Rethinking Server-Side Rendering in Modern PHP Applications
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Server-Side Rendering (SSR) is making a comeback, offering a balanced approach between performance, simplicity, and modern user experience. In this talk, we’ll explore how SSR is evolving in the PHP ecosystem, focusing on practical tools like Laravel Livewire and Symfony UX. We’ll dive into real-world examples to show how you can build dynamic, reactive interfaces while leveraging PHP's strengths. Discover the benefits, trade-offs, and ideal use cases of this approach to craft applications that are fast, maintainable, and delightful to use—all without a full client-side framework. Whether you're a Laravel or Symfony enthusiast, or simply curious about modern SSR techniques, this talk will provide valuable insights for your next project.
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Rethinking Server-Side Rendering in Modern PHP Applications
- 1. Rethinking Server-Side Rendering in Modern PHP Applications S I M O N E D ' A M I C O - P H P D A Y 2 0 2 5
- 2. Have you ever worked with SSR applications? W H A T T H I S T A L K I S A L L A B O U T
- 3. Simone D'Amico T E C H T E A M L E A D E R @ Full-time dad of two, Lego enthusiast, and speaker. Author of Lead Through Mistakes, a newsletter focused on leadership in the IT world. simonedamico.com leadthroughmistakes.com linkedin.com/in/simonedamico
- 4. W H A T I ' V E B U I L T U S I N G S S R A Real Use Case
- 5. A Real Use Case Revamping the listening platform to improve listening and interaction experience M E D I A I N D U S T R Y Hard to maintain, hard to evolve. Legacy technologies and libraries 1 5 + Y / O P H P M O N O L I T H Millions of search engine–indexed pages C O N T E N T O R I E N T E D Team primarily skilled in PHP, little to no experience in JavaScript P H P - C E N T R I C T E A M Solid APIs already available in the CMS R O B U S T E X I S T I N G A P I s To test the product present it at a major industry event S H O R T T I M E T O M A R K E T
- 6. The Final Solution BFF built to serve the frontend consuming existing APIs Powered by CloudFront, Lambda, and Bref delivering everything at the edge, with no traditional hosting SSR allowed also to deliver a fast, seamless user experience similar SSR to preserve SEO performance and prevent loss in search engine visibility B A C K E N D F O R F R O N T E N D S E R V E R - S I D E R E N D E R I N G S P A - L I K E E X P E R I E N C E S E R V E R L E S S A R C H I T E C T U R E
- 7. A N I N T R O D U C T I O N Server-Side Rendering
- 9. SSR vs CSR
- 10. JS is not a bad guy but this doesn't necessarily mean it has to be used for everything. SSR allows to use JS for what it is made for: user interactions It can be integrated into existing applications incrementally, without rewriting everything from scratch No multiple stacks and codebases to maintain, evolve and keep updated Ensure a single source of truth for State management to avoid inconsistent data, increased complexity, overhead, unclear separation of concerns R E D U C E J S U S A G E 01 S T A T E C E N T R A L I Z E D 02 S I N G L E S T A C K 03 E A S Y I N T E G R A T I O N 04 Why SSR in PHP?
- 11. A set of tools and conventions that let you progressively enhance server-rendered templates using JavaScript, without adopting a full SPA framework. It integrates closely with Twig, Stimulus (for interactivity), and Turbo (for navigation and updates) A full-stack framework for Laravel that lets you build interactive components using Blade and PHP. It can be enhanced with Alpine.js for small frontend behaviors, without requiring a full JavaScript framework What does the PHP ecosystem offer for SSR?
- 12. Is there a pattern we can follow? Yep. It is very common in the Javascript world and it is called: Component-Based Architecture More info: https://ux.symfony.com/cookbook/component-architecture
- 13. Composition Independence Props State Composition A page is no longer just a page but rather a collection of small, reusable components
- 14. Composition Independence Props State Independence The component lives in its own context. It should not be aware of the rest of the page
- 15. Composition Independence Props State Props The component must remain independent, but we can customize its props. Props flow in one direction, from parent to child
- 16. Composition Independence Props State State A state is pretty much like a prop, but the main difference is that a state can change during the life of the component
- 17. L I V E W I R E A N D S Y M F O N Y U X I N A N U T S H E L L Quickstart
- 19. Installation
- 20. Create a template layout It requires an HTML layout for components to render inside Components are rendered inside traditional Twig blocks
- 21. Create a route Livewire components can be registered as routes Components are rendered inside traditional Symfony routes
- 22. Create a component Components are PHP classes that inject properties to a template
- 23. Create a component Components are PHP classes that inject properties to a template
- 24. Create an anonymous component Components that don't require any custom logic beyond the properties injected
- 25. Cool, but… everything is static so far. What about interactions?
- 26. 1. State Change
- 27. Live components Components that allows their own state to change during the component lifecycle
- 28. How does it work under the hood?
- 29. Live components Components that allows their own state to change during the component lifecycle
- 30. How does it work under the hood?
- 31. Interaction with parent components We can rely on events
- 32. Interaction with parent components We can rely on events
- 34. SPA-like Navigation Livewire will prevent the standard handling of the link click and replace it with its own, faster version
- 35. SPA-like Navigation Thanks to Turbo library, Symfony watches for link clicks and form submissions, performs them in the background, and updates the page without doing a full reload.
- 36. Forms Livewire provides loads of helpful utilities for building them
- 37. Forms Turbo Drive automatically converts form submissions to AJAX calls. To get it to work, you do need to adjust your code to return a 422 status code on a validation error
- 39. Kind of hard to test with all this interaction, isn’t it?
- 42. Still Not Enough? Craving More?
- 43. Want to take them to the next level? Pre-built Live Components let you add dynamic, reactive UI features without writing JavaScript — just use PHP and Twig Volt is a functional API for Livewire that supports single-file components, allowing a component's PHP logic and Blade templates to coexist in the same file
- 44. Integrating with JS libraries
- 45. K E Y T A K E A W A Y S B E F O R E Y O U G O Wrapping Up
- 46. • • • • We faced several challenges along the road: performances overweight states shared sessions to allow coexistence with legacy website during the migration Octane memory leaks I T W A S N ' T A L L S M O O T H 02 The context mattered. Native Tailwind support and a Laravel-skilled team made all the difference W E O P T E D F O R L A R A V E L 01 Key Takeaways
- 47. SSR works best when when you need fast initial load, great SEO, or simple user flows (eg. content platforms). SPA fits better when complex client-side interactivity is the priority — like real-time collaboration or design tools. The key is not ideology, but context S S R I S N ' T A O N E - S I Z E - F I T S - A L L S O L U T I O N 04 SSR in PHP is not just for new projects. It works well even in existing apps. You can start small, one component at a time, without rewriting everything N O T J U S T F O R G R E E N F I E L D P R O J E C T S 03 Key Takeaways