Difference between client-server web apps and websites - web

I am wondering: why we use to split a web app into a client (JavaScript, CSS or even a framework like React or angular) and a server (PHP)?
Why it is preferable to do so instead of simply going on a website that includes PHP and HTML all together?

scalability and private storage. Hosting your own server side framework allows for huge application and privacy. The storage of html is minimal at best so it is much safer to have your own backend stuff. especially for enterprise software.

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How nodejs work with Angular ? Is it api or something different?

I have a question already search on google but not find a good answer.
What is the job of nodejs & ExpressJS in mean stack development ? Like is it some thing like php to create api and angular will call it ? Or something else
You're exactly right, Node.js is used in MEAN stack to create backend code and APIs that are called from a frontend Angular app.
Angular is the way to create an SPA (Single Page Application).
Wikipedia:
A single-page application (SPA) is a web application or web site that
interacts with the user by dynamically rewriting the current page
rather than loading entire new pages from a server.
ExpressJS
What is Express.js. Express is a fast, assertive, essential and
moderate web framework of Node.js. You can assume express as a layer
built on the top of the Node.js that helps manage a server and routes.
It provides a robust set of features to develop web and mobile applications.
So on top of node-js which is your server side application where you can build your apis that your angular SPA will consume, you have Express JS which is a ready solution to help you.
This way, you will not need to solve problems like routing which have already been solved by the framework in an "optimal" or at least commonly agreed "good enough" way.
There is an excellent answer on express js in stackoverflow here
Yes, you right it is like so. NodeJs is used to create a server, then APIs and Angular call those API from the Front-End.
Detailed Description:
What is NodeJs
You can create a server using NodeJs where you will have a bunch of APIs.
These APIs can be called from an Angular app.
Official Definition: Node.js is a runtime environment that executes JavaScript code outside of a browser. Outside of a browser means Server.
What is ExpressJs
ExpressJS is a prebuilt NodeJS framework that can help you in creating server-side web applications faster and smarter.
Note: It is not necessary to use ExpressJs if you are using NodeJs.
What is Angular
Angular is a framework for building Single Page Application(SAP) web
applications.
SAP means your site does not reload the page when you move from one page to another.
Your Angular app calls NodeJs API.
Angular is a library for building Single Page Applications which (typically) run inside a web browser.
Node.js is a way of running software written in JavaScript outside of a browser. It has many uses.
Software written to run under Node.js — that is strictly relevant to the topics you are asking about — includes:
Build tools used with Angular (converting code is written in ways optimal for developers to edit and debug to ways optimal for delivering to and running in a browser).
Other helper tools for software development (such as #angular/cli which creates a skeleton set of code for an Angular project)
HTTP servers used to provide web services (a type of API) for client applications (which may be written in Angular) to access
Express.js is a library for Node.js which provides prewritten solutions for many of the tasks an HTTP server needs to perform.
You can write many kinds of software in Node.js. I have some code lurking around that loops over all the images in a directory and spits out a PDF of them. It doesn't even go near the Internet.

How can I convert a HTML template into a Node.JS web app

I'm starting out on my Node.JS journey and I discovered a fantastic boilerplate over at https://github.com/azouaoui-med/pro-sidebar-template. I'm unsure though how to turn the static html into a web app. Just wondering how someone with more experience would do this?
Do I take the html and translate it into a PUG template file? I'm guessing to then make the onclick / links actually run some code, i'd need to point them at the routes setup in the web app?
Sorry to ask such inexperienced questions, web apps seem to take a vastly different approach to the desktop apps i'm familiar with programming
I'm wanting to create a web app that runs on a server, which I will later put on the desktop via electron.
thanks
The project you have is using browser-sync which indirectly uses NodeJS to run a local server and host the web application files.
Do I take the HTML and translate it into a PUG template file?
I am not sure about this question unless you specifically want to use server-side rendering I am not sure I would recommend this to start with especially if you plan to later convert this to a desktop application.
[Note* - Assuming you are referencing this library PUGJS in statements above ]
Now For this requirement I'm wanting to create a web app that runs on a server, which I will later put on the desktop via electron.
This will require you to make your data serving layer which is most commonly called backend separate from that of the data viewing layer which is most commonly referred to as front-end. Thus a case for using the same data layer across different types of clients viz. A web application and/or A desktop application ( electron if you choose so )
Step 1 - Define what sort of web application architecture you want to follow or use. This will be based on your project and business requirements. From what information I have so far I would suggest a simple client-server architecture where your frontend or web-application is the client which makes REST API calls to the backend (API Server) and thus produces a meaningful result.
Step 2 - Start with the creation of 2 projects a frontend where your HTML, CSS JS, etc will be and a simple NodeJS script to serve this static web app when deployed on the server. I am going with NodeJS since the context of this question is suggesting the same.
Step 3 - The other project which will only be an API Server or Backend. This server will provide only REST API to the frontend. This server will talk to the database and provide other services like authentication and logging etc. You can use expressJS for this also in the frontend project.
Here is a simplistic representation of the client-server model which you can reference.
Some additional links for you to digest.
What is the difference between a web application and a client/server application?
https://medium.com/codiumclub/web-application-architecture-part-1-guide-to-become-full-stack-developer-cc9526a3519b

