Client-Side Server w/ Rust: A UI alternative

Logan Keenan

Server-side apps

Pros

• Fast initial page load
• Easier to develop

Cons

• Latency
• In some cases, scaling

Client-side apps

Pros

• Improved UI/UX

Cons

• Initial Page load
• Performance
• Code complexity

What if we ran the server on the client?

What do we need to do?

• Create an app that accepts HTTP requests and returns HTTP responses
• Compile to WASM
  • https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/WebAssembly
• Create an adapter layer to integrate the app
  1. User clicks and anchor tag
  2. Create a request for the WASM app
  3. call WASM app with the request
  4. receive WASM response
  5. Update the DOM with the response

Problems

• DOM updating
• Hijacking events
• What if the response contains javascript?
• What about old event handlers
• Routing?
• Performance?

Hello Service Workers 😍

Service Worker: essentially act as proxy servers that sit between web applications, the browser, and the network (when available). MDN

Pros

• Improved UI/UX
• Improved Performance
• Easier to develop
• Fast initial page load

Cons

• Service Worker support
• Unknown Unknowns

Code & Demo

• https://rust-everywhere-server-side.logankeenan.com/
• https://rust-everywhere-spa.pages.dev/
• https://rust-everywhere-spa-server.logankeenan.com/