# Source: https://rsbuild.dev/guide/start/glossary.md

# Glossary

## Bundler

Module bundlers like [Rspack](https://rspack.rs/) and [webpack](https://webpack.js.org/).

The main goal of bundlers is to combine JavaScript, CSS, and other files so the output can run in the browser, Node.js, or other environments. When bundlers process web applications, they build a dependency graph and combine each module into one or more bundles.

## CSR

CSR stands for "Client-Side Rendering". It means the page is rendered in the browser using JavaScript, and logic such as data fetching, templates, and routing runs on the client rather than the server.

In CSR, the server sends an empty HTML shell and JavaScript to the browser, and the browser fetches data from the server's API and renders dynamic content.

## Environment

The runtime environment for build outputs. See [Multi-environment builds](/guide/advanced/environments.md).

## Micro-frontend

Micro-frontend (MFE) is an architecture style similar to microservices. It is composed of multiple independently delivered frontend applications that form a cohesive whole. MFE decomposes frontend applications into smaller, simpler applications that can be developed, tested, and deployed independently while still appearing as a single product to users.

It primarily solves two problems:

* Maintaining large, complex applications becomes difficult over time.
* Cross-team collaboration becomes inefficient.

## Modern.js

[Modern.js](https://github.com/web-infra-dev/modern.js) is an open-source web engineering system from ByteDance that provides multiple solutions to help developers solve problems in different development scenarios.

## Module Federation

Module Federation is an architectural pattern for JavaScript application decomposition (similar to microservices on the server-side), allowing you to share code and resources between multiple JavaScript applications (or micro-frontends).

See [Module Federation](/guide/advanced/module-federation.md) for more details.

## Rspack

[Rspack](https://rspack.rs/) is a high-performance JavaScript bundler written in Rust. It offers strong compatibility with the webpack ecosystem, so it can replace webpack seamlessly while delivering lightning-fast build speeds.

## Rspress

[Rspress](https://github.com/web-infra-dev/rspress) is a fast static site generator based on Rsbuild.

## SSR

SSR stands for "Server-Side Rendering". It means that the HTML of the web page is generated by the server and sent to the client, rather than sending only an empty HTML shell and relying on JavaScript to generate the page content.

See [Server-side rendering (SSR)](/guide/advanced/ssr.md) for more details.

## SWC

SWC (Speedy Web Compiler) is a transformer and minifier for JavaScript and TypeScript written in Rust.

See [Configure SWC](/guide/configuration/swc.md) for more details.

## More

See additional glossary terms in [Rspack - Glossary](https://rspack.rs/misc/glossary).