Amplify and Ionic are great starting points for Backend developers to become FullStack.
I have been working on a demo application for an IoT Platform deployed on AWS for the last few months. I mentioned this in some of my previous posts, and you might think I am a full backend developer. Still, the reality is that we, as developers, can't focus on one part of the application development only. We must stay close (or contribute if we can) to the front end. Furthermore, if your principal role is for the backend, try to not disconnect from the frontend trends. Also, try to take some online courses to stay updated in this area.
Talking about AWS, there is a service that I have been using lastly, and it is Amplify. This service allows us, for example, to create some DynamoDB tables and the GraphQL API to interact with the app. You can find more docs on the official site to start, and you can select a JS library or framework of your preference.
I want to say that I'm not talking about Amplify per se in this post. I mentioned it because I would like to share my point of view that Amplify allows frontend developers to create infrastructure directly on AWS for their apps. They do not need the help of backend developers to develop and publish the APIs they need, which also takes some time. Amplify simplifies this task allowing frontend developers to take advantage of this situation to convert their careers into fullstack developers. And we, as backend developers, must do the same thing, closing the gap between the front and backend, which will disappear in the future.
If you are still not convinced by this idea, here is another reason you need to consider: AWS CDK. As Amplify, you can choose your preferred programing language to create your infra in AWS. But the question is, which repo can you put this project or module? Is it for the backend or frontend?. Well, one variable to take into account is Amplify. Suppose you use Amplify to create the required infra from your frontend project. It is best to create another folder for components that contain the complementary infra to be deployed and used for your app. This is a holistic approach to your solution architecture and a central control point. You can even create a CI/CD pipeline on AWS to deploy the last chances of your app and infra in other accounts and regions, thinking in terms of a tenant in a SaaS application, for example.
Lastly, while developing some web pages for my IoT project, I'm working more and more on the frontend side. I also have been interested in making significant improvements, visually or not, in the overall functionality (usability, reuse, performance, etc.). For these reasons, I want to share a repo called "ionic-ui-components-showcase", which contains the most helpful UI components of the Ionic Framework in a "showcase" fashion. The main difference with the Ionic UI Components shown on the official site is that my repo contains an in-progress functional app developed with Angular.
Well, I hope all this information will help you take advantage of your career as a Software Engineer. Do not forget to think about ALL the building blocks of the solution you are working on, and think about the importance of details, which in our case, it is shown to our final users in the frontend app.
