In the ever-changing world of technology, business persons have to find tips and tricks to make it grow and stand out in the market due to the advanced technology. We are living in the digital era whereby maintaining a good customer relationship and fulfilling all their requirements is all that matters to grow up a business.

When the customers are no longer interested in your business, that is the perfect time when you have to push the odds and search for advanced ways of giving them the best. Now the question arises, how and which techniques can business people use to sustain their customers? That is the purpose of this article.

We will analyze the following in this article:

• Why Single Page Application is important
• Why companies or businesses use it for their websites.
• Advantages of Single Page Application
• Some of the drawbacks of Single Page Application

Perfect examples of a single page apps are Facebook, Google maps, Twitter, Google Drive, and Gmail. You will notice that the above named companies are the top priorities for business oriented people and they use more internet to keep social activities moving. Stay tuned as we begin exploring all the dynamics involved in a single page application and how it enables your business to grow and maintain the customer base.

In simple terms, single page applications are unique website applications that are meant to load a single HTML page with dynamism while updating it when the user is using the app. Single page applications use HTML5 and AJAX in the process of formulating fluid and ensure the web responds faster while loading and reloading them.

How the Single Page Application Works

A person may wonder how SPAs work when it runs little HTML from the server. Well, when the web app development is started, it is only the data which is transmitted to the wire. This implies that a new HTML has to be formed so that the browser can modify the contents being displayed.

When a single page application is compared to traditional server applications, the fact is that in single page application, most of the activities take place on the side of the client whereby the data to HTML is transferred to the client from the server. On the contrary, another template is still running on the developer’s browser. When it comes to traditional server application, the operation is quite different from the single page application whereby most of the activities take place on the server and not on the client’s side. All the process of rendering data is done on the server.

In most cases, single page application is appropriate when formulating dynamic platforms with minimum volume of data. Also, SPAs suits best future mobile app development. However, it is quite disadvantageous on mobile app development due to inappropriate search engine optimization. Search engine optimization does not matter in platforms such as social networks, SaaS, and closed communities. You will be prompted to use a multi-page application when the application requires a steady and effective search engine optimization.

Types of Single Page Applications

The state in which SPAs operates can be either be in an external form or internal form. External state involves the location of the URL.

• Internal state means that there is only one entry, and when starting the process, you need to start at the bottom of everything s you enter the application. Navigating through internal-state app means that there is no external representation. For you to share the content, the person loading the app has to start at the bottom.
• As for the case of external SPAs, you can freely share the link and the other person opening the link will see the exact content available in your browser since the location keeps updating as you browse. But note that this is applicable when both parties have the authorization to view the content. SPAs uses windows location when the URL in the address bar is what the users are viewing. What does this mean? Well, the implication here is that you can interact with several parts of the URL without having to necessarily analyze it by yourself.

Key Elements of The Location Object’s Property for an SPA

The three significant aspects relating to properties of an object in SPA include the following:

• Hash
• Path-name
• search

Search is also known as query string. Navigating through any location that is not within the application location can be performed regularly with SPA.

Path-name determines the kind of content to be used thus it is the base of all the three. The purpose of hash and search is to provide additional data to be used.

Advantages of Single Page Application

• Saving Time and Bandwidth

In Single Page Application, there is no need of sending any HML over the network for each user throughout the process. Doesn’t this save more energy and time? Well it does. The HTML is usually extensive due to the existence of many opening and closing tabs. The same is applicable to traditional applications since there is more loading of duplicate HTML each moment a request is made to the server. This shows how the operation becomes direct and straightforward when following the way of Single Page Application.

• Quick Data Refresh

Nothing sounds fulfilling like a use experiencing quick data refresh with the consumption of minimum bandwidth. This technique can apply well on mobile phone devices and slower internet connections.

• Availability of code-splitting methods

Some critics argue that JavaScript bundle size can become overloaded on the Single Page web Application. Despite the criticism, good news is that most of the useful Single Page Application frameworks offer the option for splitting the code. This means that your bundle size is well monitored and performs as required whenever necessary.

• The use of JSON

Another good reason why Single Page Application should matter to you is the architecture involved. The fact that SPA uses JSON when sending application date gives a room for setting the application layer and view layer, which is the HTML apart. This has the advantage to the developers as it allows the developer to make each layer on its own. The best part is that a developer can always replace the HTML markup without necessarily having to change the logic involved in the application. Also, to add on this, remember that service and the client are independent of one another.

• Easy to set up

When building an SPA for production purposes, you will always end up with one CSS bundle, one HTML, and a JavaScript bundle. This makes the single page application quite easy and swift to set-up. A good server with the same content, for example, Amazon s3, Apache, Nginx, Firebase, and Bucket can always host such files.

• Promotes the spirit of Teamwork

When building a single page application, it involves several teams whereby frontend developers take the responsibility of coming up with the best user experience and using the API formed in the backend. This means the backend team takes the responsibility of building an API.

Disadvantages of Single Page Application

Everything that has advantages also has some drawbacks and so is Single Page Application.

• Poor Search Engine Optimization

Any developer understands how a search engine optimization is a vital factor in anything involving web developments. As for SPAs, they cannot in any chance function properly by search engines like Google. The reason why search engines cannot be optimized in SPAs is due to the fact that there is no HTML markup in the first index but only an index Html file. The main problem why the execution fails is because their crawlers cannot function o JavaScript that was used to formulate the HTML. Although according to Google, their search Engine can crawl to AJAX calls.

• Operational Preference and Complexity

Most developers view the process of building a single page application as a complex process that requires different dynamic approaches. All the developer needs to understand is to adopt a unique technique that fits their needs and requirements.  Everything else will automatically fall in place.

• Over Dependent on JavaScript

From the discussion all along in the article, it is evident that Single Page Application relies heavily on JavaScript for all its operations. This means that applications that are running on devices with low power will automatically have a poor user experience. Another thing is that some of the people visiting your site might have disabled JavaScript. This means you have to consider such factors when building up the single page application.

Also read: single page application vs multi page application

Conclusion

We have come to the end of analyzing Single Page Application. As for now, you should be able to explain what a single page application is, how it operates, its advantages and disadvantages.

You may wonder why on earth the SPAs has all the advantages, yet it is not being put into action on the public internet. Well, the main reason is as we discussed before concerning Search Engine Optimization. Until when Google will be able to index the single page application, that is when everything else will be perfect. All the developers need to understand the dynamics of SPAs and make something unique according to their preferences.

Aalpha is headquartered in heart of Bangalore, if you are a startup or a SME company and looking to outsource App Development or simply Hire Developers, then please connect with Aalpha and we will be glad to offer free consulting cum proposals for your projects.

Also check: Single Page Application Development Cost