"With multi page apps (MPAs), all your views and controllers are neatly divided into separate HTML and JS documents. "
Multi page app?! Not sure whether to laugh or cry.. this pr-fu stinks.
Multi page app?! Not sure whether to laugh or cry.. this pr-fu stinks.
A Single Page Application will usually consist of any number of logical views handled in a single web browser view. Since the app is Javascript and HTML, everything is loaded in the same runtime environment and switching between views is actually about swapping things in and out of the DOM. We feel that this isn't a very good approach when you're doing mobile applications, not least because everything you do will be an approximation of the native UI capabilities. Companies like Facebook and LinkedIn have famously failed to deliver hybrid mobile apps with a good enough user experience when using the traditional SPA approach.
This is where an MPA architecture comes in useful. As opposed to a single runtime environment in a single web view, multiple web views can be run concurrently and the native layer is used for transitions between them. This is different from both SPAs and traditional server-side architectures which you could call "multi-page" if you squinted a little. Besides the readily felt advantage in user experience, the approach also has architectural benefits which help out in growing your app. When your Javascript runtime is working towards rendering exactly one kind of view instead of dozens, there are radically fewer possible states and thus less issues with global state leaks and the like. In short, it helps make development simpler.
Hope this clarifies. As a dev, I think the ability to leverage multiple concurrent web views is one of the core advantages of the platform.
One more thing, Kendo UI does give us the ability to include only those modules that our apps need (package customization), plus it's AMD-compatible. Does Supersonic provide customization and AMD-compatibility as well?