Javascript frameworks

hargi · 4 Jun 2016 at 08:04

Looking for a bit of advice, I know know enough Rails to knock up some web apps, I understand MVC and getting data in and out. I have used jQuery sparingly for conditionals on hiding and showing links depending on the date.

I think its time to now look at some front end js frameworks however I have a few questions.

As I have never used one before I dont really know when I would use one instead of just using RoR or Laravel.

I have looked at vue.js and can see it looks clean to write.

I think the main question is how do I get in to this... how could I incorporate a small part of one into an existing project?

Also which would you say look at first

radderfire · 4 Jun 2016 at 17:10

From a job marketplace standpoint I would say JQuery is the most requested, therefore I would look at that first:

http://www.w3schools.com/jquery/

I would use it when it provides the most elegant and efficient way of doing something you need.

robotSocks · 5 Jun 2016 at 20:56

radderfire said:
From a job marketplace standpoint I would say JQuery is the most requested, therefore I would look at that first:

http://www.w3schools.com/jquery/

I would use it when it provides the most elegant and efficient way of doing something you need.

jquery is a library, not a framework. The OP has already mentioned it. It is being actively deprecated.

i'd recommend AngularJS, Angular2, React.

GravyMonster · 6 Jun 2016 at 15:07

Also W3Schools is about the worst thing to recommend to a beginner as their articles are outdated, follow bad practices or are just plain wrong.

For jQuery you can't beat the official documentation: http://api.jquery.com

antijoke · 6 Jun 2016 at 16:47

robotCocks said:
jquery is a library, not a framework. The OP has already mentioned it. It is being actively deprecated.

i'd recommend AngularJS, Angular2, React.

jQuery is actively being deprecated?

:confused:

roccles · 6 Jun 2016 at 19:48

They just released the v3.0 release candidate on the 20th May

link

hargi · 6 Jun 2016 at 20:00

Thanks I know a bit of jQuery for doing hide and show and bit of animations.
It was more a question of angular, ember, react, vue and how I would put this into my workflow?
At the moment I have never used them as I have not needed to use them or know why I would use them

radderfire · 6 Jun 2016 at 20:10

Of those, Angular is the one I've seen mentioned most often. Therefore, I would look at this first. It has a pretty good explanation of what it's for on its home page:

https://angularjs.org/

It has a more elegant and instant binding model, and looks more like HTML and is therefore easier to read for functionality.

antijoke · 6 Jun 2016 at 22:12

From what I've seen go straight to angular 2 as that's where it's moved to.

roccles said:
They just released the v3.0 release candidate on the 20th May

link

That's hardly deprecating jQuery.

The way he said it was like jQuery was ending.

kayomani · 6 Jun 2016 at 22:22

Look at any latest gen framework such as React, Aurelia or Angular2 and you'll not see jQuery there. If you're new to html and js do something simple in jQuery first, there will be plenty of jobs for existing code bases which utilize jQuery anyhow.

antijoke · 7 Jun 2016 at 07:45

Taking a completely different approach to this, do you have an understanding and grounding in JavaScript?

hargi · 7 Jun 2016 at 09:36

@anticonscience I have a understanding of JavaScript. Am I fluent? Not really

bscott · 7 Jun 2016 at 09:38

As has been said, JQuery is a library that you use as a toolbox whereas Angular etc are frameworks around which you structure your application which is typically a single page application. Lying somewhere between a library and a framework is Backbone.

As anticonscience has said you do need JavaScript (and possibly Typescript if you go with Angular2).

If you can afford the subscription, Pluralsight has a number of relevant courses including 'Choosing a Javascript Framework'.

radderfire · 7 Jun 2016 at 09:39

What is your reason for learning this? What is your goal? I think where Angular excels is creating one page web apps that work well on mobile too. It is a question of the right tool to do a specific job.

roccles · 7 Jun 2016 at 09:45

hargi said:
As I have never used one before I dont really know when I would use one instead of just using RoR or Laravel.

This is quite an interesting article which maybe useful when starting out and deciding when you need a framework etc

LINK

hargi · 7 Jun 2016 at 10:04

Ok My goal is to be more employable.
And a lot of job specs are asking for frontend frameworks.

So I know that if you know php you can do the same thing as with laravel except laravel makes a lot of things faster and less typing. I get that, that is how a framework is used to help.

I understand that I use jQuery to add a bit of flair to sites so transitions and that kind of thing ( I know it can do other stuff to).
Am I right in thinking that Angular for example would replace RoR if you was making a web app from scratch you would choose to build in on or the other?

roccles · 7 Jun 2016 at 10:27

kayomani said:
Look at any latest gen framework such as React, Aurelia or Angular2 and you'll not see jQuery there. If you're new to html and js do something simple in jQuery first, there will be plenty of jobs for existing code bases which utilize jQuery anyhow.

I think Ember has a dependancy on jQuery but you are right most of the latest frameworks don't.

bscott · 7 Jun 2016 at 10:35

RoR, Laravel or whatever you choose for your server backend would typically provide a Rest API for your javascript frontend (Angular, Ember or whatever) which would pull in data with Ajax calls.

sb89 · 7 Jun 2016 at 10:41

hargi said:
Ok My goal is to be more employable.
And a lot of job specs are asking for frontend frameworks.

So I know that if you know php you can do the same thing as with laravel except laravel makes a lot of things faster and less typing. I get that, that is how a framework is used to help.

I understand that I use jQuery to add a bit of flair to sites so transitions and that kind of thing ( I know it can do other stuff to).
Am I right in thinking that Angular for example would replace RoR if you was making a web app from scratch you would choose to build in on or the other?

No.

Angular is a front end framework. Rails is a a full stack framework (back end and front end).

If you don't need a back end, you could use Angular on its own.

If you need a back end, you could do front end and back end in rails. Alternatively you could do the front end in Angular and the back end in rails.

radderfire · 7 Jun 2016 at 12:23

hargi said:
Ok My goal is to be more employable.
And a lot of job specs are asking for frontend frameworks.

What is your situation at the moment? Do you already have a job or are you looking for one? What is your experience level?