Photo of Samuel Teixeira
Samuel Teixeira
FPP
Software Engineer (Full Stack - Frontend Lead + Legacy Refactors)
May 2025 → Sep 2025

FPP World (TSW) - Modernizing a Legacy Laravel Monorepo and Building a Vue 3 Student Registration SPA

Led a frontend modernization effort in a legacy Laravel monorepo, introducing Vue 3 + Vite + Tailwind and delivering a student registration SPA with key integrations (reCAPTCHA, GA4, Google Places) plus targeted Blade refactors.

Tech Stack

Laravel 8
PHP
Blade
Vue 3
Vite
TypeScript
Tailwind CSS
Pinia
Docker
AWS (S3)

Key Metrics

406 commits attributed to me (May 8, 2025 → Sep 15, 2025)
Introduced Vue 3 + Vite + Tailwind in the monorepo
Adopted Pinia for Registration flow state

Summary

  • Delivery: built/restructured the Student Registration SPA and modernized the monorepo frontend (Vue 3 + Vite + Tailwind).
  • How I unlocked scale: shipped an incremental migration (legacy Blade + SPA coexisting) with a consistent toolchain and reusable components.
  • Practical effect: a modern foundation to evolve core flows (registration/match), with essential integrations (anti-bot, analytics, autocomplete) and improved UI consistency.

Over ~4 months, I owned a frontend “refresh” inside a legacy Laravel monorepo, moving it to a modern setup with Vue 3 + Vite + TypeScript + Tailwind, plus targeted Blade refactors where it made sense-while keeping compatibility with legacy behavior and the existing deployment process.

Context

  • Product and users: a multi-tenant/multi-brand events platform (physical and virtual) with Blade pages and frontend flow apps (registration/match).
  • Why it mattered: evolve UI and critical flows without breaking legacy behavior and without rewriting the entire platform.
  • Real constraints: an older monorepo, Blade + modern assets coexisting, reliance on a scripted deployment flow (static asset upload), and low test coverage.

Key Challenges

  • Modernize without rewriting: introduce Vite/Vue/TS/Tailwind inside a legacy Laravel setup without disrupting production.
  • Flow complexity: multi-step student registration with intermediate states and a match journey.
  • Consistency and quality: reduce visual drift and standardize patterns across multiple areas.
  • Integrations and reliability: analytics, anti-bot, and address autocomplete without harming UX.

What I did

  • Student Registration SPA (Vue 3)

    • Structured the app by flow domains (steps, validation, state, reusable form/match components) to keep it maintainable and evolvable.
    • Evolved key registration and match screens with predictable UI states (loading/error/success) across steps.

  • Build + stack modernization

    • Introduced Vue 3 + Vite + TypeScript + Tailwind inside the Laravel monorepo and ensured compatibility with the existing build/deploy constraints.
    • Set up frontend quality baselines (lint/format) to improve consistency and reduce regressions during frequent changes.

  • Product integrations and robustness

    • Integrated Google Analytics (GA4/GTM) into the SPA while keeping compatibility with existing legacy tags.
    • Added Google reCAPTCHA v2 to the frontend flow with backend support.
    • Integrated Google Places Autocomplete to improve form completion and reduce errors.
    • Preserved compatibility with the existing deployment process (build + asset distribution).

Decisions & Trade-offs

  • Incremental migration (Blade + SPA) > full rewrite: reduced risk and accelerated delivery.
    Trade-off: different patterns coexist for a while (Blade and Vue side by side).
  • Quality baselines early (lint/format) > “features only”: improved consistency and reduced visual drift/regressions.
    Trade-off: upfront investment before some visible features.
  • Centralized Registration state (Pinia) > scattered component state: reduced coupling and made step-by-step evolution easier.
    Trade-off: requires discipline in state design and contracts between screens/components.
  • Testing: kept the repo baseline (PHPUnit) but with low coverage and no dedicated frontend suite in this period.
    Trade-off: prioritized product + toolchain progress over increasing coverage in that cycle.

Results

  • Measured (engineering): 406 commits attributed to me (May 8, 2025 → Sep 15, 2025), plus stack modernization (Vue 3/Vite/TS/Tailwind) and Pinia adoption for the registration flow.
  • Concrete technical proxies:
    • Registration SPA structured for iteration (steps + state + reusable components).
    • Shipped integrations: GA4/GTM, reCAPTCHA v2, Google Places Autocomplete.
    • Targeted Blade refactors (standardization and updates) in legacy areas tied to institutional/event pages.
  • Operational impact: a more predictable foundation to evolve features and UI, with better DX and less inconsistency.

Note: sensitive product metrics may live in internal dashboards; redacted evidence can be organized upon request.

What I’d do differently

  • Add a minimal frontend test suite (smoke/e2e) to protect the registration flow.
  • Document contracts and standards (SPA architecture, state/route conventions, component guidelines) to speed onboarding and reduce divergence.
  • Create a release checklist (lint + build + essential validations) tied to the deployment flow to reduce UI change risk.