Streamline Your Appsmith Projects with a Custom Starter Template: Tips and Best Practices

When starting a new project in Appsmith, jumping straight into the nitty-gritty of building your app's unique features is tempting. However, that approach can often lead to inconsistent code, inefficient processes, and a lack of alignment across different projects and teams. Creating a custom boilerplate starter app provides a foundation that accelerates the initial stages of development and instills best practices across your organization. This strategy is particularly valuable in ensuring that all applications built within your organization adhere to internal guidelines, maintain consistency, and are easier to manage and scale.

Don't worry—we have a sample starter app template available for you to use, copy, or extend. But first, let's discuss WHY this makes sense so you can take the right approach.

The Value of Creating Your Own Boilerplate Starter App

There are plenty of great reasons to create your own starter app template, but lets focus on a few key concepts. 

1. Instilling Best Practices from the Start

   Developing applications can often become chaotic, especially when multiple teams or developers are involved, each with their own coding styles and practices. By creating a starter template, you embed best practices directly into the foundation of every new application. This could include standardized approaches to state management, data handling, widget naming conventions, and more. By setting these standards early on, you ensure that every developer, regardless of their experience level, adheres to a consistent approach, reducing errors and improving overall code quality.

2. Ensuring Consistency Across Applications

   Consistency becomes a key concern in larger organizations, where multiple applications might be developed simultaneously by different teams. Inconsistent coding practices can lead to confusion, increased maintenance costs, and difficulty scaling or integrating various applications. A starter template provides a uniform structure that all developers follow, ensuring that every application shares a common architecture, coding style, and methodology. This not only makes the codebase easier to understand but also simplifies onboarding new developers and transferring projects between teams.

3. Aligning with Internal Guidelines and Compliance

   Many organizations have specific internal guidelines, compliance requirements, or industry standards they need to adhere to. By creating a custom starter template, you can embed these guidelines directly into the foundation of every new app. This might include specific data handling practices, security measures, or UI/UX standards. Embedding these guidelines ensures that all applications are compliant from the outset, reducing the risk of non-compliance and the associated costs of retrofitting applications to meet these standards later on.

4. Facilitating Faster Development and Onboarding

   A starter template accelerates the initial stages of development by providing pre-built structures and components that developers can immediately start working with. This saves time and effort that would otherwise be spent setting up the basic framework of the application. Additionally, because the template is well-documented and follows a familiar structure, new developers can get up to speed quickly, reducing the learning curve and enabling them to contribute more effectively from day one.

5. Enhancing Maintainability and Scalability

   Applications often need to be maintained and updated long after their initial development. A well-structured starter template lays a solid foundation that makes the app easier to maintain. By organizing code into modular components and following best practices, the template makes it easier to identify and fix bugs, add new features, and refactor code as needed. Furthermore, as the application grows in size and complexity, the standardized structure makes it easier to scale, whether by adding new features, integrating with other systems, or adapting to changing business needs.

6. Encouraging a Collaborative Development Culture

   Providing a shared template that all developers use fosters a collaborative culture where knowledge and best practices are shared across teams. Developers are more likely to contribute to improving the template over time, adding new features or optimizing existing ones, which benefits everyone in the organization. This collaborative approach ensures that the template evolves and improves, staying relevant and effective as the organization’s needs and the broader technological landscape change.

Tips for Maximizing the Benefits of a Starter Template

The longer you work with Appsmith, the more you will find the "Appsmith way" of building apps. The interesting thing is that because Appsmith is so powerful and flexible, many of the best practices for writing custom code also apply here. By adapting to the strengths of the platform, you can optimize your efforts and keep your code as clean and efficient as possible

• Use a config object for static data 
  The config object should contain all static data that remains constant during the app's runtime. This might include global variables, select lists, or constants. Keeping this data separate from the app's dynamic state ensures clarity and simplifies updates.
   
• Leverage a state object for dynamic data
  The state object is designed for data that changes frequently. By binding your widgets to state variables, you can easily manage and update the app's state, enhancing responsiveness and user experience. Keep in mind that for performance reasons, you want your state object to be as lightweight as possible. So, take any larger or more complex items and either store them separately, or use the default tools like query.data to easily get what you need.
   
• Follow consistent naming conventions
  Stick to consistent naming conventions for your widgets, functions, and variables. This practice improves readability and maintainability, making it easier to navigate the codebase as your app evolves. Consistent naming conventions also help prevent naming collisions and make debugging more straightforward. Appsmith has a really powerful auto-complete system based on widget/query names... so taking the time to name things properly will make everything easier.
   
• Utilize comments and documentation
  Comments are crucial for explaining why certain coding practices are used and how different parts of the code work. The starter template is thoroughly commented, but it's important to add your own comments, especially for complex logic or custom implementations. Clear, concise comments provide context and rationale, which is particularly helpful for future developers who might work on the app or when you revisit your own code after some time.
   
• Implement reusable packages
  In the commercial edition of Appsmith, you have access to "Packages," which allow you to create components or functions that can be reused across multiple applications. This is incredibly valuable for maintaining consistency and efficiency. By creating reusable queries and JS, you can avoid duplicating code, reduce errors, and make updates or improvements in one place that automatically propagates across all apps using that package.
   
• Focus on modular design
  The starter template encourages a modular design approach, which is vital for scaling and maintaining your app. Break down functionality into smaller, reusable components or functions. This not only makes the app easier to manage but also reduces the likelihood of bugs and errors. Modular design allows you to isolate and test individual components, making the development process more efficient and less error-prone.
   
• Encourage code reviews and iterative improvements
  Make it a practice to review the starter template regularly and iterate on it based on feedback from the development team. Encourage developers to suggest improvements or optimizations, which can then be incorporated into the template. This process ensures that the template evolves to meet the organization's needs and reflects the latest best practices.
   
• Test frequently and iterate
  Regular testing helps catch issues early and provides opportunities to refine and improve the app. Use the starter template’s structure to make iterative changes and test them incrementally. This approach ensures stability and performance as you build out more complex features.

Conclusion

Creating a custom boilerplate starter app for Appsmith is more than just a convenience—it's a strategic move that promotes consistency, quality, and efficiency across your organization’s application development efforts. By embedding best practices, ensuring alignment with internal guidelines, and fostering a collaborative culture, a starter template helps your teams deliver high-quality applications that are easier to maintain and scale. This approach not only streamlines the development process but also sets the stage for sustainable, long-term success in your app-building journey.