure? When is Elixir more useful than Clojure and vice versa? Th...
New
stefanluptak
Hello everybody, usually, I use a 29" ultra-wide monitor for VSCode which can easily accomodate explorer (files panel) + file with code ...
New

Other popular topics Top

vertexbuffer
Hello, can anybody help here..? I have a list of players and I what to delete an element, but every for loop the list is reverting to ori...
New
grych
Hi folks, Few months ago I have announced the proof-of-concept of the library to manipulate the browsers DOM objects directly from Elixi...
639 54092 488
New
nsuchy
Hi. I’ve noticed that Windows Powershell has it’s own IEX command and you cannot access Elixir’s IEX due to the conflict. This isn’t a cr...
New
sorentwo
Hello! tl;dr Announcing Oban, an Ecto based job processing library with a focus on reliability and historical observability. After spen...
985 44608 311
New
AngeloChecked
What learn first? Rust or Elixir Hi Elixir community! I’m here because i want learn a new language. I’m a junior developer and mainly i ...
New
sergio
Kind of like when jquery came out, it was super necessary. Existing drag and drop libraries have a bunch of baggage to support old browse...
New

We're in Beta

About us Mission Statement