Single Page Web Applications

about the technology

Web 1.0: Sites request pages from the server one at a time. Each interaction with a page means another round-trip. Slow, awkward, and easy.

Web 2.0: AJAX . Individual elements change without updating the whole page. Great idea, but a lot more work on both the server and the client.

Enter the modern single page web application (SPA). With the near universal availability of capable browsers and powerful hardware, you can push most of the web application to the browser; including HTML rendering, data, and business logic. The only time a client needs to communicate with the server is to authenticate or synchronize data. This means users get a fluid, comfortable experience whether they're surfing at their desk or using a phone app on a sketch 3G connection.

about the book

If your website is a jumpy collection of linked pages, you are behind. Single page web applications are your next step: pushing UI rendering and business logic to the browser and communicating with the server only to synchronize data, they provide a smooth user experience, much like a native application. But, SPAs can be hard to develop, manage, and test.

Single Page Web Applications shows how your team can easily design, test, maintain, and extend sophisticated SPAs using JavaScript end-to-end, without getting locked into a framework. Along the way, you'll develop advanced HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript skills, and use JavaScript as the language of the web server and the database.

This book assumes basic knowledge of web development. No experience with SPAs is required.

what's inside

• Design, build, and test a full-stack SPA
• Best-in-class tools like jQuery, TaffyDB, Node.js, and MongoDB
• Real-time web with web sockets and Socket.IO
• Touch controls for tablets and smartphones
• Common SPA design mistakes

about the reader

This book assumes you know JavaScript and web dev basics. No experience with SPA tools and techniques required.

about the authors

The authors are architects and engineering managers. Michael Mikowski has worked on many commercial SPAs and a platform that processes over 100 billion requests per year. Josh Powell has built some of the most heavily trafficked sites on the web.