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Closed 10 years ago.
I will develop a commercial web application based on PHP and MySQL database.
Now, I'm guessing about the JavaScript framework. I find several interesting frameworks like ExtJS, JQWidgets or DHTMLX.
Some of their components can be tested here:
ExtJS
JQWidgets
DHTMLX
However, I don't manage to find a recent comparisons of them.
Could you give me your opinion (advantages / drawbacks) about these frameworks:
Performance on huge data (especialy for grids filtering or sorting)
Licence costs
Compatibility with web browsers
Is it easy to find an information inside the documentation?
Are they buggy?
Usable with SSL connections?
Other points
Thanks.
There's really no other sure way of evaluating than trying them out by yourself. You have to make trade-offs and these hugely depend on the kind of application you are planning to write.
If it's a small app, it might be a good chance to try out any one of them. If it's a large one you better have some experience with all your choices to make an informed decision. It looks you aren't really experienced with none of them - in such case you are in a much worse position as you don't really know what to look for when choosing.
Also, besides the features, there's usability and convenience. All these frameworks involve quite different coding styles. Some of these might be more to your liking than others.
It's hard to help you with such a general question. You need to work it out by yourself. Asking more specific questions and being more specific about your app can help along the way.
I have played around with ExtJS and JQWIDGETS, I do like both, however, thus far I have found JQWIDGETS to be extremely easy and quick and the support provided on the Forum is excellent.
EXTJS on the other hand, is also a powerful product which boasts its architect EDI. But does also make simple tasks slightly difficult and the support/responses on their forums can be very slow or none existent...
At the end of the day, like anything, comes down to personal preference. Good Luck!
Related
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Closed 9 years ago.
I've read some interesting articles and comparisons on JavaScript MV* frameworks and I do know outline of architecture of most popular ones (Ember, Backbone, Angular) However as a PHP programmer (and Symfony 2 lover) who wants to learn one of those in detail, I am concerned if Meteor (my first choice) is flexible enough to be considered a full stack framework so I can abandon server side (eg. PHP) entirely on most basic apps. Until today I thought that PHP + Angular give more possibilites (although it's more time consuming to maintain both server and client side), however I'd like your opinion on that. From what I've seen in meteor's screencast, it seems pretty awesome.
As many people have mentioned, server-side JS would replace the function of PHP completely. But Meteor is much more than that; it allows you to replace your imperative code with declarative code. Meteor takes care of synchronizing the data and you just decide how to render it. No more passing around messages through AJAX. As one article put it, Meteor has made MVC obsolete.
In my experience with meteor, I'm developing a project and reading the book. What I've been able to do with Meteor in a short time has completely blown my mind. Combined with some excellent frontend frameworks such as bootstrap, I don't really have to do any CSS work either (if I don't want to), and that means I can develop without worrying about styling or AJAX, essentially freeing up my time to create awesome applications with very little legwork.
Besides, as they say, it only takes a weekend to try Meteor out. It's not complicated at all if you have JS experience. However, as it took me a bit to understand, it's not necessary to think with MVC anymore. It only took me a couple of days to build my first meteor app so I suggest you try it out!
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Closed 10 years ago.
I had asked a question previously regarding the use of Javascript or Ruby on Rails for the development of web apps and got some very good advice from maerics which basically boiled down to Javascript for Frontend/Smaller apps, RoR for service-side/larger apps (Groupon scope).
After a little digging however, I found out about Node.js and Express.js So my decision is basically back at square one.
I'm looking for a language I can use to take an idea to a functional stage (again, the scope is something like Groupon or Twitter). I am an absolute beginner. I know HTML/CSS and a little jquery, but that's about the extent of my knowledge on web technologies.
I've heard about RoR being very easy to learn, or at least pick up, and has a lot of community/support. But Javascript is everywhere, and can be useful for more than just large scale web apps (and I'd be using it anyway if I used RoR), though is far more complex. Seeing as I have no experience in either, I thought I should pick one now and stick to it for the next ~6 months and see how I go.
But can anyone recommend which one to go for?
When you asked about Javascript and RoR in your previous question, you effectively asked about Node.js and RoR.
If you are building a commercial/enterprise level application, stick with RoR. There are way more resources, bigger communities, relatively stable releases, and you can easily find good developers with RoR experience.
Express.js is like Sinatra for Ruby. Neither is as advanced as Rails, preferring to be more 'basic' and providing a minimal feature set rather than try to be an 'everything at once' framework that Rails is.
