Re:Things You Should Never Do, Part I (2000)
by tomjen3 on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @12:16PM
(#6328565)
Not at all. It is perfectly possible to go from a big freaking desktop app (BFDA) and rewrite it, piecemeal, to be a single page web app.
The way you do that is that you first, piece by piece, split the BFDA into multiple layers, then you make it client-server, split the data-storage into its own server, split the gui of, split the business logic of. Then you rewrite the parts that request stuff for the client into using JSON and rest, then all you have to do is to port the (hopefully) tiny amount of gui interface the user needs to Javascript and the entire app still works.
The way you do that is that you first, piece by piece, split the BFDA into multiple layers, then you make it client-server, split the data-storage into its own server, split the gui of, split the business logic of. Then you rewrite the parts that request stuff for the client into using JSON and rest, then all you have to do is to port the (hopefully) tiny amount of gui interface the user needs to Javascript and the entire app still works.
Is it easy? No. Does it waste some work? Yes.