List of best JavaScript frameworks : If you have been into designing and developing web applications then you must have heard about JavaScript. JavaScript is a front-end language that is used to create web pages.
But that’s not all about JavaScript. This language has amazing frameworks that are loved by the developers.
Well if you haven’t heard about frameworks then don’t need to worry. Frameworks are helpful to the developer by reducing the size of the code. In addition to this, frameworks have some pre-defined functions that make programming easier. Frameworks themselves are written in programming languages.
For example, Bootstrap is a popular CSS framework. Bootstrap can help you to write less amount of code with the help of various classes that are pre-defined in the framework.
Libraries vs Frameworks: This is one of the most confusing discussion and especially if you have just started with designing web applications or programming. The reason this topic is discussed here is that sometimes you might find the word library and sometimes framework.
Well, in simple terms a library is a collection of useful codes (or components like classes and functions). This code can be reused again and again for various applications. On the other hand, a framework provides tools that help you to develop your applications faster.
Till now there are many JavaScript frameworks that are available and most of these frameworks provide a specific feature to your web application.
It might be difficult for you to understand all the frameworks so here we will be discussing some of the frameworks of this language that could fulfill the needs of your projects.
Best JavaScript Frameworks
1. Angular.js
Angular.js is one of the amazing JavaScript frameworks that are used to create dynamic single-page applications or SPA. Well if you don’t know about Single page applications then let us first learn about SPA.
You must have seen many websites where you click on one link and instead of reloading the whole page the content appears on the same page.
These are known as SPA’s. Angular.Js is an open-source front-end development framework which is operated by Google. Using Angular.js for building sites is very helpful because Angular expects the browser to build the page.
This helps in reducing the load on the server and as a result, the sites load much faster. With the help of its rendering capabilities and JSON based processing, this framework makes it easy to work with dynamic rendering.
Now let us see some of the cool features of Angular.js:
- The architecture of this JavaScript framework is based on the MVC or model view controller design.
- The model here is the central component that expresses the behavior of the application and manages the logic, rules, and data.
- The view gives the output based on the model and the controller accepts the input and then it converts it into some commands and these commands are further send to the view and the model.
- Angular.js supports two-way binding which is an amazing feature. This builds a link between the view and the model.
- In a two-way data binding process, the changes made in the model are displayed by the view and the model reflects the changes made in the view.
- The two-way binding also helps the developers by avoiding them from writing a large amount of code.
- Another great feature that Angular.js provides is that it uses HTML to build user interfaces. HTML is commonly used and has simple tags that are easy to understand.
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2. Vue.js
Released in the year 2014 Vue.js is one of the popular and fastest-growing JavaScript frameworks. It is a lightweight JavaScript framework that uses some concepts from Angular and React.
The key focus of this framework is its progressive nature. Vue.js provides component like props like React.js and template style just like Angular.js. In can power advanced SPA’s. In Vue.js the component’s dependencies are automatically tracked during its rendering.
This helps the system to know which component needs to be re-rendered when the state-changes. Along with these features, Vue.js also supports JSX.
Let us some of the amazing features that Vue.js provides to its developers:
- Integration Capability: Since with the help of vue.js the developers can build both the complex applications as well as the single-page applications which makes vue.js one of the best frameworks with cool integration capabilities.
- It can also be combined with server-side frameworks like Django, Laravel, Symfony and many others.
- Vue.js is flexible and easy to understand this makes it popular amongst the developers.
- It has an inbuilt MVC model which makes configuration easy and quick.
3. Node.js
In addition to this Node.js is also used to develop server-side and networking applications and API’s. Built on Google Chrome’s JavaScript Engine Node.js is one of the most downloaded cross-platform runtime environments.
The applications that are built with Node.js are written in JavaScript. Let us see some of the cool features of this framework:
- The API’s of Node.js are asynchronous or non-blocking. This means that the server does not wait for the API to return the data. Thus, rendering the data in a non-blocking way gives a faster response to every request.
