Trulia has been using Isomorphic Javascript (via Rendr) for just about a year now. This brief talk looks back on how it's been. Video is here: http://vimeo.com/106020641

1. Rendr at Trulia
Looking Back Over (Almost) One Year
Confidential

2. Timeline of a Rewrite
Underestimated how much there is to learn. But for us, very much worth it.
Rewrite
Begins
100% of
Traffic
Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug
Confidential
10% of
Traffic
Express,
Node, Mocha,
Mobile
Rendr, Handlebars, API, Learning Building an more.
and Casper, Grunt, Browsers, Face Melting
Amazement
Recovering, Adding features
2013
2014

3. Performance!
Before: 12s to see content
After: 2s to see content

4. Let’s Re-word That

5. Performance!
Well Meaning But Short Sighted Code:
Clean Modular Code:

6. Quick Notes on
Trulia’s Mobile Site
Respectable Traffic:
6+ million weekly visitors on our mobile website
Minimal Hardware:
2 x 24 core node servers with 24 instances of Rendr each (running cool)
Each instance is ~140mb of ram (About 3.5gb total)

7. Let’s Go Check It Out.

8. So, looking back,
how’d it go?
Specifically, with Rendr?

9. Fantastic!
Got a prototype up in week
AirBNB is a respectable engineering brand
Would rather augment a library than fight a framework
Rendr offers respectable access points to extend and override
All good metrics are way up, bad metrics are way down.

10. Well, There Was
Some Pain
Documentation is lacking,
It works well…once you know where the dragons are
To really tune the experience you’ll need to override non extendable internals
Rendr is a young library
Open Source Projects are not perfect
Confidential

11. The Big Question:
Would You Use Rendr
Again?

12. Yes, But…
Confidential

13. Ok. So Should I Use
Rendr?

14. It Depends.
These days there are a lot of other options:
Easel: Artsy’s Backbone/Isomorphic Library
React: 1.0 will be Isomorphic (still meh on mobile events)
Meteor: A big framework for Isomorphic Javascript
LazoJS: Walmart’s smaller framework for Isomorphic Javascript
Confidential

15. Ok. So Should I Go
Isomorphic?

16. Want a Single Page
App Experience?
Yes!!
!
!
Otherwise, it depends.

17. Ask Me Questions.
Right now in person, or…
@bigethan on twitter
ethan@trulia.com
Other members of Trulia’s Mobile Platform Team are in the audience.