10 Rendering Patterns for Web Apps

Summary

This video explores the complexities of web development, highlighting the myriad of frameworks and rendering strategies available. It discusses 10 different web app rendering patterns, from static websites to advanced techniques like SSR, SSG, ISR, and resumability. Frameworks like React, AngularJS, and Next.js are mentioned, each offering unique solutions for user experience, performance, and SEO. The video aims to guide CTOs and developers in making informed decisions for their web projects.

Takeaways

• 🌐 **Rendering Patterns**: The video discusses 10 different web rendering strategies and their associated frameworks, highlighting the trade-offs in user experience, performance, and developer experience.
• 🏗️ **Static Websites**: The most basic rendering pattern is the static website, which involves pre-built web pages uploaded to a cloud storage bucket and served directly, suitable for sites with infrequent data changes.
• 🔄 **Multi-Page Applications (MPA)**: MPAs dynamically generate HTML and data on the server for each browser request, allowing for dynamic content changes, and are built using frameworks like Ruby on Rails, Django, and Laravel.
• 📱 **Single Page Applications (SPA)**: Introduced post-iPhone era, SPAs render the UI in the browser with JavaScript, providing a smoother user experience but can suffer from slow initial loads and SEO challenges.
• 🎉 **Server-Side Rendering (SSR)**: Combines the benefits of server-rendered HTML with client-side JavaScript, offering a faster initial load and improved SEO, supported by frameworks like Next.js, Nuxt, and SvelteKit.
• 📚 **Static Site Generation (SSG)**: Similar to SSR but with all HTML rendered in advance and deployed as static files, offering low-cost hosting and simplicity, with frameworks like Next.js and SvelteKit supporting this pattern.
• 🔄 **Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR)**: Allows for static sites to rebuild individual pages on demand, providing dynamic data handling without full server deployment, pioneered by Next.js.
• 🌊 **Partial Hydration**: A technique to improve the perceived performance of SPAs by rendering non-interactive components first and deferring interactivity until needed.
• 🏝️ **Islands Architecture**: Focuses on hydrating only interactive components on a page, reducing the initial JavaScript payload and improving performance, supported by frameworks like Astro.
• 🚀 **Streaming SSR**: A method to render server-side content in multiple chunks, making the UI interactive faster and enhancing perceived performance, featured in Next.js with its app directory.
• 🔁 **Resumability**: A novel rendering paradigm by the Quick framework that eliminates the need for hydration by serializing the entire website into static HTML, with JavaScript loaded lazily as needed.

Q & A

What is rendering in the context of web development?

Rendering is the process of converting data and code into HTML that can be viewed by the end user. This can occur on the server or in the browser and can be done all at once or incrementally, each with different trade-offs for user experience, performance, and developer experience.

What are the limitations of using static websites for web development?

Static websites are not ideal for sites where data changes often. They are suitable for basic websites that do not require much interactivity or dynamic data, as they consist of pre-built web pages uploaded as static files to a storage bucket.

How do multi-page applications differ from static websites?

Multi-page applications dynamically generate HTML and data on a server with each request from a browser, allowing the website's appearance to change with underlying data. This is unlike static websites where pages are pre-built and do not change without re-uploading.

What is a single page application (SPA) and how does it improve user experience?

A single page application is a web application that loads a single HTML page and dynamically updates that page as the user interacts with the app. This approach provides a smoother user experience compared to multi-page applications, as it avoids full page reloads with each interaction.

What are the main challenges with single page applications in terms of performance and SEO?

Single page applications face challenges with initial load performance due to large JavaScript bundles and can struggle with SEO because search engines have difficulty understanding content on dynamically rendered pages.

What is the concept of SSR (Server-Side Rendering) in web development?

Server-Side Rendering (SSR) is a rendering strategy where the initial HTML is rendered on the server and then 'hydrated' with client-side JavaScript to provide an app-like experience. This approach combines the benefits of server-rendered content with the interactivity of SPAs.

How does SSG (Static Site Generation) differ from SSR (Server-Side Rendering)?

Static Site Generation (SSG) involves rendering all HTML in advance and uploading it to a static host, similar to SSR, but it hydrates to JavaScript after the initial page load. SSG sites are often referred to as Jamstack sites and offer simplicity and low-cost hosting.

What is ISR (Incremental Static Regeneration) and how does it help with dynamic data?

Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) allows for static sites to be deployed but rebuild individual pages on the fly when the cache is invalidated. This approach enables handling dynamic data without the need for server deployment like SSR, offering a balance between SSG and SSR.

What is partial hydration and how does it improve the performance of web applications?

Partial hydration is a technique where only certain parts of a web page are initially rendered and made interactive, while others are loaded lazily. This can improve performance by reducing the initial JavaScript load and focusing on visible components first.

What is the islands architecture in web development and how does it optimize rendering?

