Spine.js+rails Heavy Client Web application Technology selection idea: Windmill structure design

At the weekend, I was invited to share the "windmill" architecture presentation at the Hacker News Shanghai Gathering and Ruby Shanghai event, thanks to the organizers and venue providers.

The Windmill project began in November 2011, before it was called pragmatic.ly. From the first day we basically set the approximate framework structure, looking back today, basically the whole structure has no change, can be regarded as a very mature and suitable for the era of the scheme.

In the last year or two, as a technician, we can clearly feel the rapid development of front-end technology, such as HTML5 support, mobile End-to-end priority, responsive interface design and a variety of client-side frameworks. And all of this is based on one point: the fast development of browsers. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and even IE, have developed rapidly in recent years, and it is no exaggeration to say that these browsers are no longer browsers, but rather an open platform with their own extension mechanisms. These greatly changed the way Web site development, the site began to apply.

Windmills are so designed to be very close to desktop applications, such as the following features:

Heavy client, all business logic is on the client, responding very quickly

Single-page system, the operation of the project does not need to refresh the page, the operation is very smooth

Three-column layout, left-right column from left to right, information is very clear

Real-time updates, any updates in the project will be synchronized to your page in real time

And behind this design is its own technology stack.

General overview