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Data Entities and DTOs

Cleaner React Architecture with Domain Entities & DTOs

Problems​

  • React applications can become messy and hard to maintain as they grow in size and complexity
  • Mixing business logic with UI concerns leads to tight coupling and low cohesion
  • Directly using backend data structures (DTOs) in the frontend can cause issues

Key Insights​

  • Separating concerns and responsibilities is crucial for a clean, maintainable React architecture
  • Introducing a domain layer with entities that encapsulate business logic helps achieve a clean separation
  • DTOs (data transfer objects) should be mapped to domain entities to decouple the frontend from backend data structures

Best Practices​

  • Create a dedicated domain layer with entities that contain business logic and represent the core concepts of the application
  • Use mapper functions to convert between DTOs and domain entities at the application boundary (when receiving data from or sending data to the backend)
  • Keep the UI components focused on presentation and delegate business logic to the domain entities
  • Consider using libraries like io-ts or zod for runtime type checking and validation of incoming data
  • Strive for high cohesion within each layer and loose coupling between layers

By following these practices and introducing a domain layer with entities, React applications can achieve a cleaner architecture that is easier to understand, maintain, and evolve over time.[1]