What is Single-Page Application?

May 03 5 mins read

— Gaurav Gupta

What is Single Page Application?

A single-page application (SPA) is a website designing approach where the content of every new page is aided not from loading new HTML pages but is produced dynamically through JavaScript's capability to manipulate the DOM elements on the preexisting page itself. A single-page application approach enables the user to continue interacting and consuming with the page while new elements are being fetched or updated, and can lead to much faster interactions and content reloading. Besides, the HTML5 History API enables us to change the page's URL without reloading the page, letting us create separate URLs for different views. Once inside of the SPA, the application can dynamically get the content from the server through AJAX requests or WebSockets. This enables the browser to keep the current page open while requesting the server in the background to get additional content or new "pages" altogether. If you've ever initiated a search query and had halfway results appear below the input form as you were typing, then you have observed dynamic queries taking place in the background that updated those DOM elements. As a matter of fact, the server queries can fetch any sort of data, time and again, taking the form of JSON strings, payloads, or even HTML elements that are already prepared for rendering.

What is Single page Application

Advantages of a Single-Page Application:

SPA is quick, as most resources (CSS + HTML + Scripts) are only loaded once during the entire lifespan of the application. Only data is transferred back and forth. In the case of single-page applications, only the necessary part of content gets updated rather than updating the whole page. This increases the speed of the website considerably. Throughout the entire lifespan of the application, most of the resources like CSS or scripts or HTML are loaded just once. It is only data that gets moved here and there. Now, this can be considered as a great benefit if the web page takes higher than 200 milliseconds to load as this signifies that it can affect the business and its sales significantly.
SPAs can be effortlessly debugged with Chrome, as you can monitor network operations, investigate page elements and data associated with it. Compared to Multi-page Applications, here, the debugging is easier as single-page applications come with their very own Chrome developer tools. By using SPAs, you get to monitor the network operations, investigate the page elements, and check the data which is associated with the pages
The development is streamlined and simplified. There is absolutely no need to write code to provide pages on the server. It is much easier, to begin with as you can usually kick off development from a file, without using any server at all.
Users get to relish a simple linear experience through single-page applications. Just like the web apps, these applications, too, come with a transparent starting, middle layer, and end. Many of the web apps like Trello, Slack, and Spotify offer an outstanding interactive experience to the user by utilizing parallax scrolling, amazing transitions, and effects to depict the customer journey completely. With SPAs, you need not click on endless links, and here scrolling is convenient and uninterrupted. The single-page applications come with a scroll, which makes them the best choice for mobile users who are accustomed to working with scrolling on their apps.
A SPA can cache and efficiently use local data. A SPA stockpiles all the data that it gets after it sends a request to a server. It can also work offline by using this data. The server can get synchronized with local data when a secure connection is available in case the user currently has poor connectivity.

When is it better to use the SPA?

When should you think about using a single-page application? First, if you'd like a fruitful interaction between the customer and your application, an SPA is almost a requisite. Applications like Google Maps make broad use of this approach to provide live view changes as you scroll from a place to another or click on place markers to view pictures of a particular place. Secondly, if you want to provide live updates on the page, you'll most certainly need to make use of this approach; data streaming, notifications, and real-time charts require the utilization of such an approach. The server-side rendering method discussed above can mend the situation for load-times, as well as provide some essential readability for users without JavaScript enabled. We recommend at least having base functionality for your content visible for users that don't have JavaScript enabled so that they'll have the chance to decide to allow javascript based on what they've seen from the initial page load.

Why Choose Squareboat?

We'll migrate your conventional multi-page site to a single page site
We'll make your single-page app SEO-friendly, to avoid issues and ensure your website will be successfully crawled and indexed by search engines
To ensure your app’s security, we’ll select a web host that offers dependable security measures
Our developers are experts in developing single-page applications of both types and will gladly help you choose the kind of single-page app that suits your business best
Our dedicated QA team will ensure that your app works flawlessly on all modern devices

Just a few years ago, Single Page Applications were a game-changing technology. Now, they are becoming increasingly popular. To understand their massive impact on web development, it is enough to have a look at the examples which represent best practices of a single page application.

Gmail — when you click on a button or a link, the page doesn’t change. JS code rewrites the information and brings forward the message or folder you requested.
Google Docs — All changes are real-time. The chances of progress loss are zero thanks to a consistent auto-saving feature.
Twitter — You can do necessary activities (tweet, retweet, follow, upload a picture, etc.) without having to leave the page.

A growing number of businesses, including companies in the Retail and eCommerce, Entertainment, Media, eLearning, and Travel industries, depend on their online presence. As a JavaScript software development company, Squarboat provides application development services to support your online marketing, CRM and loyalty programs with up-to-date technology solutions that deliver tangible business value by encouraging users to follow the smart marketing journey you design for them.

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