Backend
posts (20)
- Realtime in the Browser: From Polling to WebTransport2/7
Long Polling: When the Server Delays the Response
The server does not answer until it has something to send. What appears is a chain of long requests, where the timeout and the cursor are part of the protocol.
- Realtime in the Browser: From Polling to WebTransport1/7
Polling: Building Realtime with Repeated Requests
The delay is a function of the interval, and the cost is there even when nothing changes. In exchange every request is independent and the whole infrastructure…
- series · 7 parts
Realtime in the Browser: From Polling to WebTransport
Realtime is a requirement about the maximum acceptable delay of information, not the name of a protocol. The mechanisms from polling to WebTransport, each born…
- Ways of Talking to a Backend: From HTML Forms to GraphQL6/6
GraphQL: Letting the Client Define the Shape of Data
The response stops belonging to a resource or an operation and starts belonging to the client's query. Flexibility is paid for with predictable execution and…
- Ways of Talking to a Backend: From HTML Forms to GraphQL5/6
RPC: When an API Models Operations Instead of Resources
RPC starts from the operation, not the resource. Intent becomes explicit, but the semantics move out of HTTP and into the application contract.
- Ways of Talking to a Backend: From HTML Forms to GraphQL4/6
REST: Resources, Representations, and HTTP Semantics
REST is not "JSON plus endpoints". It is resources identified by URIs, representations kept separate from the resource, and the meaning of HTTP methods put to…
- Ways of Talking to a Backend: From HTML Forms to GraphQL3/6
Fetch API: The Modern Browser Interface to HTTP
fetch did not change the communication model, only the interface. Request and Response are objects, the body is a stream, and a 404 is not an error.
- Ways of Talking to a Backend: From HTML Forms to GraphQL2/6
AJAX: When a Request Stopped Meaning a Page Reload
XHR did not change the protocol, only the reader of the response. Status, headers and the origin boundary stopped being the browser's business and became the…
- Ways of Talking to a Backend: From HTML Forms to GraphQL1/6
HTML Forms: Backend Communication Without JavaScript
A form is not an API helper. The browser itself serializes the controls, builds the request and treats the response as a new document.
- series · 6 parts
Ways of Talking to a Backend: From HTML Forms to GraphQL
The layers of frontend to backend communication from the bottom up: forms, XHR and fetch start the request, HTTP carries it, and REST, RPC and GraphQL model…