Choosing between client-side and server-side design

Probably the most critical decision when designing a web application, after choosing a database, is determining whether you'll be building a mostly client-side application or a mostly server-side application. With a mostly client-side application, most of the application logic runs in the user's browser, and the backend that runs on the server tends to be fairly minimal and focused on data storage and retrieval. With a mostly server-side application, most of the application logic runs on the server, and the logic that runs on the client is minimal and potentially non-existent if you can design your application to avoid the use of JavaScript.

With a mostly client-side web application, the data that's transmitted between the backend server to the client tends to be in JSON format. The client code takes the JSON data and uses it to update various parts of the page that's displayed to the user. When the user makes...