How to select your JavaScript framework? Top 6 of frameworks.
… and not just “how to”, but also my preferred framework and why?
Here is the list of frameworks available in the wilderness of the internet.
- Yahoo! User Interface Library – http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/
- Prototype – http://www.prototypejs.org/
- Rico – http://openrico.org/
- qooxdoo- http://qooxdoo.org/
- Dojo – http://dojotoolkit.org/
- jQuery – http://jquery.com/
Did I miss anything? Most likely not… this is the base of the current internet and Web2.0 and provide functionality for visual effects, web site widgets, ajax and so on.
I have to admit – the main reason why I decided to finally jumп into all that “fancy world of the visual effects” is I needed something “out of the box” with minimum of my personal effort and quickest effect. As a sample, in the beginning I took just one thing, called “lightbox”. Sample of that functionality can be found in many frameworks and I really needed to choose one only. This is the one: http://leandrovieira.com/projects/jquery/lightbox/, is based on jQuery and now I explain why.
1) YahooUI to my opinion isquite big and powerfull, but I really don’t like anything what comes from big corporations, so… bye bye. YUI
2) Prototype – good choice, exellent functionality, together with Scriptaculous and other extentions and plugins looks like a very good choice. Honestly, I almost decided to choose it!
3) Rico – less known. Functionality rich, but a lot less well known and doesn’t have as many plugins as some others, if needed.
4) qooxdoo – great javaScript framwork, but only for creating online applications, not simple Web2.0 web site I need.
5) DoJo – hmmm…. seems like a really powerfull and fast modular framework. I spend few days trying to use it and it was my immidiate choice, but after spending some time with it. Editing stylesheets to get look and feel I need and functionality I need to work properly – I decided not to use it. Even if it seems like a really good one to have. One of the things I didn’t like – in order to get basic functionality I had to copy whole bunch of small files. I know – I may only copy few files needed and DoJo allowes you even to “compile” production version, but… heck… it’s too complicated. Where is the “KISS”, baby?
6) jQuery – my final choice! Simple, Small, Quick and has whole bunch of usefull plugins ready to use. Not mentioning great support and help.
The End. So far…
In: English, JavaScript · Tagged with: ajax, Dojo, jQuery, prototype, qooxdoo, Rico, YahooUI