Facades are a structural design pattern that hides the complexity of underlying services by exposing only a limited set of methods. This makes it easier for developers to understand how their application works and improves the experience of using the application.
In web development, facades are often used when a presentation layer communicates with a service layer via a well-defined API. For example, we could create a facade that hides the JDBC Driver Manager class from the client and simply exposes a simple method for getting a database connection.
This interface can be used in many client applications and provides a clean and concise way to communicate with a complex subsystem without requiring the developer to have to learn or write any Java code.
Adding facades to an application can also help developers who are new to web development get up to speed on how the system works. As with all design patterns, facades can be used for many different purposes.
A common use for facades is to reduce the impact of a large number of third-party scripts on page load. These scripts may include social media widgets, ads, video embeds (e.g., YouTube embedded player), and authentication services.
Lazy loading your third-party embeds with facades is a good way to save your users’ bandwidth and page load time. However, implementing this strategy must be done carefully as it can have negative effects on some features of your website. For instance, chat widgets, video players, and advertising plugins that rely on autoplay functionality won’t function as designed until they have been loaded.
While lazy loading your third-party embeds with facades can help optimize your site’s performance, it’s important to test them on a staging page before implementing them on live pages. This can help to ensure that the change does not break your site and also weigh the performance benefit against any potential limitations of functionality.
Another important factor to consider when implementing this technique is whether or not you’re willing to compromise on the visual quality of your site’s content. For example, a facade for a YouTube video may not be as visually appealing as the original video, particularly for users who are looking at it on small screens.
If you do implement a facade, make sure to monitor your page’s performance using tools like Lighthouse and GTmetrix to see if the implementation makes a difference in the overall page load time of the site. Using these tools will allow you to identify and fix any slowdowns caused by external scripts before they impact the user’s experience on your site.
You should also check with your hosting provider to see if there are any restrictions on how you can implement this strategy. If they do, it may be best to avoid facades altogether or look for alternatives. If you do want to use them, be sure to keep in mind that you may need to update your site’s CSS Facades to match the facade style.