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Hypermedia Systems
Learn how hypermedia, the revolutionary idea that created The Web, can be used today to build modern, sophisticated web applications today, often at a fraction of the complexity of popular JavaScript frameworks.
In this book we will explore a simpler approach to building applications on the Web and beyond with htmx and Hyperview, two technologies that embrace hypermedia as a system architecture. We will look at what a hypermedia system is comprised of and what makes it special when compared with other system architectures. We will then look at how htmx, a modern hypermedia-oriented front end library, makes it possible to build sophisticated user experiences using hypermedia. Finally, we will look at Hyperview, a modern hypermedia system for building mobile applications.
While the book does touch on the theory of hypermedia and provides an overview of the language and concepts around it, it is also packed with practical and simple examples that you can immediately apply and modify for your own applications.
Hypermedia was a great idea. It still is!
After reading this book, you will have the tools necessary to apply this revolutionary approach to software to your own projects and application.
In this book we will explore a simpler approach to building applications on the Web and beyond with htmx and Hyperview, two technologies that embrace hypermedia as a system architecture. We will look at what a hypermedia system is comprised of and what makes it special when compared with other system architectures. We will then look at how htmx, a modern hypermedia-oriented front end library, makes it possible to build sophisticated user experiences using hypermedia. Finally, we will look at Hyperview, a modern hypermedia system for building mobile applications.
While the book does touch on the theory of hypermedia and provides an overview of the language and concepts around it, it is also packed with practical and simple examples that you can immediately apply and modify for your own applications.
Hypermedia was a great idea. It still is!
After reading this book, you will have the tools necessary to apply this revolutionary approach to software to your own projects and application.
548 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 16, 2023
232 people are currently reading
345 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
March 9, 2024
This was a fantastic book. I learned a *lot*, and the authors made it really enjoyable.
Plus, now I get to be pedantic anytime people refer to JSON APIs and RESTful.
Plus, now I get to be pedantic anytime people refer to JSON APIs and RESTful.
December 26, 2023
hypermedia.systems
essays
Don’t Build A General Purpose API To Power Your Own Front End. Two Approaches To Decoupling.
tef post
HTMX creator Carson Gross discusses his "Hypermedia Systems" book
Post/Redirect/Get. Post/Redirect/Get needed if you submit HTML fragments?.
Pop-up from Hell On the growing opacity of web programs
essays
Don’t Build A General Purpose API To Power Your Own Front End. Two Approaches To Decoupling.
tef post
HTMX creator Carson Gross discusses his "Hypermedia Systems" book
Post/Redirect/Get. Post/Redirect/Get needed if you submit HTML fragments?.
Submitting a form via htmx has the benefit of no longer needing the Post/Redirect/Get Pattern. After successfully processing a POST request on the server, you don’t need to return a HTTP 302 (Redirect). You can directly return the new HTML fragment.
Pop-up from Hell On the growing opacity of web programs
August 19, 2025
A compelling argument to go back to the roots of web development.
November 30, 2025
Refreshing. I read the book some time ago and I really wanted to go back and leave a warm-hearted review.
I can't emphasize enough the importance of first chapters which discusses Roy Fielding work on HTTP and REST. It discusses the basics of web development, talks about challenges and explains how HTMX helps in fighting them, without the complexity of react-like spa library.
The middle part of the book is project based, where you can develop a simple app, which introduces you gradually to HTMX concepts. Server code is in python, but simple enough so you can use the language of your choice. Great examples with concise explanations.
Last part is about Hyperview, if you don't want to create mobile apps you can skip it.
I enjoyed the content, format, style very much, and developed 2 apps in HTMX already.
5 out of 5.
I can't emphasize enough the importance of first chapters which discusses Roy Fielding work on HTTP and REST. It discusses the basics of web development, talks about challenges and explains how HTMX helps in fighting them, without the complexity of react-like spa library.
The middle part of the book is project based, where you can develop a simple app, which introduces you gradually to HTMX concepts. Server code is in python, but simple enough so you can use the language of your choice. Great examples with concise explanations.
