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I'm just curious — what could be a potential use case for such things on the backend? For bot detection, it seems quite unreliable. Would it be more suitable fo

I'm just curious — what could be a potential use case for such things on the backend? For bot detection, it seems quite unreliable. Would it be more suitable for server-side rendered UIs? Or am I missing something?

ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
The most obvious use, is to have a server that only delivers content relevant to the end-user device. This would be very useful in limited-bandwidth scenarios. Responsive sites aren’t the same. They deliver all the data, but filter it in the UI.
- yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
  Obviously the formatting differ, but why would you deliver different content to different devices?
  - pavel_lishin 2y ago
    Hypothetical example: When I open Twitter in the browser, I see a feed - but I also see a "What's Happening" section, and a "Who To Follow" list of suggestions, as well as what looks to be my inbox, minimized. Plus, the feed itself automatically loads the images that people are tweeting. If you know a client is likely to be from a place where bandwidth is expensive, you may choose not to load the "What's Happening"/"Who To Follow", or the messages, or possibly even the image URLs (which I'd guess come from the backend with an array of URLs of those images in various sizes & resolutions.) Hell, you might even load a smaller subset of the feed - 10 items instead of 30.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
    1) End device has ability to display HiDPI images -> Send big 2) End device does not have ability to display HiDPI images -> Send small Of course, if you have (1), in a low-bandwidth environment, then you actually want the server to send small, even if the device can handle big, but that can be indicated with a different flag.
    - Hackbraten 2y ago
      The `img` tag in HTML already supports that.
      - ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
        Yes. But the same principle applies to things other than images. For example, regular PDFs, vs. optimized ones.
tossandthrow 2y ago
Analytics is the area I have seen this used the most.

ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago

The most obvious use, is to have a server that only delivers content relevant to the end-user device. This would be very useful in limited-bandwidth scenarios. Responsive sites aren’t the same. They deliver all the data, but filter it in the UI.

yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
Obviously the formatting differ, but why would you deliver different content to different devices?
- pavel_lishin 2y ago
  Hypothetical example: When I open Twitter in the browser, I see a feed - but I also see a "What's Happening" section, and a "Who To Follow" list of suggestions, as well as what looks to be my inbox, minimized. Plus, the feed itself automatically loads the images that people are tweeting. If you know a client is likely to be from a place where bandwidth is expensive, you may choose not to load the "What's Happening"/"Who To Follow", or the messages, or possibly even the image URLs (which I'd guess come from the backend with an array of URLs of those images in various sizes & resolutions.) Hell, you might even load a smaller subset of the feed - 10 items instead of 30.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
  1) End device has ability to display HiDPI images -> Send big 2) End device does not have ability to display HiDPI images -> Send small Of course, if you have (1), in a low-bandwidth environment, then you actually want the server to send small, even if the device can handle big, but that can be indicated with a different flag.
  - Hackbraten 2y ago
    The `img` tag in HTML already supports that.
    - ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
      Yes. But the same principle applies to things other than images. For example, regular PDFs, vs. optimized ones.

tossandthrow 2y ago

Analytics is the area I have seen this used the most.