Mastering Web Development

Updated Sep 15, 2022#webdev#books

Web developers these days refer to the products they build as web apps, rather than websites. While there is no strict difference between the two terms, web apps tend to be highly interactive and dynamic, allowing the user to perform actions and receive a response for their action.

Traditionally, the browser receives HTML from the server and renders it. When the user navigates to another URL, a full-page refresh is required and the server sends fresh new HTML for the new page. This is called server-side rendering.

However in modern SPAs, client-side rendering is used instead. The browser loads the initial page from the server, along with the scripts (frameworks, libraries, app code) and stylesheets required for the whole app. When the user navigates to other pages, a page refresh is not triggered.

While traditional server-side rendered apps are still a viable option, a clear client-server separation scales better for larger engineering teams, as the client and server code can be developed and released independently.

Web Rendering

ReactJS

NodeJS

Miscellaneous