Announcing Uniform.

Uniform tries to minimize the work required to maintain a large portfolio of Elixir apps. It does this via centralization and automation.

How it works

Uniform works best when you have a portfolio of apps whose core is very similar. (For example, a suite of Phoenix LiveView apps that all use TailwindCSS.)

Here’s how it works:

1. You build your entire portfolio of apps in a single, “vanilla” Elixir app. (No “umbrella” or “poncho” setup.) You can generate this “Base Project” with mix new, mix phx.new, etc.
2. You use Uniform’s “blueprint” DSL to set up “base files” and mix dependencies that are required for every app.
3. You “eject” each app into its own completely separate codebase using mix uniform.eject. The ejected codebase contains the exact project structure you need, with only the code relevant to that app.
4. You deploy each app using these ejected codebases.
5. (Recommended) You automate updating ejected codebases via CI, (with mix uniform.eject) so that they basically “update themselves”.

The sales pitch

When you embrace the Uniform approach, it can feel a bit like magic.

• Security defect in all 10 of the apps you maintain? Fix it in your Base Project and poof – it’s fixed everywhere.
• Need to quickly prototype a new app? mix uniform.gen.app my_app and you’re off to the races. No need to set up your suite of common tools for the umpteenth time. (Re-running generators, adding configuration, etc.)
• Have a private library in one app that you want to use in another? Modify a couple lines of Uniform configuration and it’s instantly available.
• Want to update some Hex deps across a dozen apps? Update them in your Base Project and they’re updated everywhere.

Uniform tries to lower the amount of effort required for developers to get stuff done. It automates away the manual work needed to keep your codebases “uniform” – in total sync. (But only in the ways you prefer them to be.)

Request for feedback

We know this approach is unconventional to say the least. But we’ve been quietly iterating on it, and it’s working pretty well for us!

We’re very curious what the community at large thinks about this approach.

Links

Click here for the docs and guides.

The code snippets in the Setting up a Phoenix project guide show what it looks like to configure Uniform for a “real” project.

https://github.com/ucbi/uniform