Last part is about Hyperview, if you don't want to create mobile apps you can skip it.
I enjoyed the content, format, style very much, and developed 2 apps in HTMX already.
5 out of 5.
November 10, 2023
Great book, love the purist idea and will be using htmx for all my new projects.
Also love the HOWYL approach. Will be targetting go + htmx.
This has really opened my eyes, loved going through the origins of Restful and the HATEOS approach.
Also love the HOWYL approach. Will be targetting go + htmx.
This has really opened my eyes, loved going through the origins of Restful and the HATEOS approach.
January 7, 2025
DNF. I got about 30% into the book and decided that it was not for me. The author of this book proposes that we use the clunkiest and worst parts of web development and use them everywhere.
This book suggests that we should only return HTML from backends and that HTML would be inserted into the page at the place where the call happened. For example, a button "get contacts" would do a call which would return data in an HTML format which would then replace the button.
So basically you can't even see what your page would look like without a backend because without it you couldn't see the whole page. And speaking of backends why would you want to work with HTML in a backend where you would just have to hope that it will fit into the page correctly.
Another point the authors bring up is that it would make it easier for work to be separated between frontend and backend because the frontend doesn't have to worry about a magical typeless json and can just show the returned HTML. But to me, it feels like the opposite to make sure the page looks correct both teams would have to work very closely. This is without talking about the style.
Sure json apis are not perfect but they sure as hell feel like an improvement over hypermedia systems.
This book suggests that we should only return HTML from backends and that HTML would be inserted into the page at the place where the call happened. For example, a button "get contacts" would do a call which would return data in an HTML format which would then replace the button.
So basically you can't even see what your page would look like without a backend because without it you couldn't see the whole page. And speaking of backends why would you want to work with HTML in a backend where you would just have to hope that it will fit into the page correctly.
Another point the authors bring up is that it would make it easier for work to be separated between frontend and backend because the frontend doesn't have to worry about a magical typeless json and can just show the returned HTML. But to me, it feels like the opposite to make sure the page looks correct both teams would have to work very closely. This is without talking about the style.
Sure json apis are not perfect but they sure as hell feel like an improvement over hypermedia systems.
May 20, 2023
This is a great introduction into the general idea of hypermedia systems, and the web (HTML, REST) in particular. It is also an introduction into a few particular technologies: The JavaScript library HTMX, which aims to extend the hypermedia capabilities of HTML and the browser, and Hyperview, a hypermedia language and corresponding hypermedia client for building mobile apps the hypermedia way. I like that the authors do not try to present hypermedia as the solution to everything. Instead, they explain the advantages, but also cover what use cases are not well suited for a hypermedia solution.
June 19, 2025
This is just htmx propaganda complex! As close to communist manifesto as it gets!
In all seriousness this is the overview of htmlx: philosophy/concepts & api. The concepts part is pretty interesting as it presents coherent design philosophy that extends old ideas of server side rendering & components to be compatible with REST & HATEOS, but also be competitive with modern react SPAs in terms of capabilities.
The API part.. it's OK if reading books about APIs is your thing. But i guess it would be dated in couple years, and i think *hypermedia form* is way better for learning about APIs.
In all seriousness this is the overview of htmlx: philosophy/concepts & api. The concepts part is pretty interesting as it presents coherent design philosophy that extends old ideas of server side rendering & components to be compatible with REST & HATEOS, but also be competitive with modern react SPAs in terms of capabilities.
The API part.. it's OK if reading books about APIs is your thing. But i guess it would be dated in couple years, and i think *hypermedia form* is way better for learning about APIs.
December 27, 2023
I stumbled upon HTMX via an article which proclaimed to be "the future". I thought it was just another web technology that will come and go, but I reckoned I could see what it's about. I was surprised that it's actually a "back to principles" approach, one which takes the architecture of the web and adds what's missing to make it suitable for modern applications.
