Phoenix Framework

From prototype to production in no time flat

Your business depends on a modern, interactive website that offers users a unique and helpful experience. For that, you might either already include web applications or are looking to add web apps into the mix.

You’d be smart to do just that. Why? Because web apps make it possible to greatly extend the functionality of your company website.

Those web applications can be built in so many ways. You can use languages like JavaScript, Python, Java, C++, C#, PHP, or Perl, all of which are outstanding tools for developing web applications. But at some point, your developers are going to require the right framework for the job.

A framework is a pre-packaged set of tools developers can use (and re-use) to shorten the development lifecycle. In other words, developers don’t have to reinvent the wheel to get the job done. Instead of building every component, they can use a framework that includes exactly what they’re looking for, already pre-defined and configured.

There are a large number of frameworks available, some of which work with very specific languages or tasks. Phoenix is a framework created specifically to build web applications.

Phoenix was built using Elixir, which was built on the Erlang VM, and is used to build low-latency, fault-tolerant, distributed systems. For any company that currently uses Ruby on Rails, Phoenix Framework should be on your radar, because it adds considerable performance gains. To top that off, Phoenix makes it incredibly fast to build web applications. And because Phoenix has an outstanding collection of installation docs, your developers can get up and running in no time.

Features that might entice your company into adopting Phoenix Framework include:

Simple naming conventions.
Easy routing.
Perfect balance between abstraction and explicitness.
Focuses on both short-term and long-term productivity.
Incredibly fast.
Apps can automatically adapt to load.
Uses the Node Package Manager (npm) for client-side tooling.
It’s a compiled language (which makes it faster).
Concurrency is achieved with lightweight processes within the virtual machine.
Fault tolerance, high availability, and distribution are built-in.

Phoenix Developers Hiring Guide

How to choose the best
Interview questions
Job Description

Hiring Guide
Interview Questions
Job Description

Phoenix has several components that help in web application development. Its controllers' actions gather all the required data and prepare it before invoking the view layer.

The view layer either provides a template for the data or redirects it. It renders templates/responses sent by the browser and compiles them into functions. Templates are files that contain contents included in the responses for a web application’s would-be HTML documents.

The Router forwards HTTP requests to controllers. It manages channels and performs pipeline transformations onto the files for routing. Routing transformation is done through path helpers that create different route paths for different applications.

Phoenix uses channels i.e., layered communication systems, for sending and receiving messages. They are also used for real-time communication.

Phoenix In Today's Market

Phoenix was created in 2014 by Chris McCord and is one of the fastest frameworks worldwide. Many organizations like Heroic Labs, PODIUM, Bleacher Report, and Brightcove use it for their web applications.

Unlike other frameworks, Phoenix doesn’t have a performance productivity tradeoff making it very useful for modern web technologies. It’s very efficient for building real-time apps as it contains built-in components like channels that can manage multiple real-time client experiences.

It also uses Presence and WebSockets for interacting with servers. You can use Phoenix channels to create chat rooms, tracking software, and sensors for IoT projects, among other things.

Issues In Finding A Phoenix Developer

Since Phoenix is based on Elixir and Elixir itself is based on Erlang, any engineer who works on Phoenix should be skilled in both. But there are very few engineers who are proficient in them. Thus, even though these languages are highly useful for projects that demand concurrency and process trees, they come with their fair share of complications.

Organizations may have it hard to find Phoenix developers with enough experience and problem-solving skills to translate into industry-level projects. Unfortunately, the online community for Phoenix is also very small, which means there are limited resources for novice developers.

What’s more, Phoenix and Elixir have their own stringent syntax rules. Not following them causes syntax errors, performance issues, and other problems. This can lead to data immutability issues if the implementation isn’t properly done, something only an experienced Phoenix developer can actually do.

How To Choose The Best Phoenix Developer

A skilled Phoenix developer should be experienced in both Elixir and Erlang. They should be able to create high-performance and scalable web applications.

They should have experience writing HTML and JS code. In addition, they should know about functional programming and be able to implement modern APIs through GraphQL. Along with Phoenix, they should also have experience with other Elixir web frameworks like Sugar, Plug, and Trot.

In addition, they should be able to leverage in-built Elixir and Phoenix features such as scalability, concurrency, and fault tolerance.

Conclusion

Phoenix has proven to be a reliable framework with high productivity and amazing performance. It has benefited multiple organizations worldwide. Phoenix’s popularity has been on the fast rise, and you should look forward to its further growth and advancement in the technological field.

What is Phoenix LiveView, and what is its purpose?

It’s a feature in the Phoenix framework that allows you to create real-time web interfaces without writing JavaScript code. Instead, using Server rendered HTML code, it creates applications with bidirectional communication without client-side complexities.

Any application requiring data/page navigation or notifications/events autocompletion is a great fit for LiveView.

How does Phoenix deal with system failures?

Phoenix logs component interactions and state checkpoints to ensure application recovery in case of a system crash. It maintains the overall state of the applications, thus improving the availability of the application.

