Understanding Single Page Application

A single-page application is one of the best ideas to go for when the need for enhancing your business arises. Most users are now enjoying a perfect, unique, and interactive user experience thanks to Single Page Applications.  

The very best way of standing out in the present fast-paced world is to focus and put into consideration all the customer needs. It is an efficient way to enhance and grow your business ideas into reality. Although everyone is focusing on capturing the attention of users, the number of ways of bringing them on board seems not to be working properly. Businesses are now striving for newer and advanced ways to satisfy and provide a stand-out experience for all their users.  

As a result, most organizations have decided to build sections of their website with an advanced web design called Single Page Application. The very application you’re running on your device, be it a computer or mobile phone, is probably a product built under SPA principles. Consider Facebook and Google. These are just but part of the platforms that utilize the Single Page Application technique. Google Doc is also another critical instance of a Single Page Application. In this piece, you will understand what a single-page application is and all that’s associated with it, inclusive of its cons and pros. Just before we move a step further, it’s essential to understand that web application landscapes are divided into two forms. That is a Single Page Application and Multi-Page Application.  Let’s explore to understand each of them.        

Single Page Application Vs. Multi-Page Application

Single Page Applications are currently dominant, and every developer seems to love the approach. But this doesn’t guarantee that the SPA is a powerful alternative for web development services. Generally, the nature of the business you want to undertake will determine your need for a Single Page Application or a Multi-Page Application. Business needs vary, and therefore, it’s essential to determine the approach that suits your business better.   

Multi-Page Application

A Multi-Page Application is simply a traditional application that requires the display of a new page once requests are pulled from the server. These pages display each time data is exchanged from the user and the server.  Multi-Page Applications carry robust content and therefore are complex and deep with more links and specific user interfaces. 

What is a Single Page Application?

This application is one that allows the user to navigate on a single page without moving onto a different new page. Basically, instead of loading new other pages, the current page is rewritten once the user navigates through by clicking the links within the page. These are common applications on your device and are not limited to only Facebook, Trello, Twitter, or Gmail; there is much more.  

How SPA Works

Let’s now learn what underlies any given Single Page Application. Usually, browsers send requests for a given HTML file once you send a request via a web page.  For a Single Page Application, the server provides only a single HTML file after the first request. The server provides JSON data on concurrent requests. 

From the explanation above, we understand that a Single Page Application will always use the current page for rewriting. This is contrary to the expectation of the initial page load to respond to user requests. As a result, there are no page reloads; hence no waiting time is experienced here. 

Content loading on such applications gives the user the most interactive, dynamic, and natural experience. Therefore, everyone will have that impression of native mobile and desktop applications.  

Advantages and disadvantages of Single Page Applications

Single Page Applications have their pros and cons, just like any other technologies out there. Let’s explore some of the advantages and disadvantages that arise with the use of single-page applications.   

Advantages of Single Page Applications

• Quick Loading Time

It can be quite boring to sit around a couple of minutes just waiting for a page you’ve requested to load. Even a maximum of 200 millisecond-loading times is far much more, especially when you’re running an online business. This is likely to impact your sales negatively. But with a Single Page Application, everything sounds much easier. Pages load faster than their traditional web application counterparts. This because the first request results in a single page load. Contrarily, traditional web applications load pages at each request hence consuming much of loading time.    

• Seamless User Experience

If you need to have a wonderful user experience just like that of a native mobile or desktop application, then consider a Single Page Application. Users just keep navigating on a single page through content changes and nit page changes. This makes the experience more interactive, perfect, and enjoyable for the user.   

• Ease in Building Feature-rich Apps

With a Single Page Application, it is easy to incorporate additional features when the need arises. For instance, Single Page Application development makes it easy to develop a web application that requires editing of content with real-time analysis. On the other hand, it would be a nightmare for traditional web applications. This is because a reload of the whole page is required.    

• Less bandwidth used

The most wonderful and advantageous feature of a Single Page Application is the use of less bandwidth.  This is because pages load only once. More importantly, Single Page Applications work perfectly well, even with slow internet connections. Therefore, you can use a Single Page Application in your comfort from any zone regardless of the internet speeds.    

Disadvantages of Single Page Applications

One common disadvantage associated with Single Page Applications is that it’s not SEO-friendly. Most search engines rely on the number of website pages as a metric to consider. But with a SPA, everything seems not to auger well as only a single page is loaded. Therefore, when it comes to ranking on search engines, Single Page Applications become a disadvantage. 

• Many browser resources are used

A Single Page Application will require more resources from the browser. This is because most tasks are loaded onto the browser. Therefore, a web browser that works well with SPAs is the latest browser on the market. This is because the browser probably features modern requirements and features. 

• Popular SPA frameworks

After weighing everything, you can opt to use Single Page Applications to meet all your business needs. But these call for the most essential, useful, powerful, and renowned SPA frameworks. Let’s learn some of the essential frameworks suitable for your Single Page Business Application. In this, we won’t we shall consider JavaScript as a separate framework for developing a Single Page Application.  You can search or learn about it beyond this script’s scope. For you to come up with a grand, powerful Single Page Application, you can consider frameworks such as Backbone.js, Vue.js, Angular.js, Meteor, and React.js among many more. 

• Cases where you can use Single Page Applications

You likely to have encountered a dynamic platform that requires small amounts of data, right? This is where Single Page Applications come in. The applications work well with platforms that don’t demand more data from the user. Additionally, SPAs are spotlights for the future of mobile application development. The applications work well for platforms that are SaaS-based, closed communities, and specific areas where search engine optimization is not a big deal. The better option for applications that work well with Search Engine Optimization is the Multi-Page Application. Generally, SPAs are using in many application areas. These are just but a few. 

• Single Page Application Examples

Now that you’ve got some basic understanding of what a Single Page Application is, let us now navigate through some common SPA examples. These applications are common and are used by almost everyone in day-to-day life. 

Let’s start with Gmail, which is the most common application used. With this application, you can access a range of services such as the composition of messages, deletion of messages, the opening of unread emails, and much more. 

Secondly, there is another common application known as Grammarly. Ever heard of it? The answer is probably yes.  With this SPA, you can correct your write-up or article by cross-checking grammatical mistakes. Furthermore, you can do search engine optimization with the same application. 

Another instance of such applications is the commonly known Google Maps. If you already have your Google account, or you are acquainted with Google services, the Google Maps shouldn’t be hearsay. With this application, you can navigate through newer locations and find out directions to places unknown. 

No reloading of pages. Everything is as easy as what you are thinking. Get your device and sit right at your place of comfort and enjoy the powerfulness that comes with Single Page Applications.   

Read more: SPA advantages and disadvantages

Conclusion

Single Page Applications come along with lots of undebatable benefits. The web development sector has more upcoming trends, and we should even expect much more.  But even as we anticipate the latest upcoming trends, we should utilize Single Page Applications, which are more beneficial. With the use of SPAs, then you will be treading in the rightful direction. Whenever you think of starting your business with anticipation of benefits, think of Single Page Applications. The result will be a product with enhanced visibility, a powerful user experience, and a high level of interactivity. Having known all about Single Page Applications, it is a good idea to start right away with implementing one or two such applications. 

If you need more info on implementing a Single Page Application? then Aalpha is the right choice for you.