Web is like sea. It is always in the move and never static. Everything changes at the speed of light and something that is hip and trendy for today might not be for tomorrow. Developers and designers need tools that have the tomorrow’s needs built into them.
Today we showcase the tools that are shaping the new web.
Dojo
Dojo is an Open Source DHTML toolkit written in JavaScript. It builds on several contributed code bases (nWidgets, Burstlib, f(m)), which is why we refer to it sometimes as a “unified” toolkit. Dojo aims to solve some long-standing historical problems with DHTML which prevented mass adoption of dynamic web application development.
Dojo allows you to easily build dynamic capabilities into web pages and any other environment that supports JavaScript sanely. You can use the components that Dojo provides to make your web sites more usable, responsive, and functional. With Dojo you can build degradable user interfaces more easily, prototype interactive widgets quickly, and animate transitions. You can use the lower-level APIs and compatibility layers from Dojo to write portable JavaScript and simplify complex scripts. Dojo’s event system, I/O APIs, and generic language enhancement form the basis of a powerful programming environment. You can use the Dojo build tools to write command-line unit-tests for your JavaScript code. The Dojo build process helps you optimize your JavaScript for deployment by grouping sets of files together and reuse those groups through “profiles”.
Dojo does all of these things by layering capabilities onto a very small core which provides the package system and little else. When you write scripts with Dojo, you can include as little or as much of the available APIs as you need to suit your needs. Dojo provides multiple points of entry, interpreter independence, forward looking APIs, and focuses on reducing barriers to adoption.
Yahoo! User Interface
The Yahoo User Interface (YUI) Library is a coherent collection of JavaScript and CSS resources that make it easier to build richly interactive applications in web browsers. Some pieces of YUI, like the Event Utility, operate under the hood and are simply there to make in-browser programming easier. Others, like the Calendar Control, comprise visual widgets that can be placed on your page with a default look-and-feel.
Prototype
Prototype is a JavaScript Framework that aims to ease development of dynamic web applications. Featuring a unique, easy-to-use toolkit for class-driven development and the nicest Ajax library around, Prototype is quickly becoming the codebase of choice for web application developers everywhere.
jQuery
jQuery is a fast and concise JavaScript Library that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development. jQuery is designed to change the way that you write JavaScript.
MochiKit
MochiKit is a highly documented and well tested, suite of JavaScript libraries that will help you get shit done, fast. The MochiKit team took all the good ideas from its Python, Objective-C, etc. experience and adapted it to the crazy world of JavaScript.
MochiKit has HUNDREDS of tests. This makes platform compatibility issues much easier to detect and resolve than the “guess and check” style of quality assurance seen in some of the other libraries out there. It’s not broken.
You’re unlikely to find any JavaScript code with better documentation than MochiKit. The MochiKit team make a point to maintain 100% documentation coverage for all of MochiKit at all times. You don’t have to fumble around reading the source code or leafing through examples to find out how something works.
Ext JS
Ext JS is a cross-browser JavaScript library for building rich internet applications. It includes:
- High performance, customizable UI widgets
- Well designed and extensible Component model
- An intuitive, easy to use API
- Commercial and Open Source licenses available
Rico
Rico is a JavaScript library for creating rich internet applications. Based on Prototype, it includes grids, calendar & tree controls, drag & drop, and cinematic effects. Its object-oriented framework makes it easy to add richness to your web application
Qooxdoo
qooxdoo is a comprehensive and innovative framework for creating rich internet applications (RIAs). Leveraging object-oriented JavaScript allows developers to build impressive cross-browser applications. No HTML, CSS nor DOM knowledge is needed.
It 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.
MooTools
MooTools is a compact, modular, Object-Oriented JavaScript framework designed for the intermediate to advanced JavaScript developer. It allows you to write powerful, flexible, and cross-browser code with its elegant, well documented, and coherent API.
MooTools code respects strict standards and doesn’t throw any warnings. It’s extensively documented and has meaningful variable names: a joy to browse and a snap to understand.
X Library
X is a collection of loosely-bound, cross-browser, Javascript functions and objects. It is intended to be a resource from which you pick and choose – you do not have to include the entire library in your application. It contains core DOM/Style functions, unobtrusive enhancements, utility functions, objects such as menus and tab panels, and also has some experimental stuff.
Fork
Fork is a general purpose, namespaced JavaScript library with Ajax, Events, DOM manipulation. There are a few bonus lines of code specifically for use with Ruby on Rails but Fork can be happily used outside of Rails also.
OAT Framework
OAT (OpenLink AJAX Toolkit) is a JavaScript-based toolkit for browser-independent Rich Internet Application development. It includes a rich collection of UI Widgets/Controls, Event Management System, and a truly platform independent Data Access Layer called AJAX Database Connectivity.
AJS
AJS is a ultra lightweight JavaScript library that is around 2 years old. It is inspired by MochiKit, but differs by being small and expressive. The current version is only 33 KB (uncompressed!), whereas MochiKit and other libraries such as JQuery, Mootools or Prototype is over/around 100 KB.
Editorial
Ext JS and jQuery are my favorites. Which one do you use? Let us know.
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Nice post!
First I used prototype then I switched to JQuery and I am very satisfied with it. It’s simple, fast, has got a nice UI and a lot of plugins.
I used prototype/scriptaculous on a project but find it pretty heavyweight. Current project, I am rolling my own and find it not as hard as you’d think to do this stuff without the heavy lib behind your stuff — it’s also very educational to not be too dependent on some 3rd party lib….
However, using EXT js for a part of my current project. The support and documentation and backwards compatibilty for EXT SUCKS! I cannot stress how annoying it is to have them version up with ZERO upgrade guide and have your work completely broken in their new version. This is a common pitfall with being too dependent on 3rd party code.