Trying Encore for an existing project

Making changes to your backend requires a thoughtful approach and how you best evaluate a new tool, like Encore, depends on your situation and priorities. Here we’ll explore three approaches and introduce the common scenarios and procedures for each:

Extend: Using Encore to speed up building an independent new system or creating a proof of concept.
Refactor: Using Encore when refactoring an existing backend to unlock productivity benefits and remove complexity.
Rebuild: Using Encore when rebuilding an existing application from the ground up, ensuring modern best practices and cloud-portability.

Extend

Extending your existing backend best suits teams who are mostly satisfied with their current setup, but are on the lookout for more efficient workflows to cut down delivery times for new projects, or wish to improve the developer experience for ongoing development.

Use cases

Extending an existing application with a new service or system, integrated using APIs.
Reducing effort when building a new system in an isolated domain, such as a new product experiment.
Tackling an independent project that demands fast delivery times.

When to consider Encore

If your existing setup feels right but you’re curious about Encore, evaluating it in an independent project is the right move. For example when:

You want to create a new service or system and deploy it to your cloud in AWS or GCP, without manual infrastructure setup.
You want to try out development tools like preview environments, and local tracing, without any manual instrumentation.
You want to validate Encore’s workflow and reliability without making changes to existing systems.

How to adopt Encore when Extending

1. Identify Extension Points: Decide on an upcoming project or proof of concept, that is relatively independent of your existing application and is appropriate for building as a new service or system.
2. Create New Services: Develop new services or systems using Encore’s Backend Framework to get off the ground quickly. This lets you try out all Encore features and enables you to design your new system with Encore’s automatic architecture diagrams.
3. Integrate via APIs: Where relevant, integrate your new system with your existing backend application using APIs. This can be made simpler by using Encore’s generated API clients.
4. Validate & Iterate: Deploy the new services to a cloud environment, automatically provisioned by Encore, and validate their performance and interoperability. Use Encore’s distributed tracing to find bugs or performance issues.
5. Connect cloud and Deploy: When you are satisfied that your application is working as expected, connect your cloud account (AWS or GCP) and create a production environment for your application. Encore automatically provisions the infrastructure needed using each cloud’s native services, or you can deploy your application into an existing Kubernetes cluster.

Refactor

Refactoring can serve as a breath of fresh air for your existing code, revitalizing it by optimizing existing structures. In this approach, your goal is to improve on your existing backend application, often focusing on shedding unnecessary complexity and enabling new opportunities.

Use cases

Transforming a monolith into microservices.
Changing system architecture, e.g. moving to an event-driven architecture.
Cloud migration, e.g. from AWS to GCP.
Changing foundational infrastructure, e.g. migrating to Kubernetes.
Removing unwanted complexity that’s become engrained as you’ve scaled up quickly.

When to consider Encore

Your application is already built using a supported programming language like Go or TypeScript. and you want to unlock modern development tools like infrastructure automation, preview environments, and distributed tracing, with minimal adjustments to your existing backend and no manual setup.

How to adopt Encore in a Refactor

1. Assess Your Goal: Start by evaluating what changes you want to make to your existing application, and look for unnecessary complexities and bottlenecks that can be eliminated. Depending on your goal, you can decide if you want to fully implement Encore’s API declarations or if you prefer to minimize changes by using a catch-all handler on your current router. Keep in mind that in order to use features like the Service Catalog and API Explorer, you need to use the API declarations defined in the Backend Framework. (Learn more about the different options)
2. Implement Backend Framework: Implement Encore's Backend Framework in your application by replacing existing infrastructure configuration and boilerplate. This enables you to use Encore's infrastructure automation and removes the hassle of manual infrastructure setup. Tip: Existing databases can be integrated so you don’t need to migrate existing data.
3. Resolve compile-time errors: Encore comes with a parser and compiler that ensures your application correctly implements the Backend Framework. This lets you discover problems at compile time and provides insightful error messages to help you quickly resolve any errors.
4. Test & Iterate: Test the refactored application to ensure stability and reliability using Encore’s automatically provisioned cloud environments and distributed tracing for fast debugging and iteration. If relevant, you can use a generated client to integrate with your existing application frontend.
5. Connect cloud and Deploy: When you are satisfied that your application is working as expected, connect your cloud account (AWS or GCP) and create a production environment for your application. Encore automatically provisions the infrastructure needed using each cloud’s native services, or you can deploy your application into an existing Kubernetes cluster.

Rebuild

The Rebuild strategy is for those who want a fresh start by recreating an application from the ground up. It’s particularly relevant for companies looking to make a bigger change like changing programming language or migrating from legacy self-hosted infrastructure. A full rebuild, although potentially labor-intensive, opens up opportunities to harness the latest cloud services and developer tools like Encore.

Use cases

Changing programming languages to adopt more performant or modern ones for your project.
Migrating from legacy self-hosted solutions to scalable cloud providers like AWS or GCP.
Starting fresh by recreating an app from the ground up.

When to consider Encore

You’re intending to use a supported programming language like Go or TypeScript.
You want to leverage the scalability and services of cloud providers like AWS or GCP, but don’t want to become locked-in to one specific provider. (Encore applications are cloud-portable by default.)
You want modern development tools like infrastructure automation, preview environments, and distributed tracing, without manual setup or instrumentation.

How to adopt Encore in a Rebuild

1. Plan & Design: Start by creating a design, considering the application's core requirements and architecture. Decide on the programming language, keeping in mind Encore's supported languages.
2. Develop from Scratch: Develop your new application using Encore's Backend Framework to get up and running quickly in a shared environment using Encore’s built-in development cloud.
3. Test & Iterate: Test your new application to ensure reliability using Encore’s distributed tracing for fast debugging and iteration. Use the generated API clients to integrate with your application frontend.
4. Connect cloud and Deploy: When you are satisfied that your application is working as expected, connect your cloud account (AWS or GCP) and create a production environment for your application. Encore automatically provisions the infrastructure needed using each cloud’s native services, or you can deploy your application into an existing Kubernetes cluster.

Get support adopting Encore

Each approach has different benefits and is relevant in different scenarios. Which one is right for your team depends on your priorities and existing setup.

Whether it’s expanding your horizons with Extend, revitalizing existing structures through Refactor, or starting afresh with Rebuild, we’re available to support as you explore Encore to unlock improved productivity and developer experience.

If you'd like to ask questions or get advice about how to get started, we're happy to talk through your project. You can join Discord to ask questions and meet other Encore developers, or you can also book a 1:1 with a member of our core team.