The book itself presents the REST architectural style - as it was described by its researcher - and speaks about its values, but also its trade-offs, also mentioning when it would not be a suitable approach. For me, this was nothing new, but it was refreshing to see them re-explained using a friendlier language, and hopefully more developers will realize what REST actually is, rather than what it has turned out to mean.
After that, the book presents HTMX, which is supposed to be an extension of HTML, meant to add more hypermedia capabilities, which for some reason haven't been added for more than 20 years, as the web community decided instead to cater to the giant ball of hacks that frontend frameworks have become.
The other two thirds of the book are a walkthrough for building an app using HTMX, and its counterpart for mobile apps, Hyperview. It's really great as it goes through some common, yet complex use cases, and shows how to approach them in a RESTful manner.
It's definitely appealing to see that you are able to build modern apps without resorting to heavy-duty frontend frameworks, built upon thousands of dependencies and tens of tools, but rather doing almost everything on the server, with what you already have at hand, just as it was intended from the beginning. Of course, just as the authors point out, not all apps cater to this approach, but the vast majority of them should. Why would you use a front-end framework when all you are doing is gathering some data and displaying in some form, while allowing the user to interact with it? That's what the web has been doing since its inception, so why make it a thousand times more complicated?
However, going through the examples, as the app grew, it started to feel a bit convoluted, and it makes me wonder whether the complexity that HTMX adds - of having any bit of the page be able to send requests and to modify any other bit of the page - isn't just as hard to manage as the technologies it is trying to replace. We won't know until we try, and this book is great at making you want to try and also showing you how to do it.
The book itself presents the REST architectural style - as it was described by its researcher - and speaks about its values, but also its trade-offs, also mentioning when it would not be a suitable approach. For me, this was nothing new, but it was refreshing to see them re-explained using a friendlier language, and hopefully more developers will realize what REST actually is, rather than what it has turned out to mean.
After that, the book presents HTMX, which is supposed to be an extension of HTML, meant to add more hypermedia capabilities, which for some reason haven't been added for more than 20 years, as the web community decided instead to cater to the giant ball of hacks that frontend frameworks have become.
The other two thirds of the book are a walkthrough for building an app using HTMX, and its counterpart for mobile apps, Hyperview. It's really great as it goes through some common, yet complex use cases, and shows how to approach them in a RESTful manner.
It's definitely appealing to see that you are able to build modern apps without resorting to heavy-duty frontend frameworks, built upon thousands of dependencies and tens of tools, but rather doing almost everything on the server, with what you already have at hand, just as it was intended from the beginning. Of course, just as the authors point out, not all apps cater to this approach, but the vast majority of them should. Why would you use a front-end framework when all you are doing is gathering some data and displaying in some form, while allowing the user to interact with it? That's what the web has been doing since its inception, so why make it a thousand times more complicated?
However, going through the examples, as the app grew, it started to feel a bit convoluted, and it makes me wonder whether the complexity that HTMX adds - of having any bit of the page be able to send requests and to modify any other bit of the page - isn't just as hard to manage as the technologies it is trying to replace. We won't know until we try, and this book is great at making you want to try and also showing you how to do it.
April 21, 2024
A speculative fiction novel about what the world might be like if the web development industry hadn't lost its collective mind in the mid 2010's.
This book is the first thing I've seen in over 10 years that has made me actively want to try developing anything web-based again, which is pretty impressive.
I skimmed part 3 (the section on mobile) and wasn't convinced, but the first 2/3 of the book are worth the price of admission on their own.
Small issues with the physical edition (purchased via the Amazon link on their site):
* The pages all have a pattern of very tiny gray dots as a background instead of just being plain paper. I don't know if this was an intentional choice or not, but it's harder to read and makes it looks like a cheap photocopy of an original with poor contrast.
* When a code block spans multiple pages, sometimes a line will just get entirely lost. You can usually infer what they mean by the context (and confirm on the web version), but it's very strange to have a footnote pointing at "(2)" and for that line to just be entirely missing from the listing.
