# React Component Architecture (Concept)
This document defines the clean concept for React component architecture in `apps/website`.
## Core Principle
**Separation of concerns by responsibility, not just by file location.**
## The Four Layers
### 1. App Layer (`app/`)
**Purpose**: Entry points and data orchestration
**What lives here**:
- `page.tsx` - Server Components that fetch data
- `layout.tsx` - Root layouts
- `route.tsx` - API routes
- `*PageClient.tsx` - Client entry points that wire server data to client templates
**Rules**:
- `page.tsx` does ONLY data fetching and passes raw data to client components
- `*PageClient.tsx` manages client state and event handlers
- No UI rendering logic (except loading/error states)
**Example**:
```typescript
// app/teams/page.tsx
export default async function TeamsPage() {
const query = new TeamsPageQuery();
const result = await query.execute();
if (result.isErr()) {
return ;
}
return ;
}
// app/teams/TeamsPageClient.tsx
'use client';
export function TeamsPageClient({ teams }: TeamsViewData) {
const [searchQuery, setSearchQuery] = useState('');
const router = useRouter();
const handleTeamClick = (teamId: string) => {
router.push(`/teams/${teamId}`);
};
return (
);
}
```
### 2. Template Layer (`templates/`)
**Purpose**: Composition and layout of components
**What lives here**:
- Stateless component compositions
- Page-level layouts
- Component orchestration
**Rules**:
- Templates ARE stateless (no `useState`, `useEffect`)
- Templates CAN use `'use client'` for event handling and composition
- Templates receive ViewData (primitives) and event handlers
- Templates compose components and UI elements
- No business logic
- No data fetching
**Example**:
```typescript
// templates/TeamsTemplate.tsx
'use client';
export function TeamsTemplate({ teams, searchQuery, onSearchChange, onTeamClick }: TeamsTemplateProps) {
return (
);
}
```
### 3. Component Layer (`components/`)
**Purpose**: Reusable app-specific components
**What lives here**:
- Components that understand app concepts (teams, races, leagues)
- Components that may contain state and business logic
- Components that orchestrate UI elements for app purposes
**Rules**:
- Can be stateful
- Can contain app-specific business logic
- Can use Next.js hooks (but not Next.js components like `Link`)
- Should be reusable within the app context
- **Strictly Forbidden**: Generic UI primitives (`Box`, `Surface`) and generic wrappers (`Layout`, `Container`)
- **Strictly Forbidden**: Raw HTML tags (use `ui/` components instead)
- **Strictly Forbidden**: The `className` or `style` props
- **Strictly Forbidden**: Passing implementation details (Tailwind classes, CSS values) as props to UI components
**Example**:
```typescript
// components/teams/TeamLeaderboardPreview.tsx
'use client';
import { Card, CardHeader, TeamRow } from '@/ui';
export function TeamLeaderboardPreview({ teams, onTeamClick }: Props) {
// App-specific logic: medal colors, ranking, etc.
const getMedalColor = (position: number) => {
if (position === 0) return 'gold';
if (position === 1) return 'silver';
return 'none';
};
return (
{teams.map((team, index) => (
onTeamClick(team.id)}
achievement={getMedalColor(index)}
/>
))}
);
}
```
### 4. UI Layer (`ui/`)
**Purpose**: Generic, reusable UI primitives
**What lives here**:
- Pure UI elements with no app knowledge
- Generic building blocks
- Framework-agnostic components
**Rules**:
- Stateless (no `useState`, `useEffect`)
- No app-specific logic
- No Next.js imports
- Only receive props and render
- Maximum reusability
- **Encapsulation**: Must NOT expose `className`, `style`, or Tailwind-specific props to consumers.
- **Semantic APIs**: Use semantic props (e.g., `variant="primary"`, `size="large"`) instead of implementation details.
**Example**:
```typescript
// ui/Button.tsx
// GOOD: Semantic API
export function Button({ children, variant = 'primary', onClick }: ButtonProps) {
const classes = {
primary: 'bg-blue-600 text-white hover:bg-blue-700',
secondary: 'bg-gray-200 text-gray-800 hover:bg-gray-300',
}[variant];
return (
);
}
// BAD: Exposing implementation details
// export function Button({ className, backgroundColor, padding }: Props) { ... }
```
## UI Layering & Primitives
To prevent "div wrapper" abuse and maintain architectural integrity, we enforce a strict boundary between **Primitives** and **Semantic UI**.
### Semantic UI & Layout (Allowed in Components)
- **Building blocks**: `Card`, `Panel`, `Button`, `Table`.
