4 ms·

Choosing Elixir's Phoenix to Power a Real-Time Web UI

104 points by JONBRWN 8y ago

JONBRWN 8y ago
Hi, I'm the author of this post. Would be happy to answer any questions if folks have some.
- fredliu 8y ago
  Very interesting post. Could you elaborate more (maybe another blog?) on the DevOps perspectives on how to manage a prod Elixir/BEAM stack (CI/CD, scaling, dev vs test vs prod environment management)?
  - spooneybarger 8y ago
    If you have a decent engineering + ops background (which your comment indicates you might), we're hiring. http://careers.wallaroolabs.com/apply/FjrSD7HjmW/DevOps-Engineer http://careers.wallaroolabs.com/apply/FjrSD7HjmW/DevOps-Engi... Looking for a combination role that crosses what is often considered SysAdmin and what is considered SRE. We don't run infrastructure ourselves but have clients who are starting to run Wallaroo in production and we are looking to hire someone who is focused on making sure the end developer lifecycle experience is awesome. This would mean touching everything from installation of the Wallaroo development environment through documenting best practices for running in production to contributing to the core Pony and Elixir codebases in order to add new functionality.
  - jesses 8y ago
    Not sure if this totally answers your question, but gigalixir.com might be able to help you with CI/CD, scaling, and prod environment management. I'm the founder.
bnchrch 8y ago
Always happy to see more Elixir posts, truly a great language. Im always amazed by how much I can build with so little.
- vvanders 8y ago
  Agreed, it really is just an incredibly well designed language. Been digging back in recently and between Phoenix, Plug and Ecto it's very clear how much care and thought when into the API/architecture. Truly a joy to work with.
- JONBRWN 8y ago
  the Elixir community was very helpful in making this possible. Happy to give back in some fashion
jxub 8y ago
Among the Pony language posts and this one, I can't see how this company won't become the darling of HN regarding tech stacks. Solid post nonetheless.
- spooneybarger 8y ago
  We're big fans of the actor model when addressing concurrency issues.
trungonnews 8y ago
How do you feel about Kotlin + Reactive SpringBoot 5?
- JONBRWN 8y ago
  Truthfully I don’t have many thoughts on that combination. The channels abstraction was the driving force behind our choice and at the time there wasn’t anything that stood out in the Java world.
- markoman 8y ago
  Could you provide a link on how this combination would work best? Also, while Spring Core is at v.5, Spring Boot is at 2.0.1 currently, right?
hbcondo714 8y ago
I've been wanting to get into Elixir but my work has been building web apps using SaaS starter kits that come with billing, account management, social logins, multi-tenant and more out of the box. Are there any SaaS starter kits in Elixir? Examples in other languages include aspnet zero in .net, bullettrain in ruby and laravel spark in php.
- mlevental 8y ago
  example? are you talking about something like Django cookie cutter on the backend and a react or Vue or angular dashboard on the front?
  - hbcondo714 8y ago
    Isn't Django a web framework like Elixir Phoenix that gives you the technical layers to build a web app? These are still great starting points for web apps but the examples[1][2][3] would be the ones I mentioned in my comment that give you the web app plus SaaS functions: .net - https://aspnetzero.com/ https://aspnetzero.com/ ruby - https://bullettrain.co/ https://bullettrain.co/ php - https://spark.laravel.com/ https://spark.laravel.com/ Yes, these aren't OSS but are the equivalents for elixir (if any)?
    - mercer 8y ago
      I'm pretty sure there isn't such a thing for Elixir. And quite possibly there won't be something like it anytime soon, if ever. I get the impression that the Elixir 'ecosystem' is a bit more modular/manual in approach even when you compare Phoenix to Rails, which means, with all else being equal, a bit less of an out-of-the-box experience. Of course in part this is because there are currently just fewer packages available for Phoenix. But I think it's also inherent to the 'culture'. It might never be as cookie-cutter in what it offers. (but I'm still relatively new to the Phoenix/Elixir world, so I could be entirely wrong)
acmecorps 8y ago
I've been using Rails since 2.x, and very much interested with Elixir/Phoenix. Will I regret using Elixir/Phoenix for production?
- JONBRWN 8y ago
  Not really a question that can be answered. I'd suggest looking at Elixir/Phoenix if you have a problem with Rails that you think Elixir/Phoenix might be able to solve. Could be scale problems, reliability, real-time communication, etc. I wouldn't suggest replacing your entire Rails app with Phoenix right away. If possible start with a service that may be having issues and migrate that over if possible.
dhab 8y ago
Possibly tangential: Assuming one is sticking to AWS as cloud provider, wouldn't it be cost-effective and less devops to use AppSync, Lambda, Cognito instead of Elixir? I ask because I am debating whether or not I should invest any time in Elixir, if many of the benefits of learning it are easily and cost-effectively available through AWS.
- JONBRWN 8y ago
  Most likely, yes. As with everything though, there are trade-offs. If going strictly AWS fits your use case, you're fine working with GraphQL, etc., go for it.

