a react.js nightmare

I got a request from my frequent collaborator the other day.

They only design -- and outsource the development work to agencies or freelancers. They said one of their client's contact forms had stopped working and asked if I could take a look.

It was a basic four-page site with a typical Home, About, Services, and Contact layout -- no Blog. Seemed pretty standard as far as simple local business sites go.

But things got interesting when I asked where the code was hosted.

I was given access to the Google Cloud Console (Cloud Functions), Firebase project (Hosting), and a GitHub repo. When I opened the repo, I was shocked by what I found. The entire thing was built with React.

Now, I have nothing against React - it's a great framework. But for this tiny website? It just seemed like over-engineering.

And that's not all. It was built upon Node 8, which is pretty dated. Plus, there were various other dependencies and configurations involved.

The initial npm install took me to the netherworld.

This was no longer a simple site - it had become a Frankenstein's monster of a React nightmare.

The culprit? An expired SendGrid API key.

Begone SendGrid. Removed bloat. Used a simple method to power the contact form. Huge props to my brother and smtp.gmail.com.

Hosted it on Vercel and sent it for review.

image: remix of a flork of cows comic panel.