A session I delivered in SELA SDP14 about SPAs and Backbone.js.

1. SELA DEVELOPER PRACTICE
Gil Fink
Single Page Applications
with Backbone.js

2. • The Road to Single Page Apps
• What is a SPA?
• SPA Building Blocks and Architecture
• AMD and RequireJS
• MVC using Backbone.js
• A Simple SPA
Agenda

3. RIA
Web
Apps
Websites
Thin
Clients
and App
Stores
The Road to Single Page Apps
Native
Apps
Click-
Once
SPA
Embedded
Objects (Flash,
Silverlight, Java
Applets …)

4. Traditional Web Apps
HTTP requests translated into user actions
The state persisted in the server side
The server translates the user action
The server translates its response to HTML
The browser displays the HTML response

5. Traditional Native Apps
State is persisted in the client-side
Compiled programming language is used
The application is platform dependent
An installation may be required

6. What is a Single Page App (SPA)?
A web application
No need for full page submit
No full refresh
No embedded objects
Client-side routing

7. Why to Develop SPAs?
Feature Web App Native App Single Page App
Cross Platform V X V
Client State
Management
X V V
No Installation
required
V X V
Web
App
Native
App
SPA

8. SPA Building Blocks
HTML5
JavaScript Libraries
Ajax
REST
SPA
Web API

9. HTML5
Supported by most modern browsers
Include variety of new JavaScript APIs that can
help to:
Store data locally
Save data across application shutdowns
Communicate with the server in new ways
Such as CORS and Web Sockets
Increase web performance with new APIs and new
mechanisms

10. Ajax
Asynchronously call server endpoints
Non blocking operations
You can maintain state in the client and go to
the server without refreshing the whole page
Has opened the road for richer client-side UX

11. JavaScript Libraries/Frameworks

12. REST
Stands for REpresntational State Transfer
Architecture style
Designed to work with HTTP
Using HTTP verbs (POST, GET, PUT, DELETE)
Performs Create, Read, Update and Delete operations
respectively
Can also use other HTTP verbs
Can receive and send data in variety of formats
JSON, XML, HTML, XHTML, Blob and more

13. Web API
The server is used only as API
Each API Function is an endpoint in the server
No need for server rendering
No need for server routing

14. Client-Side Routing
The main building block in a SPA
All routing is done in the client-side
You use a routing library/framework
When a route change happens, the library/framework
intercepts the navigation and impose your functionality

15. SPA Architecture

16. Asynchronous Module Definitions (AMD)
Define modules such that the module and its
dependencies can be asynchronously loaded

17. RequireJS Library
A module framework in the browser
Can be downloaded from
http://requirejs.org/
Browser friendly API
Concepts supported in Node.js as well
Defines a structure for files layout
Uses conventions to perform lookups for dependencies

18. Demo
RequireJS

19. MVC using Backbone.js
Backbone.js is a small MVW library
Enforces structure to your JavaScript code
Includes only 5 main objects:
Models
Collections
Views
Routers
Events

20. MVC using Backbone.js – Cont.
Extending one of Backbone.js main objects
To include built-in Backbone.js functionality
To create your own custom functionality
var myModel = Backbone.Model.extend({
defaults: {
myModelID: 0,
myModelName: ‘’
}
});
Var myCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({
model: myModel
});
var myRouter = Backbone.Router.extend({
routes: {
‘’: home
},
home: function() {
// create the home view
}
});

21. Demo
A Simple SPA

22. Questions

23. Summary
• SPAs are entire web apps built upon one page
and JavaScript interactions
• Very suitable for mobile development
• SPAs are the way to build your next web apps!

24. Thank You