So, you want to create a web application and do not know which framework to choose. Wait, what? You do not know what framework is? Well, it is a program that is tasked to facilitate application development.
One of the most popular frameworks is Vue.js. It was released in 2014 by former Google employee, Evan You. The creator still maintains the framework with the help of its community.
If you want to build your web app on this framework hire vue.js developers from OTAKOYI.
Are you still curious about how vue.js can help you? Follow me, and I will show you that the use of pure JavaScript for web app development when you have Vue.js can be compared to the fight between cavalry and tanks.
How do the browsers work?
All the browsers understand only these three things: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. To learn how frameworks work, you will need to know the basics about the technologies above.
- First of all, HTML is the markup language that is responsible for the page structure.
- CSS is the technology that displays HTML documents. In plain English, it is all about visual effects, including the adaptation of the web page for your smartphone.
- JavaScript is the programming language that was responsible for the cooperation between the page and the user. However, now, it has more different functions besides the initial one.
Each of the technologies above is being developed separately, as well as each of them has a list of versions. The newest versions are HTML5, CSS3, and ECMAScript 2018. What makes the case more complicated is the fact that browsers also evolve independently. For instance, Internet Explorer is lagging behind while Chrome hastens to implement the newest features.
This situation creates a lot of pain in the neck for front-end developers who struggle to deliver the UI of a website according to the standards. In particular, it has to look alike on different browsers, work fast, and be reliable.
The problem with programming languages
What is more, HTML and CSS are not programming languages. They are markup languages: only syntax, a set of commands (constructs and rules) to display the content of a page. To endow a website with functionality, one has to connect a programming language on the server-side or the client-side (in the browser), and in most cases on both sides. Therefore, you will need a programming language.
However, standard JavaScript is not the most efficient and pleasant programming language to work with. It is often criticized for the need to write and repeat lots of the lines of code to run the simplest operations. This repetitiveness slows down the development process.
Due to this reason, web designers and programmers prefer to use advanced instruments instead of pure JavaScript. Earlier, other programming languages were used for this purpose, but JavaScript supplanted them owing to its libraries.
JavaScript Libraries are sets of ready-made JavaScript functions that perform standard operations with the HTML code of a page. Needless to say that these libraries speed up the development process.
Frameworks
After that, similar products for HTML + CSS appeared. Those were the pieces of code that were tasked to solve particular popular problems. Unlike libraries, frameworks are not sets of ready-made functions that can be added and used pointwise on separate pages.
A framework assumes that the entire project will follow the structure it provides. Thus, it sets the restrictions that must be adhered to in order to speed up development, follow the standards more accurately, reduce the threshold for developers to enter the project, etc.
Frameworks already contain compatible libraries that are adjusted to each other, so the developer does not need to update anything, keep in mind the limitations, or take care of compatibility. However, frameworks are incompatible with each other: once you choose one, you need to adhere to it.
This incompatibility is one of the most important reasons to choose the popular framework. The thing is that there is a possibility that you will want an update or a sort of improvement for your web app. In this case, it will be much easier to find the developers if the framework is popular.
Another important thing about frameworks is the fact that they impose a certain code structure on a developer. The outcome of this approach is that with these frameworks code was orderly organized as well as easily fixed.
Reactive Frameworks
The next stage of web development evolution was reactive frameworks. From now on, the back-end only stores, processes, and secures data. Everything else is the work for the client (browser) that now has instructions for converting data into a layout. The framework on the client side fills in data into the template, implements business logic, and manipulates the page.
The reason why these frameworks are called reactive is that they change the interface status automatically if the data is changed. Angular, React, and Vue.js are the most popular ones, but there are a lot of others.
Reactive frameworks allow you to use any programming language on the back-end, extract data, pack it into JSON or XML, and send it to the front-end. Then, on the front-end, the reactive framework processes the received information. For instance, if you need a table, its structure is generated by the framework directly on the client while the data for it is received from the server.
Thus, only data is transferred between the browser and the server. Sometimes, this data includes new pieces of template or rules. Reactive frameworks are indispensable for implementing the Single Page Application (SPA) concept when everything happens on one screen. Such a web application creates an impression of working with a desktop application while in reality, it is a one-page website.
Conclusions
To conclude, one of the best ways to create a web application is to use Vue.js. What makes Vue.js better than the other ones is that it is new, user-friendly, and convenient. The other benefits of this framework are:
- It is popular and you can easily find developers if you need them.
- It has a large friendly community, which is extremely important for a framework since the users always participate in the improvement of these programs.
- There are a lot of libraries and ready-made decisions available.
- Here, at OTAKOYI we have a lot of experience with this technology. Check out our website, which was also made with Vue.js.