Make planning events a breeze with intuitive HTML5 web app

Planza is a web application for planning events, whether that means trips, a night out - or pretty much anything else. The lead JavaScript developer at Planza, Christophe Vingerhoets, tells us the technology behind this complex application, which uses Backbone on the frontend and a Node server on the backend and connects using WebSockets.

By using Sockets, Planza is able to do a lot of things in real time:
"Planza is a single-page HTML5 web application. On load, all JavaScript and templates are sent to the client, which will establish a WebSocket connection to our Node servers that will start listening to backend updates," says Vingerhoets.

"Whenever a database update occurs," he adds, “Redis will publish the updated model (JSON) to all clients so the frontend models of all subscribers of that particular Redis channel are synced. A Backbone View will then automatically respond to this data update, so a Handlebars template can be parsed and the UI will respond accordingly... and all this in real time to enhance user experience!”

This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 247.

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