Dynamic Resources

Learn how to create and serve dynamic resources.

Static resources and their limitations

Previously, we looked at serving static resources, in particular index.html and favicon.ico. These are the things a browser can deal with: it can show an HTML page and use the favicon.ico as a visual icon inside the browser tab.

However, if all we could do was return .html files and images to the browser, we could never build an actual web application. A .html file can’t do the following:

  • It cannot process data that a user provides by filling in a form.
  • It cannot talk to a database and produce a list of available products.
  • It cannot remember that it’s me and say “Hey Matthias, welcome back!”.

This is due to the .html file being a static resource. If the browser fetches it the second time, it will be the same file as when it fetched it the first time.

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