104 points by JONBRWN 8y ago

JONBRWN 8y ago

Hi, I'm the author of this post. Would be happy to answer any questions if folks have some.

fredliu 8y ago
Very interesting post. Could you elaborate more (maybe another blog?) on the DevOps perspectives on how to manage a prod Elixir/BEAM stack (CI/CD, scaling, dev vs test vs prod environment management)?
- spooneybarger 8y ago
  If you have a decent engineering + ops background (which your comment indicates you might), we're hiring. http://careers.wallaroolabs.com/apply/FjrSD7HjmW/DevOps-Engineer http://careers.wallaroolabs.com/apply/FjrSD7HjmW/DevOps-Engi... Looking for a combination role that crosses what is often considered SysAdmin and what is considered SRE. We don't run infrastructure ourselves but have clients who are starting to run Wallaroo in production and we are looking to hire someone who is focused on making sure the end developer lifecycle experience is awesome. This would mean touching everything from installation of the Wallaroo development environment through documenting best practices for running in production to contributing to the core Pony and Elixir codebases in order to add new functionality.
- jesses 8y ago
  Not sure if this totally answers your question, but gigalixir.com might be able to help you with CI/CD, scaling, and prod environment management. I'm the founder.

bnchrch 8y ago

Always happy to see more Elixir posts, truly a great language. Im always amazed by how much I can build with so little.

vvanders 8y ago
Agreed, it really is just an incredibly well designed language. Been digging back in recently and between Phoenix, Plug and Ecto it's very clear how much care and thought when into the API/architecture. Truly a joy to work with.
JONBRWN 8y ago
the Elixir community was very helpful in making this possible. Happy to give back in some fashion

jxub 8y ago

Among the Pony language posts and this one, I can't see how this company won't become the darling of HN regarding tech stacks. Solid post nonetheless.

spooneybarger 8y ago
We're big fans of the actor model when addressing concurrency issues.

trungonnews 8y ago

How do you feel about Kotlin + Reactive SpringBoot 5?

JONBRWN 8y ago
Truthfully I don’t have many thoughts on that combination. The channels abstraction was the driving force behind our choice and at the time there wasn’t anything that stood out in the Java world.
markoman 8y ago
Could you provide a link on how this combination would work best? Also, while Spring Core is at v.5, Spring Boot is at 2.0.1 currently, right?

hbcondo714 8y ago

I've been wanting to get into Elixir but my work has been building web apps using SaaS starter kits that come with billing, account management, social logins, multi-tenant and more out of the box. Are there any SaaS starter kits in Elixir? Examples in other languages include aspnet zero in .net, bullettrain in ruby and laravel spark in php.

mlevental 8y ago
example? are you talking about something like Django cookie cutter on the backend and a react or Vue or angular dashboard on the front?
- hbcondo714 8y ago
  Isn't Django a web framework like Elixir Phoenix that gives you the technical layers to build a web app? These are still great starting points for web apps but the examples[1][2][3] would be the ones I mentioned in my comment that give you the web app plus SaaS functions: .net - https://aspnetzero.com/ https://aspnetzero.com/ ruby - https://bullettrain.co/ https://bullettrain.co/ php - https://spark.laravel.com/ https://spark.laravel.com/ Yes, these aren't OSS but are the equivalents for elixir (if any)?
  - mercer 8y ago
    I'm pretty sure there isn't such a thing for Elixir. And quite possibly there won't be something like it anytime soon, if ever. I get the impression that the Elixir 'ecosystem' is a bit more modular/manual in approach even when you compare Phoenix to Rails, which means, with all else being equal, a bit less of an out-of-the-box experience. Of course in part this is because there are currently just fewer packages available for Phoenix. But I think it's also inherent to the 'culture'. It might never be as cookie-cutter in what it offers. (but I'm still relatively new to the Phoenix/Elixir world, so I could be entirely wrong)

acmecorps 8y ago

I've been using Rails since 2.x, and very much interested with Elixir/Phoenix. Will I regret using Elixir/Phoenix for production?

JONBRWN 8y ago
Not really a question that can be answered. I'd suggest looking at Elixir/Phoenix if you have a problem with Rails that you think Elixir/Phoenix might be able to solve. Could be scale problems, reliability, real-time communication, etc. I wouldn't suggest replacing your entire Rails app with Phoenix right away. If possible start with a service that may be having issues and migrate that over if possible.

dhab 8y ago

Possibly tangential: Assuming one is sticking to AWS as cloud provider, wouldn't it be cost-effective and less devops to use AppSync, Lambda, Cognito instead of Elixir? I ask because I am debating whether or not I should invest any time in Elixir, if many of the benefits of learning it are easily and cost-effectively available through AWS.

JONBRWN 8y ago
Most likely, yes. As with everything though, there are trade-offs. If going strictly AWS fits your use case, you're fine working with GraphQL, etc., go for it.