The islands architecture is a rendering paradigm where only interactive components are hydrated with JavaScript, while static parts remain as static HTML. This approach minimizes the JavaScript required for interactivity, optimizing the rendering process and reducing unnecessary loads.

How does streaming SSR improve the user experience compared to traditional SSR?

Streaming Server-Side Rendering (SSR) allows for server-side content to be rendered in multiple chunks rather than all at once. This results in a faster interactivity of the UI and a more performant feel for the end user, as parts of the page can load and become interactive independently.

What is resumability in web development and how does it address hydration issues?

Resumability is a rendering paradigm that serializes a website and its data into HTML, with JavaScript broken into tiny chunks. This approach eliminates the need for hydration, as the initial page load is static HTML, and any required JavaScript for interactivity is lazily loaded in the background.

Outlines

00:00

🌐 Overview of Web Development Rendering Strategies

This paragraph introduces the complexity of web development, highlighting the multitude of frameworks and rendering strategies available. It discusses the evolution from static websites to dynamic multi-page applications and the subsequent shift towards single-page applications (SPAs). The video promises to explore 10 different rendering strategies and the frameworks that support them, aiming to guide viewers in making informed decisions for their projects. The paragraph emphasizes the trade-offs between user experience, performance, and developer experience inherent in each strategy.

05:01

🔍 Deep Dive into Advanced Web Rendering Techniques

The second paragraph delves into advanced web rendering techniques, starting with the concept of Server-Side Rendering (SSR) and its benefits of providing a full app-like experience after the initial page load. It then introduces Static Site Generation (SSG), which offers the simplicity and low-cost hosting of static sites with the interactive capabilities of SPAs. The paragraph also covers Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR), which allows for dynamic data handling without full site redeployment. The discussion continues with partial hydration, which improves performance by delaying the interactivity of non-critical components, and the Islands architecture, which selectively hydrates interactive components. Finally, the paragraph introduces streaming SSR and resumability, innovative approaches to rendering that aim to enhance performance and eliminate the need for hydration, respectively.

Keywords

💡Rendering

Rendering in the context of web development refers to the process of converting data and code into HTML that can be displayed by a web browser. This is a fundamental concept in the video, as it sets the stage for discussing various web app architectures. The video explains that rendering can occur on the server or in the browser, and can be done in different ways, each with its own trade-offs. For instance, static websites are mentioned as the most basic form of rendering where all pages are pre-built and uploaded as static files.

💡Frameworks

Frameworks are software structures that provide a foundation for developing applications. In the video, various frameworks are mentioned as tools that support different rendering strategies. For example, Hugo, 11ty, and Jekyll are cited as frameworks for building static websites, while Ruby on Rails, Django, and Laravel are mentioned for multi-page applications. The video emphasizes the importance of choosing the right framework based on the rendering strategy that best fits the project's needs.

💡Static Websites

A static website is a collection of web pages that are served as-is from the server without any dynamic processing. The video describes this as the original rendering paradigm, where web pages are pre-built and uploaded as static files to a storage bucket. This approach is suitable for websites with infrequent data changes and is supported by frameworks like Hugo, 11ty, and Jekyll. The video uses static websites to illustrate the simplest form of web rendering.

💡Multi-Page Applications (MPA)

Multi-Page Applications are web applications where each page request results in a new HTML page served by the server. The video explains that this approach allows the website's appearance to change dynamically with the underlying data. MPAs are contrasted with static websites, highlighting the need for dynamic rendering as a response to the limitations of static sites. Examples of frameworks that support MPAs include Ruby on Rails, Django, and Laravel.

💡Single Page Applications (SPA)

Single Page Applications load a single HTML page and dynamically update that page as the user interacts with the app, rather than loading new pages from the server. The video discusses SPAs as a response to the clunky feel of full page reloads in MPAs, especially with the advent of smartphones. Frameworks like AngularJS and React are mentioned as supporting the SPA paradigm, which provides a smoother user experience by avoiding full page reloads.

💡Server-Side Rendering (SSR)

Server-Side Rendering is a technique where the initial HTML is generated by the server, and then the client-side JavaScript takes over to provide an interactive experience. The video describes SSR as a 'Best of Both Worlds' approach, combining the benefits of server-rendered HTML with the interactivity of client-side JavaScript. Frameworks like Next.js, Nuxt, and SvelteKit are mentioned as supporting SSR.

💡Static Site Generation (SSG)

Static Site Generation is similar to SSR but involves pre-rendering all HTML pages in advance and then hydrating them with JavaScript after the initial page load. The video explains that SSG sites, often built with frameworks like Next.js and SvelteKit, are part of the JAMstack architecture, offering the simplicity and low-cost hosting of static sites with the app-like experience of SPAs.

