Choosing Right Javascript Frameworks - Techies India Inc

Choosing Right Javascript Frameworks

Posted: July 27, 2016

DevelopmentKnowledge

 

Choose Your Javascript Framework

Choosing the right is what matters the most. It is a fact and remains fair for technology too. So here we are with some important insights of JavaScript frameworks to help you “Choose the Right” one for your project that will have huge impact on possibility to deliver on time and your ability to maintain the code in future. In this fast moving world of technology, we bring about good and pain points of these frameworks.

Why JavaScript Frameworks?

While developing a web application, sometimes we, rely on DOM manipulation library and a few utility plugins. Now the question arises that why do we use these frame works in priority? Why not stick to the traditional mode? The very brief answer to these questions is that Javascript Frameworks offer a more responsive user experience and moreover when we are stuck up in Spaghetti Code only these modern frameworks save us from this problem of disorganised projects and also help us to maintain them for long. It offers solution to the problem of code management by providing a well-defined architecture for applications that helps developers do their job easily.

When do we need JavaScript frameworks?

If you love to develop single page application, JavaScript is the perfect resort to it. Whether you want to make a complex user interface or you aim to reduce the HTTP requests. Improved responsiveness of user interface means that JavaScript framework loads a page in portions as the user interacts with them rather than making him wait to load the entire page as in traditional web application development. The MVC (Models-Views-Controllers) design pattern not only organises the code management but also makes it easy for the developers to create highly responsive user interfaces without getting lost in loops and challenges of “Spaghetti Code”. Java MV framework is also useful in writing those applications that communicate with an API or back end data services.

Backbone.js

This JavaScript framework was released in 2010 by Jeremy Ashkenas and is the oldest and lightweight framework to be given serious consideration. It is very versatile MVC framework that has been used in popular sites like Twitter, Pinterest, Hulu and Pandora Radio.

Benefits

  • The biggest strength of this framework is its versatility as the developers find themselves lost in an ocean of options.
  • It shines brightest in the hands of experienced developers.
  • It is lightweight, fast and has only a few simple concepts to grasp on a learning curve.
  • Being light and fast, it is the first choice of developers for projects where speed is a priority.
  • Being basic and small backbone provides you with foundation to build your dream app with innumerable options.

Pain Points

  • Backbone.js doesn’t provide structure but provides basic tools to build your own structure.
  • Memory management needs to be taken care of due to lack of view of lifecycle management. A change in route/state may lead to memory leaks unless personally cleaned up.
  • It lacks two-way data binding support. In other words with a change in view you need to change the model and vice-a-versa. This enables you to write a lot of boilerplate.
  • In Backbone.js views manipulate the DOM directly and makes it hard for the developers to test (unit wise) and hence affects its reusability.

Angular JS

It was released in 2009 by Brat Tech LLC but came to limelight after coming under the patronage of Google. Angular is known as Model-View (MV) framework because it doesn’t follow the typical MVC pattern. The top sites using Angular are VEVO, The Weather Channel and MSNBC.

Benefits

  • It has the feature of two-way data binding where the data is bound to HTML element in the view and it updates and displays the data of its own.in this framework both the model and the view are capable of updating the data.
  • Two-way data binding allows Angular to reduce the amount of coding requirements to create dynamic view.
  • Angular has a lot of built-in features and hence has less dependency on external libraries.
  • It has a large community and has a faster growing popularity. Being backed by Google, the core team is innovating, developing productivity and constantly growing.
  • It allows you to categorise your applications into building blocks like Controllers, Directive, Factories, Filters, Services and Views. Overall this structure creates the reusability of components.
  • Angular is created to support unit-testing.

Pain points

  • The two-way binding which is much loved, is criticised to the same extent. Developers find it complicating the debugging process and hindering performance.
  • Angular may not be quite apt for large and complex applications. It gives sluggish performance when any application calls for a complex UI.
  • Angular is an Expressions Language and it renders them to be very powerful. It allows developers to put logic, do calculations and perform assignments in view templates. Too much of functionality inside the templates prove hard for developers to test them in isolation.
  • Simple mistakes in spellings of a directive name or calling an undefined scope function which can be easily ignored, pose to be the biggest challenges to the developers leaving them scratching their heads for hours.
  • Digest Cycle of Angular, the caretaker of dirty checking surprises the developers. Forgetting to call $digest() while running non-Angular context or creating infinite digest loops can lead the developer to an unseen trouble.

Ember JS

Ember calls itself to be “A framework for creating ambitious web application.” Released in 2011 and created by Yehuda Katz, Ember is said to be reminiscent of Ruby on Rails. It is 95KB minified and compressed for production and is the quite hefty. This extra size allows you to benefit its built-in functionality. Websites using Ember are Qualcomm, NBC News, Vine and Nest.

Benefits

  • The Ember community has a general principle of “convention over configuration”. It has a built-in templating library, routing and thousands of other things.
  • Ember CLI is a very useful command line tool that handles a lot of things. It saves you from a mess of interfering with current build-up get you started with least effort.
  • Ember, being free of corporate patronage, has a passionate and dedicated team that focuses on open source software.
  • Ember has a brilliant Router and an optional data layer which is called Ember data. With innovation outset, Ember has a full-fledged data module which incorporates with Ruby-on-Rails or any other API that follows a set of convention.
  • Concept of The Run Loop raises the performance goal of Ember. This ensures that even if data is updated several times, only a single DOM is updated to help keep loading the application and does not hinder the speed.

Pain Points

  • The top drawback is that Ember’s API has changed even before it got stabilised. A lot of outdated content leads to confuse the developers who work on it for the first time.
  • Very similar to Angular Ember has the same concern as you need to do the things “Ember Way”.
  • A lot of built-in functionality and generated code, developers find it difficult to understand the exact situation. Being a large framework, the learning curve of developers is steep.

React

Recently released by Facebook in 2013, it is born with a different approach and hence stealing the show. Facebook says that unlike other frameworks that are client dominated MVC frameworks, React is more focussed on the View part of MVC. The Flux architecture of React makes it best suitable for larger applications. It is 120KB when minified and compressed for production. Being quite large in file size, it doesn’t have external dependencies. Sites using React are Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, BBC and Netflix.

Benefits

  • It is the fastest of all the frameworks.
  • React is getting popular over Angular and Ember as it is less of “domain Specific language” and is easy to learn.
  • React has a component based approach where each of it represents a part of UI. This allows mixing and matching them all and also maximizing code reusability.
  • React is used to create mobile application as well. Learn React once and use it for coding of both web and iOS apps.
  • React is a server-side supporting framework. It serves a long awaited solution to the client-side framework relating to performance and SEO problems.

Pain Points

  • React faces the most controversial aspects of its creation as it does not have any templates and uses components to generate UI.
  • With the component approach of React, a lot of developers seem to be uncomfortable with the fact that everything concerning a component is located in a single place.

Closing Notes

We hope that we have successfully brought about the benefits and areas of concern of top frameworks.

Ultimately, the decision of “Choosing the Right JavaScript Framework” is all your personal preference in regard to the type of project you need to work on. But otherwise knowing all the pros and cons and getting a contrasting review helps making a better decision.

Framework diversity fosters innovation.