what is server side rendering using angular2?

Question

I am aware that angular2 is used for server side rendering. So I would like to know more about it.

I am having following questions regarding this phenomenon.

1.What is server side rendering?

2.what problem does it solve?

3.what are its applications?

4.why server side rendering used?

5.what are the technologies that support server side rendering?

6.in angular2, what goals server side rendering helps to accomplish?

7.what are the main differences between client side & server side rendering?

8.which tools or frameworks can be used for server side rendering ?

Thanks to all in advance.

Answer 1

Angular2 is client library and it's not used for server side rendering. There is, however, a project Angular Universal that aims to allow server to process angular code and templates.

1. In general Server Side Rendering /SSR/ refers to using a server to create content that could be consumed by the browser (or other clients).

2. With Single Page Applications /SPA/, like Angular2 apps, one of the big issues is initial load. SPAs have to load all vendor and app scripts, (maybe load content from database,) process the content, and finally render it. This can take a lot of time, so the idea is that you use SSR to create or "prerender" the initial page.

3. It's used because servers are faster then clients, so it can be big performance boost for applications. Also it's helpful with search engine robots - when they request a page of your website without SSR they would see only blank page without any content (some search engines would load and execute your scripts).

4. Angular Universal works on nodejs servers. I believe there is also a version for PHP, but it's very fresh (in alpha I think...)

5./6. see above.