JavaScript has officially conquered the web development field. That’s because an estimated 95% of websites in the world are built with the programming language. However, the language’s dominance didn’t stop there.
The popular programming language is now a frequent choice for mobile development. This is incredibly important since the mobile app industry is expected to generate more than $188 billion in annual revenue by 2020. Companies of all sizes are turning to JavaScript software development to build custom applications.
This guide will walk executives through the most important JavaScript frameworks and development tools used for web and mobile application development.
The following three frameworks are used throughout the JavaScript software development industry to build complex web and mobile applications with outstanding user interface and experience design.
Each framework is supported by an active open-source community and is regularly updated with new features and components that streamline the development process and save engineers valuable time.
React is by far the most popular JavaScript framework used today. This bare-bones framework uses functional programming principles to make parallel programming and coding comprehension much easier.
Billed as “a JavaScript library for building user interfaces,” React enables developers to create intuitive and beautiful-looking websites. In addition, the framework is SEO friendly and promotes faster web page loading speeds.
React is also an open-source project maintained by Facebook, which means that the framework is updated regularly and at the forefront of development trends. In particular, developers love the fact that Facebook enabled React to reuse system components, helping engineers save time and boost their productivity.
The online file-sharing company Dropbox used React to build their web application. Their development team used the framework to create a simply designed and easy-to-use web application, in addition to their photo and video app Carousel.
Angular is another popular JavaScript framework designed to simplify the development and testing process. This is accomplished through a wide array of components and by making the code unit test-ready—meaning that developers don’t have to write additional code in order to run test modules.
This “all-in-one” framework comes with all of the features that developers may need. This includes routing, Typescript adoption, HTTP request handling, and a simple progressive web application.
Angular 5, the latest version, also comes with detailed documentation that makes learning the framework a breeze. It also places the burden of building a page on the browser, reducing the server load and increasing page load times. Finally, Angular was built by Google, which means the tech company regularly provides patches and updates.
PayPal is an excellent example of a web application built with Angular. The popular Internet payment company used the framework to build its sidebar, credit card, and payment pages. Angular helps streamline the application build-out and increase processing speeds for the payments themselves.
Vue is a popular lightweight alternative to the Angular JavaScript framework and has one of the fastest-growing user bases in the industry.
One of the reasons for its success is its integration ability—engineers can fuse parts of the framework into other frameworks and libraries such as Django and WordPress. It also reduces the length of the development cycle and the overall amount of code through a wide selection of code snippets and automatic tracking of component dependencies.
Vue is frequently called a progressive framework because it is designed to be “increasingly adaptable” to the needs of its developers. This means that the framework starts with a minimal amount of features—engineers can add components into it until it meets their specific project needs. Programmers can also quickly integrate the framework within an app using a script tag.
My Nintendo is one of the most well-known web applications built with Vue. The website was built so that users could track and spend their reward points from the Nintendo ecosystem. The framework was chosen because it allowed for rapid development of the web application and came with the flexibility that Nintendo’s user design engineers craved.
JavaScript developers use tools like Gulp, NPM, and Sublime to streamline the application development process. They accomplish this by automating time-consuming tasks like writing code, testing applications, updating development work, and more.
Gulp is an open-source, streaming task runner that allows engineers to automate simple and time-consuming development tasks like debugging code, minification, optimization, unit testing, cache busting, and more.
Programmers can use Gulp to automatically check for new files and change files in specific directories. In addition, popular plugins allow developers to automate other unrelated processes, such as batch renaming files, comparing source and destination files, and maintaining WordPress themes.
The Node.js Package Manager (NPM) is the most widely used JavaScript package manager. This collection of tools automates the installing, upgrading, configuring, and removing applications from a computer’s operating system.
Developers love NPM because it automatically runs code from dependencies and allows programmers to add permit packages on command. Engineers can also use Node.js to write JavaScript applications on the server itself.
Sublime is the most popular text editor used in JavaScript software development. One reason for its success is its gentle learning curve—developers can master the basics in just a few short days. In addition, the tool comes with a wide variety of plugins and shortcuts that improve productivity.
The text editor also operates using a Python API. This means that it natively supports most programming languages and allows developers to quickly integrate Python-based extensions into their code. Lastly, the use of projects improves workflow and helps developers stay focused when juggling multiple tasks.
jQuery is a very popular JavaScript library that is used to solve many of the cross-browser compatibility issues that plagued JavaScript in its early years. It accomplishes this by streamlining HTML scripting and requiring simpler and shorter code from programmers.
In addition, jQuery allows developers to create a beautiful user interface without requiring a background in user design. Finally, engineers can utilize jQuery to create highly interactive websites with a range of effects and animations, without resorting to the memory-intensive Flash Player.
A streaming task runner designed to automate simple development tasks and save engineers time.
A package manager which automates the installation, updating, and configuration process for software.
The most popular JavaScript text editor. Helps developers stay on track and organized throughout the development cycles.
A cross-platform JavaScript library that helps developers overcome browser compatibility issues and create a consistent user interface.
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