Web Directions North 2008

• Frameworks provide ready-made solutions.
• Often force a specific style of code e.g. the jQuery object.
• 3 Layers to Javascript/Ajax:
  • Core – working with the DOM (the actual document).
  • Application conveniences – manipulating/processing data.
  • Widgets – design/interaction/code

• Popular frameworks:
  • jQuery
  • Dojo
  • ExtJS
  • YUI
  • Mootools
  • Scriptaculous
  • Prototype

• Snooks favorite framework? It all depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. Each framework has its own strengths.
• Prototype:
  • Very object oriented approach.
  • Excellent for working with large amounts of data.
  • May have issues working with other libraries because it adds methods to the native prototypes.

• jQuery:
  • Everything begins with the $ function (the jQuery object).
  • Lots of plugins available and very easy to develop your own, custom plugins.
  • Works really well with other libraries as all functionality is contained within the jQuery object.

• ExtJS:
  • Great for application widgets.
  • Very flexible library.

• Scriptaculous:
  • Heavy on effects.
  • Requires prototype.

• Mootools:
  • A little bit of everything.
  • Object oriented approach.
  • Similar code conventions to Prototype.

• YUI:
  • Yahoo global object – self contained, will play well with others.
  • DOM Collection – for traversing the document.
  • Event Utility – event handling.
  • Tons of available utilities and application widgets.
  • CSS:
    • Reset
    • Base
    • Fonts
    • Grids

• Dojo:
  • Core – DOM utility
  • Dijit – application widgets
  • DojoX – cutting edge techniques: drawing, offline support, etc.
• Jonathan also covered some common techniques e.g. show/hide/toggle, autocomplete, sliders using some of the popular libraries.

Posted by Jeff on 30/01/08 at 2:45 pm