ITT: SPAs have few to zero disadvantages.
The Disadvantages of Single Page Applications (2014)
91–100 of 105 posts
Re: The Disadvantages of Single Page Applications (2014)
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah, but see, the stop button, back and forward, scrolling down, etc. are how the web worked. And best practice has always been, "don't break the web". Now... people break things. We went from having a consistent UI experience in the browser to everyone just making stuff up. Not good.
If browsers had hooks for "the page has now finished loading" (to display a loading indicator while the page loads with XHR etc) and "callback for stop button click" I'm sure lots of SPAs would put them to good use :)
So, it is the browser's fault. Nice.
Re: The Disadvantages of Single Page Applications (2014)
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Word also doesn't generally lock up when it can't access the network, and sit there spinning though. (Although I'm sure that feature is on the road-map). I feel like a lot of the people making SPAs just haven't used a dodgy internet connection in five years or more.
I get the impression they are all too young to remember the dark old days of Flash web apps. We've been here before. It sucked.
Indeed!
Re: The Disadvantages of Single Page Applications (2014)
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
If browsers had hooks for "the page has now finished loading" (to display a loading indicator while the page loads with XHR etc) and "callback for stop button click" I'm sure lots of SPAs would put them to good use :)
So, it is the browser's fault. Nice.
If we can agree that SPAs are useful for some type of apps, it's definitely the browsers lack of APIs fault that the SPA has no way of telling the browser about these sort of things, yeah.
Re: The Disadvantages of Single Page Applications (2014)
#95As with everything, if you're going to do SPA, you should do it well. So far, one of the best SPA website I've seen is https://gocardless.com (disclaimer: I work there). Once loaded it's probably one of the fastest website I've browsed, and it doesn't have any of the drawbacks you mentioned: navigating to a new page is quick: ✓ navigating back is quick: ✓ remembering scroll position: ✓ cancelling navigation: ✗ but we…
More details about SEO would be helpful, considering that's probably the MOST important aspect of going all SPA or not. Are you doing some escape fragment/headless browser for googlebots?
I can easily find in Google content of angularjs sites I created, and I did nothing for SEO :) google just can execute js and it's enough.
Re: The Disadvantages of Single Page Applications (2014)
#96I completely disagree with the assessment of this article. I've been building and managing the build of simple to enterprise web applications since the web was born. I'm familiar with the entire spectrum of development platforms from old CGI/Perl, ASP, JSP, Cold Fusion, ASP.NET, MVC-platforms (pick one), and now SPA's using front-end platforms like AngularJS and ReactJS. The amount of time saved in developing service…
Maybe the MVC frameworks you used weren't the best, I can do everything on the backend and still have all the advantages that you described. It's not about where you execute your UI code, It's about how you structure your application. I've seen plenty more of SPA's become an unmaintainable spaghetti nightmare and also seen many non-SPA's work splendidly.
You can't do on the backend everything what SPA can. You simply can't manipulate views without page reload and if you want to do it by injecting JS into backend templates, it will be just mimicking of SPA on the server side, and it's the most ugliest thing what can exist - from the development point of view.
I support parent comment and I can add: SPA split responsibilities between server side and frontend. It helps us to build services with APIs, reusable with different clients (mobile app can use same API with absolutely different UI), so this split looks like natural evolution. This article is just luddism.
Re: The Disadvantages of Single Page Applications (2014)
#97This seems to be aimed at Single Page Websites and not Applications. The aim isn't to "mimic the browser using Javascript" but to create an immersive application that feels like you're no longer in a browser at all.
"create an immersive application that feels like you're no longer in a browser at all" That seems like a very odd goal.
I disagree. What would Google Docs look like as a typical post back driven app? A giant text area with markup? No collaboration? No history of changes? No live spellckeck? Are you suggesting we go back to a pre-ajax web? No thanks.
I was developing clunky web applications with way too many text areas, buttons, tables, and pages pre-ajax. I'm much happier with the state of the web now.
Re: The Disadvantages of Single Page Applications (2014)
#98I must say i'm constantly surprised by the negativity towards changes in technology by the technology oriented crowd. More specifically, the pure negativity. So many (here included) constantly shout negativity towards these technology concepts (SPA, in this case), and thankfully also citing what they're negative specifically about. What i'm surprised to see though, is that so few focus on improving the tech concept (…
In all fairness, I thought early smartphones were pretty silly, and my opinion hasn't much changed. I also find people touting "progress" don't realise that a lot of the time they just mean "change". I mean, sure, if a new way of doing things is demonstrably better, by all means let's use it. But a lot of the time you're just swapping one (well-understood) set of tradeoffs and considerations for a new, less understoo…
Re:Progress
Well, i sort of disagree. I agree that all progress isn't positive, but the problem is you can't really know that in the current timeframe. "progress" very often contains one (or more) steps back for every step forward. In the future, after the concept as matured, we will know if it is positive or not. But that is exactly how this works.
Sure, we can only use well tested, well understood, and well functioning concepts - but we already do that. What you are experiencing is bleeding edge, and we do not do bleeding edge where it really matters. Eg, good luck finding Nasa pulling this crap haha. In places where it is far less important, where you as a company/person have decided to use a product that is newer (probably for the sake of not being old, stale, and "safe"), then you have clearly chosen to accept the tradeoffs.
Re: The Disadvantages of Single Page Applications (2014)
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not really - these days even googlebot can and does execute enough javascript to craw #/customers/10. Screen readers can do javascript and you can use ARIA to make it easy to browse for blind people.
> even googlebot I would assume that's one of the more capable crawlers though; not the average, and surely not the lower bound.
It is also the only one that it makes sense to care about, from a business perspective.
Re: The Disadvantages of Single Page Applications (2014)
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any idea why on https://gocardless.com/merchants/new , when the Email Address input has focus, Cmd+Left arrow do not navigate to the previous page? Once the input no longer has focus, I'm allowed to use the shortcut again.
Probably because Cmd+left arrow is the system shortcut for "jump to the start of the current line." You'll see this behaviour when a form input has focus on any site.
OHhh that's true. I've been curious why stuff like this breaks for months now. I use OSX at work, Ubuntu/Windows at home, and jumping between this many OSs I sometimes forget about the system bindings if I'm not in an IDE. Thanks!