Book Image

Building SPAs with Django and HTML Over the Wire

By : Andros Fenollosa
5 (1)
Book Image

Building SPAs with Django and HTML Over the Wire

5 (1)
By: Andros Fenollosa

Overview of this book

The HTML over WebSockets approach simplifies single-page application (SPA) development and lets you bypass learning a JavaScript rendering framework such as React, Vue, or Angular, moving the logic to Python. This web application development book provides you with all the Django tools you need to simplify your developments with real-time results. You’ll learn state-of-the-art WebSocket techniques to realize real-time applications with minimal reliance on JavaScript. This book will also show you how to create a project with Docker from the ground up, test it, and deploy it on a server. You’ll learn how to create a project, add Docker, and discover development libraries, Django channels, and bidirectional communication, and from then, on you’ll create real projects of all kinds using HTML over WebSockets as a chat app or a blog with real-time comments. In addition, you’ll modernize your development techniques by moving from using an SSR model to creating web pages using WebSockets over HTML. With Django, you’ll be able to create SPAs with professional real-time projects where the logic is in Python. By the end of this Django book, you’ll be able to build real-time applications, as well as gaining a solid understanding of WebSockets with Django.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)
1
Part 1: Getting Started with Python
4
Part 2: WebSockets in Django
8
Part 3: HTML over WebSockets
11
Part 4: Simplifying the frontend with Stimulus

Switching between pages

At some point, the user will need to go to another page or change context. We are going to make them think this is happening, but in reality, it is going to be a magic trick since really, they will never move from the first HTML we gave them at the beginning. However, and here’s the key, they will perceive that the page is being changed. To achieve this deception (sorry, achievement), we will carry out the following tasks:

  1. Change the HTML of the main content or everything that belongs to <main>. Meanwhile, we will always keep the static sections of the pages, such as <header>, <aside>, or <footer>.
  2. Implement server-side rendering to render the HTML belonging to each URL.
  3. Visually mark in the <nav> where we are with a CSS style.
  4. Modify the browser URL via the JavaScript API. It is an aesthetic change but the URL acts as breadcrumbs to guide the visitor.

The objective is to build a site with three...