It's crazy that providing URLs that can be used to link to content is somehow an advanced technique in this weird SPA-infested world we live in these days
Like the ability to link to things is a stretch goal now
We still get to make fun of help pages that tell you to "go to menu X, then option Y, then scroll to Z" rather than just linking to the thing they're talking about, right?
Tip for SPA developers: if you put the work in to get actual URLs working, SO many features become SO much cheaper to build.
"Lets prompt the user to update their credit card": now it's a static alert component with a link to the billing section!
"Lets prompt the user to update their credit card": now it's a static alert component with a link to the billing section!
Not to mention URLs give you a best-in-breed cross platform "share" feature across all known devices
(You did remember to implement enough of a server-side rendering step to power preview cards in sharing apps, right?)
(You did remember to implement enough of a server-side rendering step to power preview cards in sharing apps, right?)
Here's a really cheap trick for URLs in SPAs that no one seems to be using: query strings! Like for old school PHP!
You get real (not hashbang) URLs without needing to configure your server to respond to many different paths.
Demo: owlsnearme.com/?place=108878
You get real (not hashbang) URLs without needing to configure your server to respond to many different paths.
Demo: owlsnearme.com/?place=108878
Query strings can also provide an inexpensive way of implementing link sharing preview cards with as little code as possible
(I still think you're better off building a crazy-fast-loading cheap-phone-friendly good-internet-citizen non-SPA though)
(I still think you're better off building a crazy-fast-loading cheap-phone-friendly good-internet-citizen non-SPA though)
