Is it possible to write a social network using only client-side web technologies?

Question

I am aware that social network applications usually communicate with the server where they store information and stuff, but is it possible to make a social network which is only developed using client side code, basically front end scripting and stuff?

I guess I ain't using the right terminology here, but I hope some of you get what I am trying to say.

Thanks! >)

Your question is a bit vague and unclear. Are you asking whether it's possible to develop a social network without using a server at all? — Paul D. Waite, Apr 02 '13 at 11:58
without using server scripting like PHP, Ruby on Rails, Django etc — hooligans, Apr 02 '13 at 13:38
Cool cool - I've edited your question slightly to (hopefully) make that clearer. — Paul D. Waite, Apr 02 '13 at 13:53

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:32

The core feature of a social network is the data that relates one user to another. If you want to operate without server side code to handle it then you will need to move that logic to the client and share it with other clients.

DOM storage will let you store large (but not huge, so you get limits on the amount of data that can be stored) amounts of data on the client.

(Although it will be freely editable by the user of the browser so security it out the window)

Then you need to share that data between clients. That means peer-to-peer. Even then, I think you'll need some way to perform browser discovery so the browsers can communicate with each other and I suspect that will force you onto having a central directory server.

If you can deal with all of that, then you could probably implement a Napster-like system for searching the data in the social network.

So possible? Almost. Practical? Probably not.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 02 '13 at 11:52

0

In theory? It could be.

Using modern frameworks like: AngularJS and cloud store like: MongoDB-as-a-Service

But I have second thoughts about security (no session,...). Let us know :)

answered Apr 02 '13 at 11:52

kayz1

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Is Angular JS essential to work, or can only backbone.js be used together with some cloud database? – hooligans Apr 02 '13 at 11:55
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A cloud store? That has to run on a server! – Quentin Apr 02 '13 at 11:56
How "POSSIBLE" is this really? – hooligans Apr 02 '13 at 11:58
If u are looking for MVVM then Angular is better than backbone – Okky Apr 02 '13 at 11:58
As Quentin said, I would have thought that MongoDB-as-a-Service counts as server-side code. "The cloud" pretty much just means "some unspecified server somewhere". – Paul D. Waite Apr 02 '13 at 13:55
What about a peer to peer social network, like the once a upon a time online safebook.eu ?? Ideas, I created a question just about 20 minutes ago, no answer yet. – hooligans Apr 02 '13 at 13:59

Is it possible to write a social network using only client-side web technologies?

2 Answers2