How to Build a WordPress Web Application Using Microservices Architecture

WordPress is a powerful Content Management System (CMS) that lays the foundation for different types of websites and applications. It uses a typical "monolithic architecture", but as a website grows, this may not be the most appropriate architecture. This is where the "microservices architecture" comes in.

What are Microservices

In a monolithic architecture, all components of an application are tightly coupled to each other. It essentially runs as a single service. This is a simple way to develop an application, but as complexity increases, maintenance and scalability can become a challenge.

In contrast, microservices can help break down an application into a series of smaller services. Each service is independent of each other in terms of development, deployment and extension. Each service handles specific tasks and communicates with other services through application programming interfaces (APIs). For example, a typical e-commerce site has a shopping cart, checkout, order processing, product pages, and so on.

What makes microservices stand out from the overall architecture

The advanced "elevator pitch" for microservices is how to combine different technologies and tools to create a whole. There are other, deeper features worth noting:

• decoupled: Each service remains independent. This means you can use the best technology for each job, rather than dealing with inappropriate frameworks.
• self-governance: By scaling, integrated services do not need to depend on each other to achieve high performance operation.
• professionalization: Of course, each service focuses on its own work, which in turn affects performance.
• elastic force: Part of this inherent high-performance asset is that a single service failure does not bring down an entire site.

Beyond these aspects, there are more advantages to using microservices:

• scalability: Personal services can be extended according to individual needs without affecting the rest of the application.
• dexterity: A brief overview has been given of how services use the best technology to get the job done. This even extends to the programming languages used to create them.
• Faster development: Develop small, centralized services faster, understand their functionality better, and maintain systems more easily.
• Improved fault isolation: The "Modular" setting allows you to isolate a service in case of failure without affecting other services.

On the other hand, microservices may introduce complexity in communication, data consistency and managing distributed systems. Therefore, the requirements of the application must be carefully weighed.

Components of Microservices Architecture

A microservices architecture can be composed of multiple components. It's like "cogs" working together throughout the "wheel" to provide scalable and maintainable applications.

As such, there are a number of components that are critical to a smooth implementation:

• API Gateway:This is the entry point for any client requests. It transfers these requests to the appropriate microservice. It also handles tasks such as rate limiting and authentication.
• Service Discovery:There is a need for a dynamic way for microservices to discover and communicate with each other. tools such as Consul or Eureka can help in this regard.
• Containerization: Use theDockerIt is common for tools such as these to package microservices and deploy them as containers. This is a way to provide isolation for each service.
• Orchestration:When adding microservices to an application, managing them becomes more complex.KubernetesTools such as these can help automate service management.
• Cache:Redisor caching mechanisms such as Memcached usually improve performance. This is critical given the greater strain on back-end services and databases.
• Messaging:And, of course, services need to communicate with each other. This isRabbitMQmaybeApache KafkaThese "message brokers" enable loose coupling between microservices. These "message brokers" enable loose coupling between microservices.

However, tools are only one aspect of the setup. There are other considerations, such as how to design each microservice in the complete architecture.

Design Patterns for Microservices

Design Patterns for MicroservicesHere withDevelopment Workflowis just as important as anywhere else in the program. Given the potential complexity of the application, it is important to consider which patterns will have the greatest impact. There are three main ones:

• per service database:Each microservice uses its own dedicated database, which helps with data isolation and autonomy.
• API combinations:Microservices can be combined to create higher-level services or APIs. this flexibility and reusability is the biggest benefit.
• Event Driven Architecture:Here, services will communicate via events. This facilitates looser coupling and asynchronous processing.

Microservices and the WordPress REST API

The WordPress REST API plays a crucial role in enabling integration between sites and microservices. It'sstarting point or ending point (in stories etc)Allows you to retrieve and manipulate WordPress posts, pages, users using JSON output,taxonomyetc.

[
  {
    "id": 1,
    "date": "2020-04-01T10:30:00",
    "date_gmt": "2020-04-01T14:30:00",
    "guid": {
      "rendered": "https://example.com/?p=1"
    },
    "modified": "2020-04-01T10:30:00",
    "modified_gmt": "2020-04-01T14:30:00",
    "slug": "hello-world", "status".
    
    
    
    "title": {
      "rendered": "Hello World"
    }, ...
    ...

As such, the REST API is the hub for all other services in the architecture. This means that one must choose which current web services to extract as microservices. We'll discuss this in more detail in a later post.

The key is to identify the different functions and responsibilities in a web application. Based on this, they can be split into separate, centralized and deployable microservices.

Building Web Applications with Create Block Themes and Microservices

Learn about the process of building a web application using microservices and the Create Block Theme plugin. The first step is to set up the development environment.

1. Build the development environment

Every application starts with a space used to create it. Therefore, a development environment is needed. The development space has two locations: the local computer and the server. Setting up theof the local development environmentThere are many ways to do this.

2. Setup creation block theme plugin

After setting up the development environment, you can start using the Create Block Theme plugin to create custom block-based themes. The following is also required:

• A working WordPress website.
• Coding Editor.
• Create block theme plugin.

The plugin can be installed in typical WordPress fashion. From there, head over to the WordPress"Appearance" > "Create Block Theme"Link:

ferret out"Appearance."tab, you can find the"Managing Theme Fonts"option. Creating a block topic also gives you access to this option, which is theWordPress 6.5 Font LibraryFunction.

