3. Vue
The ideas behind Vue come from Angular and React, but Vue is, in many ways, better than these two front-end development tools. Vue has been downloaded over 40 million times this year. A recent Snyk JavaScript Frameworks Security report has been released. It is mainly aimed at researching the security of React and Angular, but there was a place in it to study other projects. From Vue, from this report you can find out what is known only about 4 of its immediate vulnerabilities that have been fixed.
If you are unfamiliar with Vue, here are a few key facts about this framework.
When working with Vue, the logic of the component, its layout and styles are stored in one file. Except for styles, project materials are also stored in React. The interaction of components in Vue is provided through objects that store the properties and state of components. This approach, too, before it appeared in Vue, was used in React.
Vue, which makes it similar to Angular, allows you to mix HTML markup and JavaScript code. In order to integrate component data into a template, you need to use Vue directives. Such as
v-bind
or
v-if
.
One of the reasons Vue should be seen as a worthy alternative to React is because the state of the application is organized here. In React projects, when using the React + Redux bundle, as the application grows in size, the procedures necessary to manage its state become more complicated. This may come down to the fact that the programmer, instead of working on the application itself, has to spend a lot of time setting up Redux mechanisms. Vue uses the Vuex library to manage state. It is similar to Flux and created specifically for Vue. Working with it is much more convenient than with Redux.
If you are trying to make a choice between Vue and Angular, then the reasons why you might prefer Vue can be reduced to the fact that Angular, in comparison with Vue, looks like an overcomplicated large-scale project, the nature of which is the desire to limit the developer. Vue is much simpler than Angular and does not limit programmers so much.
Another advantage of Vue over Angular and React is that you don’t have to learn a new language to work with this framework.
▍ Elements of the Vue ecosystem
Let us give a brief description of the ecosystem into which one who chooses Vue falls:
- To control the state of Vue applications, the Vuex library is used, which is based on concepts related to Flux.
- There are developer tools for Chrome and Firefox that make creating Vue projects easier.
- The Vue ecosystem has a
vue-loader
for webpack, which allows you to use Vue components as single-file components. - To work with server APIs, you can use the
vue-resource
HTTP client and the Axios library. - Vue supports the Nuxt.js framework, which includes support for applications that are rendered on the server. Nuxt.js can be considered a competitor to Angular Universal.
- You can use the Weex library to develop Vue-based mobile applications.
Vue is a great framework that surpasses others in terms of usability. Perhaps I myself will switch to Vue in the near future. This framework is not as complex as React and Angular, and is also well suited for developing applications of various sizes.
4. Ember
Ember 3.13 was released this year. A lot of new things have appeared in this version of the framework. Ember is similar to Backbone and Angular. It is also one of the oldest JavaScript frameworks. But, despite this, in terms of opportunities, he does not lag behind his younger competitors. For example, it supports traceable property change technology, which makes it easy to monitor changes in application state and makes it easier to visualize these changes.
Ember has a rather sophisticated architecture that allows you to quickly create huge client applications. It implements typical MVC ideas. Ember applications are built from adapters, components, controllers, auxiliary objects, models, routes, services, templates, utilities, add-ons.
One of the most interesting features of Ember is the command line tools (Ember CLI). These tools help front-end developers work productively. Using the Ember CLI, you can create not only project templates, but also stubs of controllers, components and other entities from which applications are built.
▍Ember Ecosystem Elements
The front-end developer using Ember has at his disposal the following key features:
- Ember CLI is a command line tool for rapid prototyping of applications and for dependency management.
- Standard Ember Developer Server.
- Ember Data - a library for working with data.
- Handlebars is a template engine used in Ember applications.
- QUnit is a framework for testing Ember projects.
- Ember Inspector - Developer Tools for Chrome and Firefox.
- Ember Observer - add-ons catalog for Ember CLI.
Perhaps Ember can be called an underrated framework, but despite this, it is great for creating complex web projects.
5. Backbone.js
Backbone is a JavaScript framework based on an architecture similar to MVC. Let's say what MVC calls a “Controller” in a Backbone is called a “View”. Backbone views can use various templating systems. For example - Mustache, Handlebars, jQuery-tmpl. In Backbone projects, you can use third-party libraries. It should be noted that the only hard Backbone dependency is the Underscore.js library.
Backbone is an easy-to-use framework that allows you to quickly develop single-page applications. Among the auxiliary tools used in conjunction with Backbone.js, we can mention such as Chaplin, Marionette, Thorax.
If you need to develop an application with which users belonging to different groups will work, then you can use Backbone collections (arrays) to separate models. In Backbone models, collections, routes, and views, you can use events.
▍Backbone Ecosystem Elements
Among the features of the Backbone ecosystem are the following:
- The Backbone library includes events, models, collections, views, and a router.
- The Underscore.js library, which Backbone depends on, contains a set of helper functions that help you write cross-browser JS code.
- When developing Backbone applications, you can use various template systems.
- The Backbone CLI command-line tool simplifies application development.
- The Marionette, Thorax, and Chaplin libraries help you create applications with specific architectural solutions.
Perhaps, Backbone cannot be called a serious competitor for the other front-end development tools discussed in this material. However, this framework is very popular among developers. Therefore, it may well turn out that Backbone is exactly what you need.
Summary
This article gave a brief overview of web frameworks, which were recognized as the best according to a survey conducted among developers from ValueCoders . We hope this review will help to make the right choice for those who are busy choosing a framework for their next web project.
Dear readers! What do you write front end web projects on?
