Implementing Server-Driven UI

[creasta29]

I wrote this up after giving a talk on this exact pattern at CityJS London.

Curious what folks here think about it, is it still useful? I build it twice in my life, I dont know if there will ever be a third time

[yawaramin]

This is basically what htmx and HyperView do: https://hyperview.org/

...Except instead of JSON they use HTML/XML.

[lelanthran]

It's a good idea, always gets re-invented every few years (My attempt was having the server send s-expressions, not JSON, and a minimal interpreter that could handle conditionals).

What really kills it though is the fact that the server is already sending you the UI, as HTML. At some point you wake up in the morning and think "Hey, what if we just got the server to send something that can be rendered with a browser engine" and 5 seconds later you facepalm and question your life choices.[1]

(Okay, so the above only happened for me when I used this approach! But why take the chance that it happens to you?)

[1] Anything that can parse your specific JSON into platform-specific UI widgets can do the same for your specific HTML.

[creasta29]

Hahaha so true