Re:None of my projects want to be SPAs
by hombre_fatal on Monday February 11, 2019 @01:39PM
(#19136990)
Deep-linking URLs are available to SPAs as well, though.
I run a somewhat popular media site implemented as an endless-scrolling SPA. Clicking on an image or video opens its detail page in a floating modal and changes the URL. I specifically wanted people to be able to link to content this way, and my SPA will load that modal and the media-gallery behind it.
Quickly, SPA just becomes implementation detail. It's the level of user-interaction that dictates your implementation. For example, if you insist on your site being server-rendered with heavy Javascript that takes over, there may be a point where it would've been simpler for you to just implement it all in Javascript (the SPA).
I could've implemented my media site without Javascript. Or maybe just with AJAX that returns HTML. But I know from experience that, while simple upfront, those become more complicated as you try to build more interactive UX and starting wishing your Javascript had more access to the context. At which point a SPA is just another tool for managing client complexity in some other quadrant of the graph. But there's some nuance to the question of whether your site is or should also be in that quadrant.
I run a somewhat popular media site implemented as an endless-scrolling SPA. Clicking on an image or video opens its detail page in a floating modal and changes the URL. I specifically wanted people to be able to link to content this way, and my SPA will load that modal and the media-gallery behind it.
Quickly, SPA just becomes implementation detail. It's the level of user-interaction that dictates your implementation. For example, if you insist on your site being server-rendered with heavy Javascript that takes over, there may be a point where it would've been simpler for you to just implement it all in Javascript (the SPA).
I could've implemented my media site without Javascript. Or maybe just with AJAX that returns HTML. But I know from experience that, while simple upfront, those become more complicated as you try to build more interactive UX and starting wishing your Javascript had more access to the context. At which point a SPA is just another tool for managing client complexity in some other quadrant of the graph. But there's some nuance to the question of whether your site is or should also be in that quadrant.