Proton: Pluggable SSR + DOM | Or How I implemented better SSR from scratch

Background I have never worked with SSR, but recently I was tasked with that and it was somewhat challenging. I found out that usually you can't use much DOM things in your SSR components - sheesh, that's frustrating. As someone who loves the flexibility of the full browser environment, I felt defeated. I thought, “There has to be a better way.” So I decided that my SSR will support all the DOM and it actually turned out better than I expected... DOM Limitations Traditional SSR setups usually come with a set of constraints that simplify the rendering process, but at the cost of the natural browser experience. In many systems, SSR components are stripped of access to a rich DOM API, meaning you can't use many of the things that DOM naturally provides in a client-rendered app. This not only makes development cumbersome but also forces to adopt workarounds.

Apr 14, 2025 - 07:40

Proton: Pluggable SSR + DOM | Or How I implemented better SSR from scratch

Background

I have never worked with SSR, but recently I was tasked with that and it was somewhat challenging. I found out that usually you can't use much DOM things in your SSR components - sheesh, that's frustrating. As someone who loves the flexibility of the full browser environment, I felt defeated. I thought, “There has to be a better way.”

So I decided that my SSR will support all the DOM and it actually turned out better than I expected...

DOM Limitations

Traditional SSR setups usually come with a set of constraints that simplify the rendering process, but at the cost of the natural browser experience. In many systems, SSR components are stripped of access to a rich DOM API, meaning you can't use many of the things that DOM naturally provides in a client-rendered app. This not only makes development cumbersome but also forces to adopt workarounds.