Server Side Rendering of JavaScript Client Frameworks in projects using Symfony

Client side JavaScript frameworks have taken the world by storm. The first wave of these frameworks focused solely on the client by using the server sent HTML only as a starting point.

Since that it has become apparent that for optimal performance and SEO server side rendering is beneficial. By rendering the initial view on the server side user can immediately start viewing and interacting with the application, while the client is still booting up in the browser. This is most beneficial when targeting mobile users.

In this talk we will take a look at the options available for developers to do server side rendering of JavaScript framework components: Node.js component rendering daemon, the V8 JS engine through the v8js PHP extension and Angular 2 Universal.

The presentation uses Symfony, ReactJS and Angular 2 frameworks, but it applies anywhere where PHP developers want to offer their users the best possible user experience by blurring the line between back end and front end development.