HTMLRenderer on the Server

[paulmansour]

Tools like Node https://nodejs.org/en/, and Deno https://deno.com/ and others allow running JavaScript on the server without a browser.

What would be the drawbacks, if any, of using the HTMLRenderer on the server to execute Javascript from APL?

The form/window of course would be irrelevant and could be hidden or ignored.

[Morten|Dyalog]

Hi Paul! I can't think of a reason why it would be a quote bad idea unquote to create an HTMLRenderer with ('Visible' 0) to run JavaScript. In fact, I have been experimenting with doing exactly this in our experimental "EWC" tool (http://github.com/dyalog/ewc), to have the ApexCharts library generate SVG graphics from APL without displaying them to the user.

[kai]

What does that mean in terms of resources? In particular when a significant number of requests need to be handled in parallel.

(My guts are saying this can't be right)

[Morten|Dyalog]

Well, the answer to that is going to be "it depends" :).

Spinning up the HTMLRenderer probably costs about 10,000 times more than producing a chart in JavaScript, so I wouldn't spin a new one up each time, if performance was critical.