The use of JavaScript no longer remains bounded to website development. With numerous frameworks, libraries, and tools available for use, JavaScript now serves a multitude of purposes for developers. Hence, a developer having excellent command over JavaScript-based development can take his/her career to new heights with the support of JavaScript tools and libraries to develop excellent solutions easily.
A Basic Introduction to JavaScript
JavaScript is covered under web technologies which also include HTML (HyperText Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheet). It is an object-oriented, just-in-time-compiled language that is used to run functions on the website being developed. However, as the technology changes demand, JavaScript can also be used for Android app development with its frameworks named Node.js, Angular.js, Express.js and more.
The development using JavaScript is considered easier as it is one of the fundamental languages learned and known by most of the developers and by practicing up the knowledge, the development of excellent solutions is ensured without needing to learn new languages.
Best Open-Source JavaScript Tools
Using the tools, libraries, and frameworks of JavaScript, developers are assured of excellent solutions to be built for their clients with this efficient language in use. However, not all tools are free. Therefore, finding open-source tools (i.e., available for free) is important to gain efficient support without having to invest or spend money.
1. Babylon.js
Babylon.js is used to craft and visualize 3D graphics over browsers using its real-time 3D engine. There is no need to download any software or libraries on developers' devices or for viewers' browsers, it simply gets loaded for providing an excellent experience. WebGL or Web Graphics Library is the JavaScript API (Application Program Interface) used for rendering 3D or 2D graphics on the compatible graphics.
To experience 3D graphics on clients' screens, it is important to ensure that their browser is WebGL compatible. On the developers' front, to use the latest version of Babylon.js for the HTML project, the below code is required to be placed in the index.html file of the empty project first to integrate and use the 3D engine provided by Babylon.js.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html" charset="utf-8"/>
<title>Babylon - Getting Started</title>
<!-- Link to the last version of BabylonJS -->
<script src="https://preview.babylonjs.com/babylon.js"></script>
<!-- Link to the last version of BabylonJS loaders to enable loading filetypes such as .gltf -->
<script src="https://preview.babylonjs.com/loaders/babylonjs.loaders.min.js"></script>
<!-- Link to pep.js to ensure pointer events work consistently in all browsers -->
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/pep/0.4.1/pep.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<canvas id="renderCanvas"></canvas>
</body>
</html>
(source: Babylon.js)
2. Johnny-five
Controlling hardware devices from browsers has now become easier with this JavaScript robotics programming framework. It helps gain control over hardware components to provide excellent results. Released on Github by Rick Waldron, this framework is under the care of developers across the world. Being an open-source framework, developers can easily use and solve any bugs and fix issues to increase the efficiency of this framework.
To use this framework, an Arduino or any compatible board is required to be attached to the host device (Desktop, Raspberry Pi, Laptop). Later, the installation of Node.js on the host device is required to run Johnny-five. A simple code to initiate use of Johnny-Five is given below:
`mkdir nodebot && cd nodebot;
npm install johnny-five;
Later, open a text editor and start typing the code and run it using the terminal on host devices by typing
node strobe.js`
(source: Github)
3. Greenlet
Greenlet powers up the processing by moving each async function in its own thread. To let it work on your browser, it is important to use a Web Worker that enables the functionalities to work excellently. Browsers like Firefox, Chrome, IE10+, Safari, Edge, and others. To enable Greenlet in Node.js, it is required to use a library like node-webworker for poly filling.
To install Greenlet simply write:
npm i -S greenlet
It accepts async functions and makes a copy of them to make them run within the web worker.
greenlet(Function) -> Function
It is advisable to create and use greenlets at the beginning on the top of the module.
4. JSUI
JavaScript Utility Kit is a powerful kit for organizing JavaScript projects visually. All that is required for this kit to run is package.json. If your package contains this particular file, it is fit to run on this UI kit. Even for a mobile app development company, this tool makes it easy to manage the JavaScript projects with the features offered. It helps in merging apps, running them, kill a port, implement plugins, create files and more. This speeds up the development time and provides efficient results requiring lesser efforts. The entire project is available on Github to download and use for your next JavaScript project.
5. Polly.js
Recovering from transient exceptions has become easier with Polly.js supporting the retry or wait approach that continues until the final result is gained. Transient exceptions are the exceptions that can be removed if retried multiple times and Polly.js supports this feature to deliver an excellent experience on the browsers. The actions that are reversible here are input-output actions that have failed but can be repaired if retried.
If a developer decides to use Polly.js for certain failure in return, it can also be done using
polly().handle(<function>)
Here is a small example of how Polly.js works to solve transient exceptions. Here, the Google home page is reloaded twice after failing to load it once.
polly()
.retry(2)
.executeForPromise(function () {
return requestPromise('http://www.google.com');
})
.then(function(result) {
console.log(result)
}, function(err) {
console.error('Failed trying three times', err)
});
(source)
6. MiniPack
Frontend developers have to work with many tools and MiniPack solves their problem of bundling the required modules together with its modern bundler approach. Bundling these modules together also helps in debugging the code easily and helps understand the code better. To install MiniPack for your project use, simply run the code $ npm install to install the dependencies first and then start running the MiniPack:
$ node src/minipack.js
7. v8n
v8n indicates "validation". v8n is the largest validation library for JavaScript to use. Moreover, this library is full of APIs that are customizable and reusable over time from Github. It provides API support like chainable API to easily create validations. It can validate any kind of data irrespective of their type. It is possible to validate arrays, objects and more.
// numbers
v8n()
.number()
.between(5, 10)
.test(7); //true
// strings
v8n()
.string()
.minLength(3)
.test("foo"); // true
// arrays
v8n()
.array()
.every.even()
.test([2, 4, 6]); // true
// objects
const myData = { id: "fe03" };
v8n()
.schema({
id: v8n().string()
})
.test(myData); // true
It is possible to mix rules and modifiers together to build your own set of modifiers from the existing rules and modifiers provided by v8n. And one of the best points is, it doesn't obtain much space as it asks for only a few bytes and runs excellent validations for desired results.
Conclusion
There are multiple tools for JavaScript available in the market adding up to its reliability and easier coding techniques. Using these tools, a developer can craft an excellent solution according to their needs, a website or a mobile app or any other solution as demanded by the client. The versatility of JavaScript has delivered excellent results and will surely deliver more in the future leading to the continuous evolution and open-source nature of most of the tools and solutions.
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