Progressive web app with asp.net core 2.0 Razor Pages

I want to create a progressive web app with ASP.NET CORE 2.0 using Razor Pages preferably because I like the code behind architecture of Razor Pages.
Please recommend me a tutorial or docs or any course where I can begin to learn this. I already know ASP.NET CORE so I don't need to learn that, but actually I want to learn and create PWA but at server side I want to use ASP.NET CORE 2.0 and Razor Pages (if possible). And then I will be hosting them in Azure.
The courses I've searched so far on the web, all of them are with node.js or any other server side technology. Which is a problem because I don't want to use JS, except on the front end, where I don't have a choice.
According to your description, I assume that you could refer to the following tutorials for getting started with PWA using .NET Core:
Yeoman PWA Angular 4 & .NET Core
PWA-Asp.NetCore
Building Progressive Web Applications (PWA) with Visual Studio
This is a very common misconception...that the client-side is tightly coupled to the server-side. They are not.
Your ASP.NET application renders pages/html on demand, at run-time, on the server. The site will work with or without the client-side code, that is why it is progressive....
Your PWA/Service Worker code is only concerned with stuff in the browser. You need to think about it as a stateless concern on the client. The service worker can add a proxy layer to the client-side where you can cache and really perform the task ASP.NET or Node Or PHP, etc perform, just in the browser, before the network must be used.
My advice, to learn the concepts, is to create a static version of your site or a test site. Get comfortable with how to make a PWA and a simple caching service worker, then apply it to your ASP.NET site.
There is nothing in ASP.NET itself your service worker needs to know about, well short of your routes. And your routes are independent of ASP.NET.

Native apps, Web apps communicating with same application server

Hello guys i was learning web developments and have a simple question. If i built a e-commerce web page using node.js and ejs template engine and everything works fine. The next decision is to build a native app for the same e-commerce site either android or IOS. I want the native app to also communicate with the same application server designed in node.js. Do i have to redesign the application server?
My approach or thought:
Native app will have to consume data either xml or json. So i will have to change the business logic of my endpoints. And if i do it this way, i will also have to change the way the web ui interacts with the application server and it also has to consume json or xml response using ajax call. Is my thinking or approach on the right track? But if using node.js, should i avoid the template engines?
Yes, you have to redesign the application server logic by exposing API endpoints. As mobile apps (iOS/Android) will interact with the server using these API endpoints, via JSON. And this will affect your web page also, as everything thing now has to be done via AJAX calls.
Best practice is to built a single page web application using Angular or React.
That way both your mobile app and web app would behave almost the same.

First Time Developing Web-Based Geographic Information System

I'm assigned to develop web-based GIS, but I'm new with web programming. So, Where I can get an insight to start develop web-based GIS?
thank you before
regards!
You have to know about the 2 main components for web programming: front-end and back-end.
Front-end, is how the results/graphics are going to be displayed in the client (pad, monitor).
The most common tools are the javascript libraries like ArcGIS API for JavaScript, or OpenLayers.
For front-end you need to learn about html, css and javascript.
Back-end, is how you will manage the architecture (models-databases) of your project. There are many technologies to choose, for example, Java (J2EE) or .NET. For geodatabases there are systems like SQL server or PostGIS. Back-end is normally placed in the server.
In GIS you would also need a web mapping server (for sharing data, for instance), you can use GeoServer or ArcGIS for Server (commercial).
In my experience, I like to use django as back-end, this is a framework for web development using python (There are also many libraries for GIS using python which you can integrate). With django you can use a model-view-template controller to manage data to the web pages in a simple and fast way. Django has also a module called geodjango, to manage geodatabases, but not strong as GeoServer.
Start with "Requirements". To understand what requirements is, please start with a book on software engineering.
Once you have the requirements, you need to "Design" - what tools/technologies/languages to use. If you are just beginning programming, you typically get a senior to do the design
Then you get to a task, such as rendering google maps on a web page, that can be answered in something like stackoverflow.

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