Performance Improvements for Server-Side Rendered WebApps
With Sitevision 2025.07.1, WebApps receive improvements that boost performance for apps without a client side. In short, the main.js file is no longer required.
Published: 2025-08-27
Over the years the capabilities of WebApps has grown, from being more of a classic Sitevision module with a config and a rendering view. One of the capabilities we have added is hooks. Hooks opens the possibility to modify the page's <head> from a WebApp. When released this was seen as a complement to the rendering capabilities of the WebApps. But as things have progressed we have seen an increase in WebApps that has the sole purpose of including content in the page <head>. It can be adding OGP-tags or including a global CSS. In these types of apps the rendering capablities of the standard WebApps is of no use, therefore the main.js has been left empty.
The problem
The main.js file has been a required part of the WebApp, i.e. it has not been possible to deploy a WebApp without it. As a result of this the browser will download these empty files when a user is requesting a page with these types of apps.
The solution
Since 2025.07.1 (2025.08.1 for on-prem) the main.js is no longer required to deploy a WebApp. I.e. no more empty main.js for the browser to download.
What do you have to do as a developer?
If you have a WebApp with an empty main.js remove it, build your app and then deploy your new version.
Create sitevision app (sitevision-scripts)
If you have created your app as a "serverside-only" app then you probably don't have a main.js, but sitevision-scripts have added an empty main.js during build time. Starting from sitevision-scripts@6.0.0 this empty main.js will not be added any more. So if you are building for Sitevision <2025.07.1 you have the option to add the empty main.js or stay on your current version of sitevision-scripts.
The result
By doing this you are helping your clients building more performant websites by limiting the number of requests required to load the web page.