Architecture Overview
GoodData.UI follows principles of the layered architecture and draws a clean line between the different UI components and the backend server that calculates the data to render. The UI components integrate with a backend server through an interface that we call Analytical Backend.
The Analytical Backend is designed as a Service Provider Interface (SPI) with clearly described contracts that
you can implement to work even with your own arbitrary backend. For now, the full documentation of the SPI is provided
only at the code level. For more information, see the @gooddata/sdk-backend-spi package.
GoodData.UI comes with a full implementation of the Analytical Backend SPI for the GoodData platform (codename bear) and a near-full implementation for GoodData.CN (codename tiger).
The Analytical Backend abstraction ultimately allows you to develop applications that can be backend-agnostic. To learn more about guidelines and practices to fully leverage this abstraction, see Building backend-agnostic applications.
NOTE: GoodData.UI uses the bear and tiger codenames in all developer-facing artifacts and APIs. We find that these can better withstand the test of time.
Available packages
GoodData.UI consists of several packages, each with its own set of responsibilities and exposed APIs. As a developer, you can pick and choose packages according to requirements of your application. For instance, even if you cannot use our React components, you can still benefit from the convenience layer of the Analytical Backend abstraction, which is agnostic to any frontend technology.
| Package | Contents |
|---|---|
| @gooddata/api-client-bear | The REST API client for the GoodData platform (formerly known as gooddata-js) |
| @gooddata/api-model-bear | The type definitions for the GoodData platform REST API client (formerly known as typings) |
| @gooddata/sdk-backend-bear | The analytical backend implementation for the GoodData platform |
| @gooddata/api-client-tiger | The REST API client for GoodData.CN |
| @gooddata/sdk-backend-tiger | The analytical backend implementation for GoodData.CN |
| @gooddata/sdk-model | The APIs and models used to construct inputs to executions and charts |
| @gooddata/sdk-ui | The React infrastructure and headless components such as the Execute component |
| @gooddata/sdk-ui-charts | The React components for all charts |
| @gooddata/sdk-ui-geo | The React components for the Geo Pushpin Chart component |
| @gooddata/sdk-ui-pivot | The React component for the Pivot Table component |
| @gooddata/sdk-ui-filters | The filtering components |
| @gooddata/sdk-ui-ext | The components for embedding insights created in Analytical Designer |
| @gooddata/sdk-ui-all | An umbrella package that depends on all sdk-ui- packages and re-exports their public API |