JavaScript – an indispensable part for developing websites and web pages, whether that is simple pages or professional website, and whether you are senior or junior. Nowadays, JavaScript frameworks become more powerful and more specialized; they can do many things in just a few basic steps.
However, when you decide that you need a JavaScript framework it can be quite a challenge to figure out which framework to should use, which framework is best for your needs, … ? This is mainly because there are so many frameworks out there you can choose from.
In this post, I want to summarize the list of frameworks that Google assumes most popular, maybe you wonder why it’s Google? Because it’s the most popular search engine, so I think the results will be most relevant and accurate to the majority of web developers. Here’s the list of top JavaScript frameworks by Google, with the keyword: “javascript framework”.
1. jQuery: The Write Less, Do More, JavaScript Library
Yes, jQuery is really a new kind of JavaScript library, you can write less but do more; maybe jQuery is the JavaScript framework that have the biggest collection of plug-ins and add-ons. Some things you should know:
- Current version: 1.3.2
- Size: 19 KB (Minified and Gzipped) and 120 KB (Uncompressed Code)
- Author: John Resig
- Tutorials in 19 languages: 183 (data on 19 October, 2009)
- Sites in use: 1000+
- Plugins: 3.493 (data on 19 October, 2009)
- Easy to learn
- Support designers very well, by using CSS syntax
- A lots of nice and lovely extensions
- Great community, maybe largest
- Used by millions of website and well known companies like Google, DELL, CBS, NBC, DIGG, Bank og America, Wordpress, Drupal, Mozilla etc…
2. MooTools – a compact javascript framework
MooTools is an Open Source MIT application, which you have the possibility to use it and modify it in every circumstance.
- Current version: 1.2.3
- Uncompressed Size: 95 KB (client) and 22 KB (server)
- Author: Valerio Proietti
- Using: w3c, cnet, bing, …
- Plugins on Official site: 4
- Better OOP structure
- The animations are smoother
- The syntax and the handle of elements are more logical
3. Prototype: Easy Ajax and DOM manipulation for dynamic web applications
Used by the big media companies and organizations, Protorype is unique JavaScript framework that is quickly becoming the codebase of choice for web application developers. And now with the latest version, 1.6.1, Protorype has improved performance, new user-action events, and compatibility with the mordern browsers.
- Lastest version: 1.6.1 (1st September, 2009)
- Uncompressed Size: 136 KB (closely 5.000 code lines)
- Creator: Sam Stephenson
- Using: NASA, CNN, NBC, …
- Plugins: 150+
- Better for the big web apps, give you many choices to write custom code
4. Dojo Toolkit: great experiences for everyone
Dojo Core features small, fast, deep – gives you a rich set of utilities for building responsive applications; great interface widgets with accessibility and localization built right in.
- Lastest version: 1.4 Beta
- Compressed Size: 26 KB (closely 5.000 code lines)
- Foundation: Dojo Foundation
- Dojo Users: AOL, IBM, Sun, …
- Client-side data storage
- Server-side data storage
- Asynchronous communication
5. script.aculo.us: easy-to-use, cross-browser user interface JavaScript libraries
Update to the lastest version, script.aculo.us is an open-source JavaScript framework for visual effects and interface behaviours, have some improved features as: loading work maker, Windows Media player/RealPlayer checker, fixing old issues, … check more at here
- Lastest version: 1.8.3 (8 October, 2009)
- Size of Compressed package: 197 KB (including Prototype + Test page)
- Creator: Thomas Fuchs
- Users: Gucci, Feedburner, Ruby on Rails, …
- Documentation wiki & Usage
- Extending the Prototype framework by adding visual effects, user interface controls, and utilities
6. ExtJS: Cross-Browser Rich Internet Application Framework
ExtJS is a very cool cross-browser JavaScript framework for helping you build rich web applications, support all modern web browsers. Plus plenty of plugins and extensions, your ExtJS based web applications become more attractive by features such as well designed, documented and extensible Component model, high performance, easy-customizable UI widgets, …
- Lastest version: 3.0 (6th July, 2009)
- Size of Compressed package: 197 KB (including Prototype + Test page)
- Creator: Jack Slocum
- Users: Gucci, Feedburner, Ruby on Rails, …
- Download | Samples & Demos | API Documentation
- Great components and support
7. UIZE: supporting widgets, AJAX, DOM, templates, and more
Some things about UIZE you should know:
- is an open source Javascript framework
- easy-to-change your own CSS skins
- plenty of built-in widgets
- amazing effects and powerfull features
8. YUI Library: is proven, scalable, fast, and robust
YUI is one of the biggest JavaScript frameworks in this list. YUI has all things to help you build interactive web applications using techniques such as DOM scripting, DHTML and AJAX by a set of powerful utilities and controls. YUI has countless powerful features, plugins, extensions that take you the very long time to learn.
