
An Introduction to the Isomorphic Web Application Architecture


The below mentioned article provides a basic introduction to the isomorphic web application architecture, the major benefits that the architecture provides, and the advantages of using Go to implement isomorphic web applications.
The Isomorphic Web Application Architecture
The isomorphic web application architecture is a fairly new and powerful way to implement web applications. An isomorphic web application, is an application where both the web server and the web browser(the client), may share all, or some parts of the web application code. Web applications implemented with the isomorphic web application architecture provide a better user experience, enhanced discover ability by search engines, and reduced operating costs by sharing parts of the web application code across environments.
Well established businesses, such as Airbnb, Bloomberg, Capital One, Facebook, Google, Netflix, and Walmart have accepted isomorphic web application development, and with good reason - the financial bottom line. A study by Walmart found that for every 1 second of improvement, they experienced up to a 2% increase in conversions. In addition to that, they also found that for every 100 milliseconds of improvement, they grew incremental revenue by up to 1%. Source: How Website Speed Affects Conversion Rates (http://www.globaldots.com/how-website-speed-affects-conversion-rates)The term “Isomorphic JavaScript” was coined by Charlie Robbins in his 2011 blog post, Scaling Isomorphic JavaScript Codebase. The word "isomorphism" comes from mathematics. In Greek, "iso" means equal and “morphosis” means to form or to shape. The term “Isomorphic Go” refers to the methodology to create isomorphic web applications using the Go programming language.
The Benefits of the Isomorphic Web Application Architecture
Benefit #1: An Enhanced User Experience
After the initial server side rendered web page response, the isomorphic web application architecture enhances the user experience by running in single page mode. Dynamic client-side routing is used for subsequent user interactions with the website, preventing full page reloads and enhancing the user experience.
Maintainability of the project code base is strengthened by the isomorphic web application architecture due to the fact that a single programming language, is used to implement both the client-side and sever side web applications. This prevents the mental context shifts that occur when dealing with two different programming languages across environments.
Benefit #3: Increase in Efficiency
The isomorphic web application architecture increases the efficiency of rendering content, by providing a mechanism for distributed template rendering the isomorphic template renderer. With this mechanism in place, templates can be reused across environments.
Benefit #4: Increase in Productivity
The single unified codebase that is the hallmark of the isomorphic web application architecture provides many opportunities to share code across environments. For example, form validation logic can be shared across environments, allowing a web form to be validated, both on the client-side and the server-side, using the same validation logic.
Benefit #5: Make the Best First Impression
The isomorphic web application architecture’s usage of server-side rendering for the initial web page response, guarantees that the user will see content immediately upon accessing the website. Since content will be displayed to the user instantly, the user will perceive a fast page load.
Benefit #6: Promote Discover ability
The isomorphic web application architecture promotes discover ability, since it can easily provide well formed HTML content that is easily consumable by search engine bot crawlers. Dynamic client-side routing, enables you to match server-side routes, and create pretty URLs that can be easily indexed by search engines.
Web applications implemented with the isomorphic web application architecture provide a better user experience, enhanced discover ability by search engines, and reduced operating costs by sharing parts of the web application code across environments
Advantages of using Go to implement Isomorphic Web Applications
JavaScript has been the most popular option to create isomorphic web applications. Now, a new option exists with the introduction of Isomorphic Go. There are many compelling advantages for using Go over JavaScript to implement isomorphic web applications.
Go is a modern programming language that's designed to be relevant in an age of multicore processors and distributed systems. Unlike Node.js, backend web server instances implemented in Go, are multi-threaded, using cheap, lightweight threads known as go routines. Go's powerful concurrency constructs allow you to avoid call back hell, enabling you to create code that is more maintainable. Go is a statically typed language unlike popular scripting languages such as JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and PHP. As a statically typed language, Go comes with the advantage that many problems can be discovered at compile time. The language also comes with type inference capabilities, giving Go the feel of a dynamic programming language along with the added benefit of type safety.
Go includes many features that allow developers to be highly productive. Go has a simple and terse syntax which promotes readability and maintainability. Go has an implicit build system, that automates dependency analysis, which eliminates the need to manually create and maintain build files. Go comes with a robust standard library, providing a lot of useful functionality, right out of the box. More information about Isomorphic Go is available at https://isomorphicgo.org