Building a Better Web
June 11–12, 2018: Training
June 12–14, 2018: Tutorials & Conference
San Jose, CA

Serverless server-side rendering: Improving user experience with React and serverless functions

Natalie Qabazard (Trulia)
4:25pm–5:05pm Wednesday, June 13, 2018
Future JS and Functional
Location: 212 A/B
Secondary topics:  Developer Experience Track: Tools, Platforms, and Techniques, High-level, Technical
Average rating: *****
(5.00, 5 ratings)

Who is this presentation for?

  • Developers interested in learning more about server-side rendering, serverless functions, and improving user experience

Prerequisite knowledge

  • A working knowledge of React
  • Familiarity with building architectures in the cloud (using AWS, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure)

What you'll learn

  • Understand the benefits of using a serverless product to perform server-side rendering using React, as well as the challenges and drawbacks of this approach

Description

Rendering a web page server side using React and a serverless resource like AWS Lambda, a function-as-a-service (FaaS) product, can drastically speed up the load time of your web page. It’s an uncommon approach because this breaks the mold of the developer’s traditional approach to web page rendering. However, it’s worth considering because of the many benefits that come with it, like improved user-perceived performance, potentially lower costs compared to a hosted instance, and a hassle-free developer experience.

Join Natalie Qabazard to explore the pros and cons of rendering a web page server side using React and a serverless resource. Natalie outlines the differences between client-side rendering and server-side rendering (SSR) and explains why SSR is still important to use when needed. You’ll learn why serverless server-side rendering is the future and how to improve user-perceived performance for large web apps, transition to a serverless approach, using Lambda and other cloud products, and maximize the benefits and navigate the challenges while continuing to deliver a seamless customer experience. Along the way, Natalie details a minimum set of steps required to make a request to a Lambda function and get HTML in return. Because AWS Lambda isn’t the only FaaS, she also discusses how to carry out the same steps using functions from other cloud providers. Natalie then concludes by covering the benefits and drawbacks of SSR using serverless functions.

Photo of Natalie Qabazard

Natalie Qabazard

Trulia

Natalie Qabazard is a software engineer at Zillow Group, where she works with various web development technologies and APIs. Natalie is working on a new team, where she uses AWS products and APIs to bring a new product to millions of users at Trulia. Her experience working with React at Trulia has led her to training others and participating in panel discussions regarding the technology, as well as giving talks about React and AWS. Natalie is passionate about bridging the gap between academia and industry as well as fostering diversity in the computer science space; she is an active leader of the Women in Engineering group at Trulia and strives to facilitate constructive meetings for women engineers to attend monthly. Natalie holds a degree in computer science from the University of California, Davis.

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Comments

Eliazer Braun | FRONT END LEAD
06/14/2018 8:34am PDT

Great talk!
Where can we get the slides?