What offers better performance: XmlHttpRequest response in HTML or JSON format?

When it comes to a highly AJAX-enabled website, the content of the web page can be updated partially using AJAX. This basically involves changing HTML tags or parts of the web page.

So, when faced with this situation, we must decide between two approaches:

  1. The server can render the HTML tags on the server side and return them in the XmlHttpRequest response. The browser's JavaScript then simply changes the innerHTML of the container with the XHR response;

  2. Alternatively, the server can return data in JSON format. The browser's JavaScript would render the HTML based on the JSON and then change the innerHTML of the container accordingly.

Which approach is better from a performance standpoint?

By performance, I mean the perceived performance by the end user, which is influenced by factors such as the time spent on the server side, time spent on the network, and on the client-side browser.

javascriptajaxperformancexmlhttprequest

Answer №1

It is highly likely that using the JSON version provides faster performance, as it requires less data to be transmitted over the network. The browser can render HTML quickly, especially when compared to potential network delays. Utilizing a client-side templating language like Mustache.js can further enhance speed and efficiency.

In addition, JSON is more versatile for future use or modifications. For these reasons, utilizing JSON is clearly the better choice in this scenario.

Answer №2

When considering performance without factoring in client-side elements, there are two key factors to consider:

  1. Amount of data being transmitted (since the network is the main bottleneck, shorter requests are more efficient for both client and server).
  2. Time required to generate the data on the server.

Initially, it seems that both JSON and HTML would yield similar results in terms of these metrics, leading one to think "just pick one and move on". However, for optimal performance, these specific measures should guide your decision-making process.

Answer №3

If you ever find yourself in the need to transmit data with html formatting, my recommendation would be to opt for a direct HTML response.

When using JSON, it becomes necessary to structure the data in such a way that each property indicates its corresponding tag and another for the actual content. This can become quite cumbersome and error-prone, especially when dealing with multiple nested tags.

As an alternative approach, one could encapsulate the entire HTML within a JSON property as a string. However, from my perspective, plain HTML still remains superior in terms of readability and usability.

In terms of performance differences, I personally do not believe that there would be any noticeable discrepancies.

Answer №4

In this case, the key factor to focus on is not performance, but rather adhering to best practices.
For a website with heavy usage of ajax, it would be beneficial to implement a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA).
Using REST in this scenario is advantageous as it allows for requesting different formats based on the MIME-Type specified.
Utilizing Accept and Content-Type HTTP headers enables you to correctly request and verify the format being received.
This approach provides flexibility in choosing the most suitable representation based on specific requirements.
To delve deeper into REST, check out resources here and here.

Answer №5

Recently, I made the switch from blindly using JSON to considering the benefits of returning HTML on XHR requests. I discovered that not only is it faster for the client, but it can also improve server performance in certain setups.

For the client, well-structured HTML tends to be just as efficient, if not more so, than converting JSON to a string. By minimizing the amount of JavaScript required, the overall speed is increased.

On the server side, skipping the step of converting data structures to JSON and then to bytes can save time. Instead, directly converting structured data to bytes eliminates the need for encoding to a string first.

When utilizing JSON, the process involves struct -> JSON -> string -> bytes -> string -> JSON -> JavaScript rendering of the HTML content. However, with HTML, the flow goes from struct -> html -> bytes -> straightforward insertion by JavaScript.

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