Server Rendered JavaScript Apps

A short talk on the whys and wherefores of server-rendered JavaScript apps, presented at ManhattanJS.

1. Server-Rendered JavaScript Apps
2. Why Client-Side JavaScript? • Fast Navigation • Fast Data Access • Rich Interactivity • Coherent Programming Model
3. Why Server-Rendered? • Consistent Performance • Fast Initial Render • Web Crawlers/cURL
4. Can you get the best of both worlds?
5. “Progressive Enhancement”
6. “Progressive Enhancement” • Server render, then add behavior using JavaScript • No client-side routing • Complexity increases over time
7. Complexity grows exponentially with each new feature.
8. Progressive enhancement (as a technique) is dead.
9. But what if we could get the benefits of progressive enhancement as a by-product of modern development?
10. FastBoot
11. It doesn’t replace your existing server. Point of Clarification
12. JSON data GET /api/posts.json GET /posts Browser CDN JS App Empty HTML, JavaScript (Big!) API Server
13. Initial HTML JSON data GET /posts Browser FastBoot First Page API Server JavaScript JS App
14. Demo
15. github.com/tildeio/ ember-cli-fastboot
16. Next Up: Rehydration
17. Rehydration • Show server-rendered HTML • Wait for JavaScript to load • JavaScript “takes over” once loaded • Side effect: Wicked fast re-renders (thanks to “virtual DOM”)
18. Thank You