Reducing development time, that’s a bold statement. One that way too many tools have claimed in the past, but not one that many have actually achieved.
Grommet is another component library/framework (they call themselves frameworks, we’ll see about that) that is adamant to make you think that by using them, you’ll be able to develop your web apps much faster.
Let’s put that to the test, shall we?
What is Grommet?
After testing it for a bit, and giving their documentation a review, I can tell you that Grommet is a react-focused component library.
That’s it, that’s all there is to it.
I know they claim to also be a “framework”, but honestly, I don’t see it yet.
Perhaps in the future, once they iron out some issues, they might earn the “framework” status, but right now, we’re safe sticking to the list of components available.
Why do I say that? What issues do they have to iron out? Well, you see, the team behind Grommet actually offers you three things:
- A component library you can use to create nice-looking React applications.
- An icon library for you to spice the UI even further. They have a nice collection and a somewhat nice online search for them.
- An application designer app that allows you to, in theory, create your own app (or at least the presentation) visually using its own components.
If you look at that list, yes, in theory, I could call this something more than a component library. The problem? The app designer doesn’t really work, I had multiple issues with white screens whenever a click caused a JS error. I was not able to create something, there was barely any help around it and I couldn’t even find a way to export my creations.