These will become the subject identification fields in your documentstyle.css. They are also very simple and include a provision forWordPress Theme CatalogSelect a name, screenshot, URL and some tags.

After clicking on Confirm, go again to"Appearance" > "Theme"screen, you'll see that your new theme is ready to go:

Setting up and using tips for creating block themes

As it is beyond the scope of this post, we will not customize the new block theme too much. However, here are some tips for using the Create Block theme:

• Changes can be made in two places. You can use the "Global Styles" option in the "Site-wide Editor", or you can customize thetheme.jsonDocumentation.
• Creating a block theme allows you to generate a child theme based on the current active theme.

3. Extraction of selected microservices

Once the block theme is ready, it's time to examine the microservices more closely. A key decision that needs to be made is which services will become "microservices".

Just decide based on your needs. However, there are a few factors to keep in mind:

• Website features:Look at any unique features the site offers and consider splitting them into separate microservices, such as payment functions.
• Independent scalability:Existing services that depend on independent scaling would be good candidates for microservices. Caching is an example.
• Technological diversity:This is another candidate for microservices if one needs to move away from the PHP architecture of WordPress. This is pretty much the case for specific e-commerce platforms or backend components.
• Data isolation:Services with customized data storage requirements can be microservices. This is also the case if these services do not need to share data with other services.

Developing and deploying microservices

To handle and eventually deploy microservices, you need to rely on other tools. Here are some of the key considerations and tools that can be used:

• Docker is usually the way to containerize microservices. It packages microservices and their dependencies together, making them easy to deploy and scale.
• Each microservice also requires a Dockerfile. it should specify the necessary dependencies, configurations, and runtime environments needed.
• Container orchestration and management using Kubernetes.
• Continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) pipelines can be a way to automate builds, tests, and deployments. tools such as GitLab and Travis CI can help streamline the CI/CD process.
• Serverless functions don't require full-fledged servers, so they're a great fit for microservices. platforms such as AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, or Azure Functions don't require on-premises or managed servers to run code.
• The API gateway provides a single point of entry for microservices.KongmaybeAmazon API GatewayIn addition, they can handle tasks such as authentication, rate limiting, and request routing.

At this point, have a WordPress website and microservice that are separate from each other. The final step is to integrate them.

4. Integrating Microservices with WordPress

After developing and deploying microservices, you need to integrate them with WordPress. To do this, API calls need to be made from the endpoints that WordPress exposes to the microservices. A thorough understanding of the REST API is required.

In WordPress, theTypical methodsam usingwp_remote_get()maybewp_remote_post()This allows you to send HTTP requests and process responses. This allows you to send HTTP requests and process responses. Here's some sample code that shows how they fit together:

// API endpoint URL

$api_url = 'https://api.example.com/endpoint';

// API request parameters

$params = array(
    
    
);


// Make the API request using wp_remote_get
$response = wp_remote_get(add_query_arg($params, $api_url));

// Check if the request was successful
if (is_wp_error($response)) {
    // Handle the error
    $error_message = $response->get_error_message();

    // Log or display the error message
} else {
    // Process the API response
    $response_body = wp_remote_retrieve_body($response); // Log or display the error message.

    $data = json_decode($response_body, true);

    // Use the retrieved data as needed

    // ...
}

Microservices often benefit from asynchronous data fetching to avoid blocking the main thread. WordPress can combine two elements to do this. You can use theAPI Fetch Packageasyncas well asdeferIntroduced in WordPress 6.3Support.

import apiFetch from '@wordpress/api-fetch';

// Microservice API endpoint URL
const microserviceUrl = 'https://api.example.com/microservice';
...


// Make the API request to the microservice
apiFetch({
  path: microserviceUrl, method: 'GET', apiFetch({
  method: 'GET', data: params, {
  data: params, })
})

  .then((response) => {
    // Process the response
    console.log(response);

    // Use the retrieved data from the microservice

    // ...
  })
...

Also consider using AJAX to perform dynamic user interface (UI) updates.Proper authenticationand security measures are also critical. The WordPress REST API includes several ways to authenticate a session, such as using cookies, JSON Web Tokens (JWT), orApplication Password. Given the reliance on external solutions, it is critical to keep microservices and sites secure.

Given that we are using a custom Block theme, the process consists of three parts:Register for Block,Rendering contentand processing data.JavaScriptwill be the language of your choice, theregisterBlockTypefunction will handle theRegistration and Rendering::

// JavaScript function that builds the Block to enable access within the Block Editor.
( function( blocks, element ) {
    var el = element.createElement;

    blocks.registerBlockType( 'my-micro/stripe-api', {
        title: 'Stripe Payment Gateway', icon: 'dashicons-capi', {
        
        

        edit: function() {
            return el(
                'div', {}, return el(
                {}, '' // Create the visual elements of the microservice to display within the Block Editor.
                '' // Create the visual elements of the microservice to display within the Block Editor.
            ); }, {}
        ); }, ...
...

summarize

WordPress is monolithic, but that doesn't stop it from adopting microservices. There are many benefits to doing so, such as increased scalability, flexibility, and speed of development. Creating block theme plugins allows you to create a clean, secure code base for the rest of the project. Microservices can introduce complexity to a website. Using a custom block theme means that these services can be implemented as needed in the best way possible.