Building maintainable web applications using React : An evaluation of architectural patterns conducted on Canvas LMS

Abstract: Maintainability for web applications is increasingly important due to increasing demands for advanced functionality as well as a short time-to-market. Fixing errors, reusing functionality and adding new features efficiently are crucial for making the application profitable for the software organization as well as valuable for the end-user. Modern frameworks and libraries such as React assist web engineers in building sophisticated applications using high-quality solutions called architectural patterns. In this thesis architectural patterns have been evaluated by performing static code analysis using well-established metrics. The evaluation was conducted using a Design Science Research approach on the Learning Management System Canvas. The results showed large variations in maintainability depending on the architectural pattern used.