This book is the first thing I've seen in over 10 years that has made me actively want to try developing anything web-based again, which is pretty impressive.
I skimmed part 3 (the section on mobile) and wasn't convinced, but the first 2/3 of the book are worth the price of admission on their own.
Small issues with the physical edition (purchased via the Amazon link on their site):
* The pages all have a pattern of very tiny gray dots as a background instead of just being plain paper. I don't know if this was an intentional choice or not, but it's harder to read and makes it looks like a cheap photocopy of an original with poor contrast.
* When a code block spans multiple pages, sometimes a line will just get entirely lost. You can usually infer what they mean by the context (and confirm on the web version), but it's very strange to have a footnote pointing at "(2)" and for that line to just be entirely missing from the listing.
June 23, 2024
Whether you ever intend to actually use htmx, I recommend this book as a work of literature that will alter how you think about web development. Hypermedia will forever be on your lips.
Initially tried to use htmx for everything, but found my app actually worked best as plain old HTML. Maybe this is a virtue of htmx - barring a justification for complexity, it pushes you to do things the simple way. Once my app was up and running, I began to find little areas that would benefit from dynamic behavior that plain ole HTML didn't afford:
* notifications for new posts
* doom scrolling
* creating threads without needing to refresh.
Htmx does a great job facilitating these things. Feel free to see the results for yourself at https://hnchan.darigo.su. In React they always had this saying, "it's just Javascript". When I write htmx, I want to boast "it's just HTML!" because of how rarely I have to throw a good for nothing `
Initially tried to use htmx for everything, but found my app actually worked best as plain old HTML. Maybe this is a virtue of htmx - barring a justification for complexity, it pushes you to do things the simple way. Once my app was up and running, I began to find little areas that would benefit from dynamic behavior that plain ole HTML didn't afford:
* notifications for new posts
* doom scrolling
* creating threads without needing to refresh.
Htmx does a great job facilitating these things. Feel free to see the results for yourself at https://hnchan.darigo.su. In React they always had this saying, "it's just Javascript". When I write htmx, I want to boast "it's just HTML!" because of how rarely I have to throw a good for nothing `
April 26, 2025
The book introduces (or re-introduces?) a way of building web and mobile applications as hypermedia systems. In a nutshell, large amounts of client-side JavaScript programming are replaced with large amounts of (for instance) HTML templating and server-side logic. The approach lets the browser do what it does best: render HTML.
After introducing the concepts of hypermedia systems, and a critique of the predominant client-side JavaScript paradigm, the book goes into an adequate amount of detail on HTMX and Hyperview. These are the frameworks for web and mobile development written by the book's authors. That way, the book is overall well balanced.
I'm giving it four instead of five stars because I was missing a critical treatment of the hypermedia approach. How does client load (energy consumption) look? How does the network load look? How is overall performance? A side-by-side comparison would have been good, perhaps even to make a stronger case, and definitely to drive decision making.
After introducing the concepts of hypermedia systems, and a critique of the predominant client-side JavaScript paradigm, the book goes into an adequate amount of detail on HTMX and Hyperview. These are the frameworks for web and mobile development written by the book's authors. That way, the book is overall well balanced.
I'm giving it four instead of five stars because I was missing a critical treatment of the hypermedia approach. How does client load (energy consumption) look? How does the network load look? How is overall performance? A side-by-side comparison would have been good, perhaps even to make a stronger case, and definitely to drive decision making.
April 13, 2024
A great introduction to HTMX, a tool I definitely will keep in my web dev toolbox.
Its main thesis is that frameworks such as React overcomplicate things in many (most) cases, and that by extending the foundation of the net instead - HTML - we can achieve most of the things possible using more complex tools in a much more straightforward manner.
I enjoyed it, me being a reluctant convert who have worked with component based technologies before (web components and React). I was a bit mind blown when they showed how not only basic web pages, but also more advanced aspects such as infinite scroll could be effortlessly implemented (we struggled with this for a long time when building it in web components at a former work place).
