Integrating React.js non JS Server API

Question

I will soon be starting a new project which involves upgrading my existing application frontend to use React.js. The current frontend makes standard REST calls to a server built using Microsoft technologies, which is not planning on changing any time soon.

I want to utilise the concept of server-side rendering and the new React Saga framework to improve SEO and performance. As I understand, in order to achieve this, I would need to run a Node.js server to enable this behaviour and make server-to-server calls from Node.js to the existing API.

My question is.. is this a common architecture? I.e having Node.js act as a middleman server? (UI - Node - Existing API). Or is there a better way/technique of integrating exiting non-JS APIs with the latest and greatest UI frameworks?

Any resources/materials you can provide for some reading on this topic would be a great help too!

Thanks.

Answer 1

Yes, its common and its also not bad, to split it that way:

1. Frontend Server
2. API(s)

The FE-Server will render and serve the UI. The API(s) could be further splitted in many smaller microservices.