Boilerplate Code – Quick Start Your MVP
Developers often find themselves writing pieces of code again and again when starting new projects.
That’s where boilerplate comes into play. With boilerplate code, developers can save time by utilizing a pre-built project that has be configured with all the best standards.
In this article, we’ll learn about boilerplate code and its pros and cons.
Understanding Boilerplate Code
A boilerplate code is a starter template developers use with minor or no changes. It’s meant to be used as a starting point to lay down the foundations for a project. This aims to help coders save time by avoiding writing repetitive code from scratch.
We have developed boiler-plate sample applications for HTML, React, PHP, Node.js, Go, Python. This projects are open-source and have user authentication built-in from the beginning. Using these can quick start your MVP and have your application up and running in minutes.
React: https://github.com/vaultvision/react-boilerplate-vv
HTML: https://github.com/vaultvision/html-boilerplate
PHP: https://github.com/vaultvision/php-auth-example
Node.js: https://github.com/vaultvision/node-auth-example
Go: https://github.com/vaultvision/go-auth-example
Python: https://github.com/vaultvision/python-auth-example
Main takeaways:
- Boilerplate code is like a template that provides a basic structure
- It can be changed to fit the requirements of the given project
- Saves time and effort
Pros of Boilerplate Code
Time Efficiency
Boilerplate code helps developers save time by copying and pasting pre-existing code blocks and templates. On the internet, there’s a template for all programming languages, libraries, and development environments.
For instance, a developer wants to create a React app. By pasting its boilerplate, they can accelerate the development process, explicitly dropping the need to enter the constant code blocks.
Easily Available
Do you want to set up a Python environment for creating a desktop or React Native app? Boilerplates are available for most programming languages, frameworks, and libraries on the internet. You can easily source them to avoid the need to write all the essential minute details from scratch.
Standardization
Boilerplate enforces developers to follow a strict, standardized structure. This ensures consistency across code making it easy for different coders to work on the project with minimal fuss.
Moreover, developers get to write code that’s easy to read, maintain and debug. Eventually, this leads to improved code quality, better collaboration, and minimize conflicts.
Framework and Library Support
Most boilerplate code templates come with popular frameworks and libraries. These offer pre-defined solutions to problems a developer may encounter. Moreover, they provide a range of functions and features that are, by default, absent.
Rich functionalities available via framework and library found in boilerplate can include:
- Third-party API integrations
- UI components
- Testing tools
- Performance optimizers
Cons of Boilerplate Code
Version Issues
Boilerplate code relies on specific versions of frameworks and libraries. These versions are chosen at the time of its creation.
Over time, new iterations are rolled out, and issues are inevitable if the version on the local environment doesn’t match the one applied to the boilerplate. Upgrading/downgrading dependencies to match the boilerplate code can trigger unexpected events.
Using Vault Vision’s Boilerplate to Integrate Passwordless User Logins
Vault Vision is a fast, secure, easy, no-code user authentication platform. You can use our concise boilerplates for React, Node, Python, Go, HTML, and more to integrate advanced login solutions into your app/site.
Unlike other boilerplates, our templates are simple and straightforward. They only fetch what’s necessary to set up authentication features like Passkeys, OIDC Auth, MFA, Hardware Key Auth, SSO, TOTP, etc.
Conclusion
Boilerplate code provides advantages like:
- Time efficiency
- Standardization
- Framework & library support
- Easy availability
To get the most out of boilerplates, ensure they are relevant to your project and don’t contain too many dependencies.
Lastly, register for our free trial at Vault Vision to add advanced passwordless authentication methods to your websites and apps.
Sources:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/boilerplate.asp#toc-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-boilerplate
https://imperiumdynamics.com/blog/what-is-a-boilerplate-code
https://boringowl.io/en/blog/simplifying-development-with-boilerplate-code https://codevocab.com/post/boilerplate-code/