I will try this in my next hobby project and see how it "feels". Looking forward to it!
Its main thesis is that frameworks such as React overcomplicate things in many (most) cases, and that by extending the foundation of the net instead - HTML - we can achieve most of the things possible using more complex tools in a much more straightforward manner.
I enjoyed it, me being a reluctant convert who have worked with component based technologies before (web components and React). I was a bit mind blown when they showed how not only basic web pages, but also more advanced aspects such as infinite scroll could be effortlessly implemented (we struggled with this for a long time when building it in web components at a former work place).
I will try this in my next hobby project and see how it "feels". Looking forward to it!
May 1, 2025
This book is an introduction to the REST architecture as envisioned by its author, Roy Fielding. It defines the concepts of a Hypermedia system and control and demonstrates how to implement many features expected of a modern Web application (infinite scrolling, instant search, etc.) without causing JavaScript fatigue.
The book examples rely on Flask framework for the backend and htmx library for the frontend; they are easy to follow and understand.
The application architecture presented by the authors is not new: one of my friends, a brilliant programmer, employed the same techniques while developing Web apps for businesses on the .NET stack more than a decade ago, with great success. However, it’s refreshing to go back to basics and remind oneself that Web programming doesn’t have to suck. I would use this architecture if I needed to build a dynamic Web app myself.
The book examples rely on Flask framework for the backend and htmx library for the frontend; they are easy to follow and understand.
The application architecture presented by the authors is not new: one of my friends, a brilliant programmer, employed the same techniques while developing Web apps for businesses on the .NET stack more than a decade ago, with great success. However, it’s refreshing to go back to basics and remind oneself that Web programming doesn’t have to suck. I would use this architecture if I needed to build a dynamic Web app myself.
April 20, 2024
HTMX I like, but…
Lots of good ideas in here, but I’m not sure I’m sold on their approach for Mobile Apps. Lots of work to get native objects. I keep wondering if they needed a bit more time to figure out how to bring HXML back to the web so there could be a single tool.
Again, I’m just not sold on it.
I’m also not sold on HTMX as it seems to be to be eliminating MVC and separation of concerns. I have an overriding template/ HTML doc that I’m updating from my application constantly. My business logic needs to know a lot about the display format. Not wild about this. It also seems to make localization a lot harder.
Lots of good ideas in here, but I’m not sure I’m sold on their approach for Mobile Apps. Lots of work to get native objects. I keep wondering if they needed a bit more time to figure out how to bring HXML back to the web so there could be a single tool.
Again, I’m just not sold on it.
I’m also not sold on HTMX as it seems to be to be eliminating MVC and separation of concerns. I have an overriding template/ HTML doc that I’m updating from my application constantly. My business logic needs to know a lot about the display format. Not wild about this. It also seems to make localization a lot harder.
July 31, 2024
The modern stacks for web development nowadays is so segmented and hinder the fullstacks developments due to limited choices of programming languages and tooling, especially using SPA style.
Some already provide some alternatives via WASM which enable fullstack dev, however still bit much and coupled with the specific languages.
The concepts on HATEOAS give the senior (I meant 20+ years) web developers hope again to compete with the youngers when building better UX by just using simple HTML and RESTful method without bulky of JS.
Must read if you're not really into reactive libraries and already comfortable with the "old" MVC approach.
Some already provide some alternatives via WASM which enable fullstack dev, however still bit much and coupled with the specific languages.
The concepts on HATEOAS give the senior (I meant 20+ years) web developers hope again to compete with the youngers when building better UX by just using simple HTML and RESTful method without bulky of JS.
Must read if you're not really into reactive libraries and already comfortable with the "old" MVC approach.
September 24, 2025
Read this review or all of my reviews on my site!
HTMX. HTML, but better*!
<button hx-delete="/contacts/{{ contact.id }}"
hx-push-url="true"
hx-confirm="Are you sure you want to delete this contact?" (1)
hx-target="body">
Delete Contact
button>
Basically, the entire idea is that you don’t need quite so much (explicit) JavaScript everywhere. It should be possible to declaratively design pages that can automatically take actions (including HTTP verbs other than GET and POST) and replace (partial) content on pages.