- The Node.js framework makes use of a single thread model with event looping. This mechanism helps the server give a response in a non-blocking way. This framework uses a single-threaded program that helps in providing service to a large number of requests.
- Node.js provides much faster services because the Node.js applications don’t buffer any data. Rather these applications output the data in the form of data chunks.
- It is powered by Google’s V8 engine.
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4. Ember.js
Ember.Js is an open-source and a free client-side JavaScript framework that is used for developing web applications. In addition to this, by using Ember.js, the developers can also build single-page applications.
Ember.js is a popular JavaScript framework amongst the developers and is built to be flexible. This framework offers a widget-based approach to the developers known as the Ember Components. Along with providing flexibility, Ember.js has a powerful routing system.
Some notable features of this JavaScript framework are:
- Ember.js works on MVVM or model-view-ViewModel pattern. It follows Convention over Configuration.
- The core of the development model in Ember is formed with CSS and HTML.
- Ember.js provides URL support and Client-side rendering.
- Ember-CLI and Ember are two different things. The Ember-CLI is the command line addon that comes alongside the Ember.Js stack.
5. Polymer.js
This is another open-source JavaScript library that is used to design and develop web applications. Developed by developers of Google, polymer.js is built to maximize the features that are available on a web platform to let the developers build components.
It is a fast JavaScript library that allows building interactive web applications by making the use of web components. Before discussing the notable features of this library let us first see what are web components.
A web component is a set of W3C standards that consists of various web technologies.
- Polymer.js allows the developers to create own custom elements using JavaScipt, CSS, and HTML.
- The Polymer.js is designed in such a way that it supports the flow of data in both one direction and bidirectional. In more technical terms this means that polymer.js supports one-way and two-way data binding.
- It uses the latest API for web platforms.
6. React.js
Created by Facebook and released in the year 2013, React.Js is one of the most fastly growing JavaScript library. It is loved and used by most developers. React.js is used to build UI applications with the help of reusable UI components for each state that can automatically render and update the data rather than reloading the whole page.
The primary focus of this JavaScript library is to handle the View or V layer in the MVC model for web and mobile applications.
Following are some of the cool features that this popular JavaScript library provides:
- React.js offers a virtual DOM object for every DOM object. Well, a virtual DOM object is a representation of the DOM object. Manipulating virtual DOM objects is much faster rather than updating the original DOM.
- The React.js library is component-based. This means that the web pages are divided into small components. In addition to the component feature, React.js utilizes JSX. JSX is an extension to the JavaScript language. The JSX provides a shorter and simpler syntax to the developers.
- React.js supports the flow of data in one direction I.e unidirectional flow of data.
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7. Backbone.js
It is a lightweight JavaScript framework library that allows the developers to structure and develop client-side applications that run in the web-browser. Backbone.js offers a model view presenter or MVP network.
This abstracts the data into models, DOM into views and binds the two using events.
Following are some features that this library offers:
- With the support for RESTful API’s, the models in Backbone.js can be tied to the backend.
- This JavaScript library has a RESTful JSON Interface which is based on the MVP application model. The JSON format is lightweight and performs serialization of data.
- The event-driven communication between the models and the views helps the code become easily readable.
- The HTML code is automatically updated in case of any changes in the model.
8. Meteor.js
Meteor.js is an amazing back-end JavaScript frameworks that is written in Node.js. It is open-source and can be used to build mobile and web applications. This JavaScript framework has its own inbuilt testing tool which is known as velocity.
Meteor.js supports the MongoDB database which is loved by most of the developers. Apart from these features, Meteor.js also supports live reloading of the pages.
Every time the code is modified it reloads only those DOM elements that have been modified or altered and not the whole page.
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Conclusion
JavaScript is a language that will remain as the core component of mobile and web application development. The frameworks provide a more efficient and flexible way to build applications whether they are for mobile or some other platform.
Till now we have discussed some JavaScript frameworks for front-end and back-end that you can use for building your project. So, it depends on the requirement of your project.