💡Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR)

Incremental Static Regeneration is a technique where static sites are deployed but individual pages are rebuilt on the server when their cache is invalidated. The video introduces ISR as a solution to the need for redeploying static sites whenever data changes, allowing dynamic data handling without full server deployment. This concept is highlighted as a way to balance the benefits of SSG with the need for dynamic content.

💡Partial Hydration

Partial Hydration is a strategy to improve the performance of applications that use client-side rendering by only hydrating the parts of the page that are necessary for interactivity. The video discusses this as a way to address the initial 'freeze' that can occur while JavaScript executes during the hydration process. Partial hydration allows for a more efficient use of resources, as not all components need to be interactive from the start.

💡Islands Architecture

The Islands Architecture is a pattern where only interactive components are hydrated with JavaScript, while static parts of the page remain as static HTML. The video explains that this approach can lead to more efficient rendering, as it avoids the overhead of JavaScript for non-interactive elements. Frameworks like Astro are mentioned as facilitating this pattern, which can result in pages that are not interactive at all, thus not requiring any JavaScript to be shipped to the client.

💡Streaming SSR

Streaming Server-Side Rendering is a technique that allows for server-side content to be rendered in multiple chunks, rather than all at once. The video discusses this as a way to make the UI interactive more quickly and improve perceived performance. This approach is supported by frameworks like Next.js with the app directory, which leverages building blocks like React Server Components to stream content.

💡Resumability

Resumability is a new rendering paradigm introduced in the video, where a website and all of its data are serialized into HTML, and JavaScript code is broken into tiny chunks for lazy loading. This approach, pioneered by the Qwik framework, aims to eliminate the need for hydration altogether, leading to a more efficient initial page load and a smoother user experience. The video positions resumability as an innovative solution to the challenges associated with traditional client-side rendering.

Highlights

Web development involves choosing from millions of frameworks and various rendering strategies.

Rendering patterns are essential for turning data and code into visible HTML, impacting user experience, performance, and developer experience.

Static websites are suitable for basic sites with no dynamic data needs, supported by frameworks like Hugo, 11ty, and Jekyll.

Multi-page applications dynamically generate pages on the server, used by major web apps like Amazon, and supported by frameworks like Ruby on Rails, Django, and Laravel.

Single-page applications (SPAs) render UI in the browser for a smoother user experience, with frameworks like AngularJS and React.

Server-Side Rendering (SSR) combines the benefits of server-rendered HTML with client-side JavaScript for an app-like experience, used by frameworks like Next.js, Nuxt, and SvelteKit.

Static Site Generation (SSG) pre-renders HTML and hydrates to JavaScript post-load, offering simplicity and low-cost hosting, often built with meta frameworks.

Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) allows for dynamic data handling without full server deployment, by rebuilding pages on demand.

Partial hydration improves initial page load performance by rendering visible components first and delaying interactivity until needed.

The Islands architecture focuses on hydrating only interactive components, reducing unnecessary JavaScript load for static components.

Streaming SSR allows for server-side rendering in multiple chunks, making the UI interactive faster and improving perceived performance.

Resumability is an innovative rendering paradigm that eliminates hydration by serializing website data and JavaScript into tiny chunks for lazy loading.

The future of web development will likely see the invention of more rendering patterns to meet evolving needs.

Understanding these rendering patterns is crucial for building efficient and user-friendly web applications.

Frameworks and patterns should be chosen based on project requirements, considering factors like interactivity, SEO, and hosting costs.

Transcripts

learn web development they said it'll be

easy they said pulling web development

easy is the understatement of the Sentry

not only are there millions of

Frameworks but there are at least 10

different rendering strategies or

architectures that you'll need to choose

from when building a web app in today's

video we'll look at all 10 of them along

with the Frameworks that support them so

you can make the right decision as the

CTO of your project first of all though

what is a rendering pattern well

rendering is the process of turning data

and code into HTML that can be seen by

the end user this can be done on the

server or in the browser and it can be

done all at once or partially and these

all have trade-offs in terms of user

experience performance and developer

experience the original and most basic

rendering Paradigm is a static website

in this rendering Paradigm you put

together all of your web pages in

advance then upload them as static files

to a storage bucket somewhere in the

cloud and point a domain name to them

this works great even in today's world

and there are Frameworks like Hugo 11t

and Jekyll that can help you build them

programmatically the drawback is that

they're not great for websites where the

the data changes often so it's only

suitable for very basic websites that

don't require a ton of interactivity or

dynamic data eventually websites needed

to be more Dynamic and that brought us

multi-page applications where the HTML

and data is put together dynamically on

a server whenever a request comes in

from a browser this means the appearance

of the website can change whenever the

underlying data changes many of the

biggest web apps today still use this

approach like if you go to amazon.com

for example notice how every time you

click on a link you get a new

dynamically generated page from their

servers in addition there are many

popular Frameworks to build multi-page

apps like Ruby on Rails Django and

laravel as well as content Management

Systems like WordPress this approach

worked great until the iPhone came out

then people started to realize that

having this full page reload on every

URL feels kind of clunky compared to the

super smooth iPhone apps that's why

approximately in 2010 we saw the rise of

the single page application with

Frameworks like angularjs and react a

few years later in the spa Paradigm all

the UI rendering happens in the browser

you start with one HTML page as a shell

then execute JavaScript to render the UI

and fetch any required data with an

additional HTTP request now even though

it's just a single page it can still

have multiple routes those routes don't

point to a server they're just updated

by JavaScript in the browser this has

the huge advantage of feeling

instantaneous to the end user unlike a

multi-page application that might take

at least a few hundred milliseconds or

more to render the page but there are

some big disadvantages one is that it

requires a large JavaScript bundle which

can make the initial page load pretty

slow and two because it only renders a

shell search engines even today have a

hard time understanding any of the

content on the dynamic routes and that's

a no-go if you need good SEO or want

people to share your content on social

media a few years later it was time for

a new type of framework something that

could render HTML and data on the server

or the initial page load then hydrate to

client-side JavaScript afterwards we

call this SSR today but the general idea

is that the initial request goes to a

server and renders everything

dynamically then after that initial page

load JavaScript takes over to give you

the app like single page application

experience this Best of Both Worlds

approach is used by Frameworks like next

JS nux spell kit and so on which are

often referred to as meta Frameworks

this is likely the most popular

rendering strategy as of today but there

are still some drawbacks one drawback is

that you need an actual server and

servers cost money a slight variation on

SSR is SSG or static site generation in

this Paradigm you render all of your

HTML in advance then upload it to a

static host like a storage bucket but

like SSR it will hydrate to JavaScript

after the initial page load websites

like this are often called Jam stack

sites and they're typically built by the

same meta Frameworks like nexjs next and

swell kit you get the Simplicity and

low-cost hosting of a static site with

the app-like experience of a spa the

only bad thing is you have to redeploy

your site whenever the data changes and

that's why they invented ISR or

incremental static regeneration this

Paradigm started in next year yes and

the idea is that you deploy a static

site but you rebuild individual pages on

the fly on your server when the cache is

invalidated normally with a static site

you can just cache everything

permanently on a CDN making it extremely

fast with ISR the Cache can be

invalidated based on certain rules like

a specific amount of time and when that

happens the pages will be rebuilt and

this allows you to handle Dynamic data

without the need for an actual server

deployment like you would with SSR you

get the best of both worlds between SSG

and SSR but the drawback is that it's

more complex to set up on your own which

means you'll likely need to find a host

like Purcell that supports it out of the

box now another problem we haven't

talked about with any framework that

uses hydration is that on the initial

page load the app might feel like it's

frozen while the JavaScript is still

executing to take over the rendering

process to solve this problem we have

partial hydration on a large website

JavaScript may have a lot to do for

things that aren't even visible to the

end user like maybe you have the world's

most awesome and highly interactive

footer but it blows up the JavaScript

call stack with partial hydration you

might render the components at the top

of the page first and then wait until

the user Scrolls down before making that

component interactive many tools today

support code splitting to break your

apps into smaller chunks to facilitate

lazy loading patterns like this but it

may be possible to render even more

efficiently with the islands

architecture normally when hydrating

JavaScript takes over the entire page

but that's not very efficient because

many components are just static and

non-interactive with Islands you start

with static HTML then only use

JavaScript to hydrate interactive

components this gives you islands of

interactivity Frameworks like Astro

facilitate this pattern what's cool

about it is that you may have a page

that's not interactive at all in which

case no JavaScript is ever shipped to

the client even though you built the UI

with a JavaScript framework like react

now yet another way to address

inefficient hydration is a paradigm

called streaming SSR which is supported

in Frameworks like next js13 with the

app directory thanks to building blocks

like react server components basically

it allows you to render server-side

content can currently in multiple chunks

instead of all at once ultimately this

means the UI becomes interactive faster

and feels more performant to the end

user but what if there is a way we could

get rid of hydration altogether because

it seems like the source of a lot of

problems well that's where resumability

comes in which is a new rendering

Paradigm being pioneered by the quick

framework it takes an interesting

approach where a website and all of its

data even things like JavaScript event

listeners are serialized into HTML then

the actual JavaScript code is broken

into tons of tiny chunks that means the

initial page load is always static HTML

no hydration is needed any JavaScript

required for interactivity is lazy

loaded in the background and with that

we've looked at 10 different rendering

patterns on the web I'm sure many more

will be invented in the years to come

but hopefully now you can go and build

the website of your dreams if you want

to see these patterns in action become a

pro member at fireship i o to get access

to my full courses thanks for watching

and I will see you in the next one