That’s why I read the book.
Underlying this idea is the more general new/old idea of Hypermedia. What the web ‘could have been’. Linked content, basically like digital books (albeit more choose-your-own-adventurey). And that’s what HTMX strives to be!
I really like the idea and–although it gets almost preach at times–fully intend to try build / rebuild my sites with these ideas. JavaScript is awesome. But it would be better if it weren’t (directly) needed for so much! (Blasphemy I know).
And then we get into the mobile side. Where instead of using HTMX, they have their entirely custom XML based hypermedia system. Feels weird. Perhaps I’m just not enough mobile dev to go for it. But perhaps it’s worth a try after all.
We shall see.
I enjoyed the book. But it’s a niche topic among niche topics, so YMMV.
November 5, 2023
This is an interesting read for an "older" web developer like me and should be mandatory knowledge for everybody in the industry. I agree a lot with the arguments for HATEOAS, real REST, ARIA and the authors conclusion. HMTX sounds like a cool library for progressively enhancing apps and avoiding the "API churn". I am divided about some technological proposals that to me seem more obscure, such as HyperScript and HyperView.
July 24, 2025
eye opening book. highly readable and fun. I came into the book like htmx, but with the interest of widening my understanding and the philosophy, so I am probably biased, but it is a fresh breath of air in the software industry and web. it makes it fun creating user interfaces again.
the epub does have both types and some graphs that are basically unreadable sadly. not sure if this will be fixed in future editions. however i was able to read the book and guessed the content of the graphs.
the epub does have both types and some graphs that are basically unreadable sadly. not sure if this will be fixed in future editions. however i was able to read the book and guessed the content of the graphs.
December 15, 2023
Sebuah paradigma baru dalam pengembangan aplikasi modern tanpa perlu menggunakan SPA framework seperti reactjs atau vuejs. Hypermedia Driven Application (HDA) adalah sebuah aplikasi web yang menggunakan hypermedia dan pertukaran hypermedia sebagai mekanisme utama untuk berkomunikasi dengan sebuah server.
February 24, 2024
Really brilliant stuff. I have disliked the modern front end ecosystem as long as it has existed. I am not convinced about the last part which describes mobile usecase as that should be also possible offline.
Otherwise both the content and the idea are top notch. I am working on something where I plan to use htmx thanks to this book.
Otherwise both the content and the idea are top notch. I am working on something where I plan to use htmx thanks to this book.
August 30, 2024
A good description of the tool they built, and why. Also talks about many pitfalls which I have encountered when developing as well. Sometimes the authors are a bit too 'we should stick to the old thesis of Mr Roy, our saint' but they mean well.
May 25, 2025
Spends too much time on the simple happy cases and not enough on the actually difficult cases for htmx.
There is not much value in this book than the htmx docs, unless you'd like a specific tutorial for using htmx+python.
There is not much value in this book than the htmx docs, unless you'd like a specific tutorial for using htmx+python.
July 1, 2025
Great book. Starts off with some philosophy and history, which leads nicely into Hypermedia Systems as a technology. HTMX is primarily used, but alternatives are mentioned. I learned a lot and enjoyed the reading.
July 27, 2023
This book is an absolute unit
October 19, 2023
It could be the hot kit in the coming 5 years
December 19, 2023
a bit of calm in a world that went completely mad. this is the good stuff.
August 18, 2024
A good intro to HTMX and a reminder about Hypermedia apps. I thought it was a bit long. If you need convincing, maybe that helps. But if you need convincing, you probably aren't reading the book!
October 8, 2024
Great book, especially the first few chapters. Once you go back to basics, you will never go back.
October 15, 2024
I love a good rant about technology, and this rant was 352 pages long and necessitated writing two entire frameworks.
I’m still way more sold on htmx than hyperview.
I’m still way more sold on htmx than hyperview.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews