In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about updating web apps that have running for a long time — the problems to look out for and how to avoid them.

LogRocket - Sponsor

LogRocket lets you replay what users do on your site, helping you reproduce bugs and fix issues faster. It’s an exception tracker, a session re-player and a performance monitor. Get 14 days free at logrocket.com/syntax.

Show Notes

01:54 - The problem

This only affects the client-side

05:28 - What are some solutions:

Do nothing and hope the user refreshes.
Have a list of assets, or commit hashes. Poll the server periodically, and when there is a new version available:
- Prompt the user to refresh
- Just refresh the user (store current state in localstorage and restore)
Do a custom component, that checks the last time the user has refreshed (or if new version if available). When they click the link, render a regular instead of a pushstate link.

Use a service worker. They will emit an event when a new version is available. Use the above methods to refresh the user.

Hot code push.

Vuepress has “hot reloading” baked in.

Links

https://twitter.com/wesbos/status/1306969658751361024
Notion
Vuepress
Meteor

Tweet us your tasty treats!

Scott’s Instagram
LevelUpTutorials Instagram
Wes’ Instagram
Wes’ Twitter
Wes’ Facebook
Scott’s Twitter
Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

Hasty Treat - Updating / Restarting Long-Running Web Apps

Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats