Hello HN!
6 years ago we launched our very first playground on HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5407499). It barely worked, but a few months later we go into YC largely due to the awesome feedback we received from it. We thought we'd take a page out of history and show you guys how far we've come, with a version of the original playground, but fully integrated with CSS Grid.
The Webflow designer was built mostly in knockout.js in 2013/2014, but we finished a migration to React about a year ago. We’re still learning all the tricks needed to make a very large React app performant, but we haven’t looked back.
We'd love to hear your feedback!
The CSS Grid playground works in desktop Chrome/Safari/Brave/Vivaldi, as we're still working on Firefox and tablet support.
>We’re still learning all the tricks needed to make a very large React app performant, but we haven’t looked back.
Have you thought about creating a Webflow UI library for React itself that would appeal to frontend devs as well?
It would be cool if you could use Webflow also as a tool to build React components or widgets, and then enhance a Webflow project with more dynamic app like features. This would appeal to many digital product designers I think.
Basically Webflow as a React UI framework for web apps of all sorts.
We've heard of quite a few Webflow users that have converted components built in Webflow to React/Vue/Angular components. We've explored it a bit internally but need to get more user feedback on how broadly this would appeal to product designers and developers, and specifically what workflows they're looking to augment or replace. Stay tuned!
The Webflow designer was built mostly in knockout.js in 2013/2014, but we finished a migration to React about a year ago. We’re still learning all the tricks needed to make a very large React app performant, but we haven’t looked back.
We'd love to hear your feedback!
The CSS Grid playground works in desktop Chrome/Safari/Brave/Vivaldi, as we're still working on Firefox and tablet support.