- Lastest version: 3 (September 2009)
- Size of Full Developer Kit: 5.7 MB (including Source, debug files, examples, and more)
- Creator: Yahoo! Developer Network
- Sites Powered by YUI: LinkedIn, Wikia, NewsVine, …
9. Archetype
Let sees the power of Archetype by yourself to understand what it can do.
- Lastest version: 0.10.0 (September 2009)
- Size of package: 2.14 MB
- Creator: Temsa & Swiip
- In use: GifTeer, Meteo France, …
10. qooxdoo: the new era of web development
What’s qooxdoo? That’s great and powerfull JavaScript framework to create rich internet applications (RIAs) by taking the advantages of object-oriented JavaScript. qooxdoo includes a platform-independent development tool chain, a state-of-the-art GUI toolkit and an advanced client-server communication layer. It is open source under an LGPL/EPL dual license.
- Lastest version: 0.8 (September 2009)
- Size of package: 24 MB
- Core Developers: 1&1 Internet AG
- Download | Samples & Demos | Documentation
- Fully-featured graphical user interface toolkit
- Drag and drop capabilities among other components
Conclusion
The top 10 Frameworks on Google is all worth investigating if you’re considering to start using one. It is likely that if you query the keyword: “javascript framework” on google, that you will not get the exact same result. This is not a problem really, because the all the JavaScript frameworks featured here are very good & powerful. It is likely that picking on of them will address all your needs.
Bonus: lists of top 10 JavaScript frameworks by Yahoo and Bing:
Yahoo
|
Bing |
Author: Cao Phong
Admin of JavaScriptBank.com: provide you thousands of free JavaScript code, DHTML, tutorials, examples, reference and help.
Hope you like this post and find some helpful things in this, leave Cao Phong any comment/thought on his website if you want. Hope see you in the next post, Top 10 jQuery plug-ins by Google, soon.
Please visit JavaScriptBank.com if you find this article interesting to find more information on Javascript !
Related posts:
- Google Release some of their internal JavaScript goodies Google is now providing to the public some of...
- Dojo Javascript Framework, Take your Web Apps to the Next Level Dojo Toolkit is an open-source JavaScript toolkit useful for...
- Get started with Closure – Googles Awesome New Javascript Library I posted the news yesterday about Googles new open...
- 30+ Essential Javascript Framework Supported Navigation Techniques Navigation is key to any web site or blog....
- 20+ Awesome jQuery Compilations of Plugins, Tutorials and Cheat Sheets jQuery is not a new subject here on tripwire...
SHARE THIS!
Please help tripwire magazine and share this post is you liked it...
Share
Submit
More Links
November 11th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
MooTools has far more than 4 official plugins; closer to 50. Unofficial plugins number in the hundreds.
November 11th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
First a great thanks to Cao Phong for contributing with this awesome article.
@Aaron. Thanks for your input. I know there a tons of free plugins provided by the MooTools community but I’m not sure how many official plugins there are out there…
November 11th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
see: http://mootools.net/more
excluding the localization plugins there are currently 55. that number grows fairly regularly.
November 12th, 2009 at 2:07 am
Hi Aaron, thanks for sharing your knowledge on mootools. Let me know if you have more on your mind and if you would like to contribute with a post?
November 12th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
On November 5th, Google announced Closure Compiler for Javascript compression. The strongest part of the Closure Compiler is that it does not only remove whitespace but also it rewrites Javascript Code to make it smaller. It also optimizes your Javascript code to perform better.
http://www.bloggingdeveloper.com/post/Closure-Compiler-vs-YUI-Compressor-Comparing-the-Javascript-Compression-Tools.aspx compares the compression performance of YUI Compressor and Google Closer Compiler using the well-known Javascript Frameworks – Mootools, JQuery and Prototype:
November 12th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
And the big secret: Bindows.
It’s off the charts, but the most complete, feature rich, powerful object-oriented architecture, powering some of the most demanding enterprise Ajax applications with close to million business users.
It’s unique memory management technology supports back-end data of any size (even infinite) – see http://www.InfiView.com (100% developed in Bindows).
November 14th, 2009 at 7:32 am
That’s so good,I like it very much