During the last years we have been seeing a lot Javascript-based frontend tools becoming more and more popular. They are all wildly used because of the rise of Node JS. As developers we cannot ignore this revolution, but rather embrace it. In this talk I will speak about how to transition from monolithic applications to HTML5 apps + REST API's. From full stack developers to frontend+backend teams. I will also demonstrate how the development looks like using tools like AngularJS and Grunt for frontend development. Hurry up. They are coming...

1. Embrace the front-end
revolution
Álvaro Sánchez-Mariscal
Web Architect —
@alvaro_sanchez

2. About me
• Passionate software developer.
• Worked at IBM BCS, BEA Systems and
Sun Microsystems.
• Founded Salenda in 2005.
• Working now at Odobo as Web Architect.
• Living between Madrid and Gibraltar.

3. • HTML5 games platform for:
• Game developers.
• Casinos.
• Check out https://play.odobo.com and try
for free!

4. The front-end
revolution from a
human resources
perspective.

5. Full-stack Frameworks

6. Monolithic!

7. Monolithic frameworks
• The views and the business logic are
packaged together.
• Server-side generated views.
• Full-stack frameworks require full-stack
developers.

8. The full-stack developer
Can write code on
every layer of the
application.

9. Q: How do you see
yourself as a
developer?
http://poll.fm/4qjo0

10. • Great if they are really full-stack.
• Not so good if they are back-end
developers, with some jQuery knowledge
and pixel-up-down-ok CSS skills.
• Makes less sense when your company has
truly front-end developers.
Full-stack developers

11. The front-end revolution

12. The front-end
revolution facts
• Javascript community is HUGE. Lot of
developers out there.
• NodeJS is the new framework for
hipsters.
• There is a lot of tools built with/around
NodeJS/Javascript.

14. Tools a front-end
developer will love

15. The front-end
revolution from an
architectural
perspective.

16. REST

17. REST is much
more than just
returning
JSON.

18. RESTful is aboutRESTful is about*
Client / server.
Stateless.
Cacheable.
Layered.
* Source: Wikipedia.

19. Statelessness
• Full-stack frameworks are usually
stateful.
• They use the HTTP session.
• “ST” in REST stands for State Transfer.
• Client needs to transfer its state on each call.

20. Break down your apps
• Separate the front-end from the back-
end.
• Front: a pure Javascript/HTML/CSS
application.
• Back-end: a REST API.

21. Break down your apps

22. Break down your apps

23. Advantages
• Single Page Applications are more
responsive.
• All the page changes are in the browser.
• UI and API are deployed separately.
• You can redeploy as many times as you want,
to do A/B testing, for example.

24. Advantages
• Scalability.
• It’s way more easier to scale pure Javascript
applications.
• Separation of responsibilities.
• Developers can concentrate on making each
tier a robust and secure system.

25. Advantages
• You get ready from the beginning to
expose an API. Can be useful for
• Public consumers.
• Mobile applications.
• Back-office applications.

26. Demo
http://bit.ly/grails-angular

27. Conclusions
• Think whether your team/company has
full-stack developers or not.
• Think if the teams need to scale.

28. Conclusions
• From a RESTful point of view, you need to
achieve statelessness.
• For that, you need to avoid server-centric,
full-stack frameworks.
• Break down your applications into a truly
Javascript front-end + REST API.

29. Álvaro Sánchez-Mariscal
Web Architect —
@alvaro_sanchez
Grazie mille!