- **Layout Components**: `Layout`, `Container` (in `ui/`).
- **Restricted flexibility**: Semantic components are restricted to their defined props. They do NOT allow arbitrary styling props (bg, border, etc.).
- **Public API**: These are the only UI elements that should be imported by `components/` or `pages/`.
**Rule of thumb**: If you need a styled container or layout in a component, use `Panel`, `Card`, `Layout`, or `Container`. If you need a new type of semantic layout, create it in `ui/` using primitives. Direct use of primitives (`Box`, `Surface`, `Stack`, `Grid`) or raw HTML tags in `components/` is forbidden.
## Clean Component APIs (Anti-Pattern: Prop Pollution)
We strictly forbid "Prop Pollution" where implementation details leak into component APIs. This is unmaintainable and unreadable.
### The Problem
When a component exposes props like `className`, `style`, `mt={4}`, or `bg="blue-500"`, it:
1. **Breaks Encapsulation**: The consumer needs to know about the internal styling system (Tailwind, CSS).
2. **Increases Fragility**: Changing the internal implementation (e.g., switching from Tailwind to CSS Modules) requires updating all consumers.
3. **Reduces Readability**: Component usage becomes cluttered with styling logic instead of business intent.
### The Solution: Semantic Props
Components must only expose props that describe **what** the component is or **how** it should behave semantically, not how it should look in terms of CSS.
| Bad Prop (Implementation) | Good Prop (Semantic) |
| :--- | :--- |
| `className="mt-4 flex items-center"` | `spacing="large"` or `layout="horizontal"` |
| `color="#FF0000"` or `color="red-500"` | `intent="danger"` or `variant="error"` |
| `style={{ fontWeight: 'bold' }}` | `emphasis="high"` |
| `isFullWidth={true}` | `size="full"` |
### Enforcement
- **`ui/` components**: May use Tailwind/CSS internally but **MUST NOT** expose these details in their props.
- **`components/` components**: **MUST NOT** use `className`, `style`, or any prop that accepts raw styling values. They must only use the semantic APIs provided by `ui/`.
- **`templates/`**: Same as `components/`.
## The Formatter & Display Object Layer
**Purpose**: Reusable formatting and presentation logic
**What lives here**:
- `lib/display-objects/`
- Deterministic formatting functions
- Code-to-label mappings
- Value transformations for display
**Rules**:
- **Formatters**: Stateless utilities for server-side primitive output.
- **Display Objects**: Rich Value Objects for client-side interactive APIs.
- Class-based
- Immutable
- Deterministic
- No side effects
- No `Intl.*` or `toLocale*` (unless client-only)
**Usage**:
```typescript
// lib/display-objects/RatingDisplay.ts
export class RatingDisplay {
static format(rating: number): string {
return rating.toFixed(0);
}
static getColor(rating: number): string {
if (rating >= 90) return 'text-green';
if (rating >= 70) return 'text-yellow';
return 'text-red';
}
}
// In ViewData Builder (Server)
const viewData = {
rating: RatingDisplay.format(dto.rating), // Primitive string
};
// In ViewModel (Client)
get rating() {
return new RatingDisplay(this.data.rating); // Rich API
}
```
## Dependency Flow
```
app/ (page.tsx)
↓ fetches data
app/ (*PageClient.tsx)
↓ manages state, creates handlers
templates/ (composition)
↓ uses components
components/ (app-specific)
↓ uses UI elements
ui/ (generic primitives)
```
## Decision Rules
### When to use *PageClient.tsx?
- When you need client-side state management
- When you need event handlers that use router/other hooks
- When server component needs to be split from client template
### When to use Template vs Component?
- **Template**: Page-level composition, orchestrates multiple components
- **Component**: Reusable app-specific element with logic
### When to use Component vs UI?
- **Component**: Understands app concepts (teams, races, leagues)
- **UI**: Generic building blocks (button, card, input)
### When to use Formatters/Display Objects?
- When formatting is reusable across multiple ViewModels
- When mapping codes to labels
- When presentation logic needs to be deterministic
## Key Benefits
1. **Clear boundaries**: Each layer has a single responsibility.
2. **Encapsulation**: Implementation details (HTML, CSS, Tailwind) are hidden within the `ui/` layer.
3. **Semantic APIs**: Components are easier to read and use because they speak the language of the domain, not CSS.
4. **Maintainability**: Changes to styling or internal implementation don't ripple through the entire codebase.
5. **Testability**: Pure functions at UI/Display layer.
6. **Type safety**: Clear, restricted contracts between layers prevent "prop soup".