[TriLUG] Question about webapp design philosophy

[Mike Helms]

Hi everyone,

I've been studying ebay (as best as one can study ebay just by looking at
it), and it appears that many of the pages in ebay are generated from the
same "page" on their webserver.  There is a variable passed through the URL
that acts, in effect, like a "command" to the page, telling it what we are
trying to do.  When I go to the My Ebay page, the command is
MyEbayItemsBiddingOn.  When I view an item, it is ViewItem.

This makes sense, as it means there wouldn't be dozens, if not hundreds or
even thousands of separate pages to maintain in the website.  In effect, you
could have one tremendously large page that would actually comprise the
entire website.  If nothing else, this would save on repetition.

Is there a reason not to do this?  I'm laying the groundwork now for a new
webapp that I'm going to build, and this has certainly given me cause to
rethink my design philosophy.

Cheers,
-- Mike Helms