The Phoenix processes are lightweight and independent, so it doesn’t affect the other ones if one crashes. This feature makes sure that the overall throughput of the system isn’t affected. Furthermore, this allows you to perform happy path coding, i.e., you only write code for the most optimal solution without worrying about exceptions or errors.

Would you advise a client to choose Phoenix over Rails and Why?

Phoenix delivers better and faster performance as compared to Rails. Phoenix applications are easier to maintain and have high scalability, while Rails applications require effort and resources to scale. Phoenix is also more reliable for handling high traffic and concurrency applications.

What are some of the dependencies you may install to build a Phoenix application?

Some of the essential Phoenix dependencies are Elixir (1.6 or higher) and Erlang VM (version 20 or higher), a database like PostgreSQL, MongoDB or MySQL, Node.js, for compiling and using static assets. Developers can also use filesystem watcher tools like inotify tools.

What makes Phoenix highly scalable?

Phoenix utilizes Erlang BEAM to create scalable web applications that can effectively serve multiple users simultaneously. Its MVC architecture allows you to focus on the business side while handling the boilerplate code itself. In addition, Erlang VM reduces operational complexity, and Phoenix dashboards allow you to check up on processes without worrying about system crashes and faults.

We are looking for a smart and adaptable Phoenix developer to join our team. They should be team players who are passionate about all aspects of web development. They should also know about database handling and maintenance. The role also includes testing and error handling responsibilities.

This is an excellent opportunity for result-oriented developers who want to work on amazing projects, learn new skills, and work in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

Create, test, and execute highly-optimized Elixir code.
Implement and maintain Phoenix framework through WebSockets and channels
Research and perform complex tasks for the project
Work with front-end technologies
Work on HTTP requests, server response, and channels
Coordinate with product managers and stakeholders to implement business use cases.
Work on documentation.
Follow best industry practices and standards
{{Add other relevant responsibilities}}

Skills and Qualifications

Working knowledge of Elixir, Erlang VM. Should also have experience in Phoenix.
Experience in writing business logic code without compromising quality.
Proven experience with traffic handling, communication channels, and WebSockets.
Experience with databases and writing complicated SQL statements.
Knowledge of HTML and JavaScript. Should also have experience in other web development frameworks such as Sugar, Plug.
Knowledge of VC framework, views, controllers.
Problem-solving skills and team spirit.
{{Add other frameworks or libraries related to your development stack}}
{{List education level or certification required}}

LiveView

One of the most exciting features found in Phoenix Framework is called the Phoenix LiveView. This tool is a relatively new library that makes it possible for developers to build rich, real-time user experiences with nothing more than server-rendered HTML.

LiveView also adds bi-directional communication, via WebSockets, between the server and the client. This can be achieved without having to depend on dedicated, front-end JavaScript code. With LiveView, you can deploy real-time functionality to your web applications with very little effort. That functionality alone makes Phoenix Framework worth the price of admission.

LiveView might be one of the best methods of building real-time web applications. To make this even more appealing, developers only need to add the –live option (when creating a new app) to add the LiveView dependencies. So not only is LiveView an outstanding means of building modern, real-time web applications, it’s possible to do so very easily. And because Phoenix LiveView makes it possible to create enterprise-class applications, this framework is capable of serving businesses of any size.

LiveView makes all of this possible because it’s a library that consists of server-rendered templates with client-side live updates.

In fact, Phoenix Framework makes many things possible with single commands such as:

Full CRUD (create, read, update and delete) with templates and controllers.
REST-like CRUD.
Full JSON replies (instead of HTML).

For any company looking for the ability to create lightning-fast web applications at lightning-fast speeds, Phoenix Framework might be the exact tool for you.

One thing to know about LiveView is that it is relatively new and development for the library is happening fast. But when you do find issues with LiveView, its GitHub community is very responsive and your issues can be resolved in minutes.

Other features of LiveView include:

Declarative module for rendering HTML on the server-side.
Smart templating and change tracking.
Live form validation (which also includes file upload support).
Rich integration API included.
Code reuse via components.
Live navigation for link enrichment and redirects.
A latency simulator.
Testing tools.

Who uses Phoenix Framework?

At this point, you shouldn’t be surprised at the companies using Phoenix Framework. Companies such as these are working with Phoenix Framework are using the tool to build responsive, real-time web apps:

Bleacher Report
Inverse
Brightcove
Heroic Labs
CargoSense
Voice Layer
Podium

And because Phoenix Framework is open-source, you can download and use it for free. But don’t think that you won’t find support because Phoenix Framework is such a young tool. The community surrounding this development platform is growing fast, and the number of online tutorials available should make it a win-win for your business.

Conclusion

If your company has been depending on Ruby on Rails, and have found it to be somewhat limiting, Phoenix Framework is ready to pick up the slack and help your development teams build high-quality, real-time web applications. Just remember, in order to use Phoenix Framework, your developers will have to know the Elixir language, so this might not be quite as straightforward as the framework alone would make it seem. So before your developers dive into Phoenix Framework, make sure they start out with Elixir.