Right now, Node.js is rapidly changing its API, still has not hit version 1 and hard to find developers for(you often get people claiming they know node and have 1 year exp with it, when they actually mean they have 1 year exp with client side javascript). Besides, for 99% of the web's purposes, RoR will suffice. Most people only use Node for their pet projects, for testing out the next generation of super dynamic interfaces or websocket integration with Socket.io. If you just want to build an application for commercial purposes, use RoR.
As for difficulty, when you start out, Rails will be a bit magical, it does so many things under the hood, you'll have a little bit of difficulty doing something that doesn't already have a tutorial. But look through the source code of some popular gems or even rails itself, and you'll be up to speed in no time. Ruby is an amazingly simple and beautiful language, and you'll find it simpler and probably more fun than javascript.
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Closed 10 years ago.
For a school development project I need to create a bomberman-like game in javascript which will feature a person vs person online gaming.
I can use any open-source library/framework I want.
The thing is that javascript is a pretty hard language to learn from scratch and I probably won't be able to do it in time.
For know I only know ruby on rails witch I'll be using for the backend, save, rooting, etc...
So I went looking for a really easy and fast to use game engine in javascript.
I already found some pretty popular ones like Gamejs, box2dweb or tapjs even a full list at https://gist.github.com/768272 but I'm unable to choose any of them.
Which one provide the best tutorials, documentation, etc...
Any help would be welcome... As you can see, I'm total newbie in game development.
You can use Crafty, it's a nice and easy to use Javascript game library.
I learned a lot from these two videos from Google I/O
GRITS: PVP Gaming with HTML5
Gaming in the Cloud
They give you a pretty descriptive walkthrough of how they made an entire game using HTML5 and Javascript. it's pretty in-depth but I highly recommend watching it. They also open source the game which you can fork on Github if you want to see the source etc. This isn't a javascript framework though but it does teach you a lot of how to make an HTML5 game from SCRATCH.
In terms of libraries, yes Box2d is a very good one and is pretty widely known. Idk if you're trying to make a 3D game but if you are, three.js was something that caught my eye (it was used to make this HTML5 racing game called HexGL). Finally I would also recommend taking a look at Ludei because they have some really great demos which you can kinda just copy and paste. They also help you if you want to move your game onto the mobile space.
Based on what you said though, I would stick with Box2d. I'll try to find some good tutorials and I might update my answer later with more libraries/tutorials if I find any. Hope for the best!
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Closed 9 years ago.
I'm a programming "enthusiast", not a pro, and I'm looking for an easy graphical programming environment (for desktop, on the Mac and iOS) similar to RealBasic or RunRev Livecode.
However, because my available time is limited, I'd rather spend it into something that uses a more ubiquitous language like Javascript/Html5 (so I can transfer this knowledge into other areas like web programming) rather than an idiosyncratic language like the one used by Livecode or RealBasic (which cannot be used outside of that specific programming environment).
I've looked into Appcelerator Titanium (which uses Javascript/HTML/CSS), but it doesn't seem to have an easy GUI development interface.
Any suggestions ?
Thanks.
Wakanda is likely the closest I've seen as well.
My experience on a Mac is that it isn't terribly stable. Not sure if that is just my env or if it's because it's still relatively new. I like, and am very impressed with what they are doing, but just not sure I can trust it yet for production level stuff.
Realsoftware has an awful lot of perks. I'm still exploring it but looks like it maybe what I'll use. It would be an easy decision if it was JS/HTML5! It's all compiled and server side tho - as I understand it.
EDIT:
Have a good look at Wakanda's NoSQL data capabilities. They are nothing short of amazing and very well thought out. Four types, storage, calculated, relational and alias. There's a good overview YouTube vid at https://vimeo.com/31837379
Have a look to the new Javascript Stack : Wakanda
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Closed 11 years ago.
I'm going to be developing a small web application for internal use at my company. What is the best Javascript framework to use with it? I'm not a graphic designer but I do have experience writing desktop applications so I think a library strong on containers and widgets would be good. I'd prefer not to spend money and I don't think my management will go for open sourcing the web application. My web application will be written in Grails so it needs a good plugin. What frameworks do you recommend?
I was leaning towards ExtJS but I'm concerned about the license. Does the FLOSS exception apply?
I also considered Dojo but old answered questions suggested that the quality was poor. Is that still the case?
What about GWT?
jQuery seems too open ended for my use, with only a few widgets and a seemingly difficult to browse widget library. Is that assessment correct?
Others?
Prototype JS (my recommendation) and Mootools
jQuery is the industry standard, used by a lot of companies of varying size worldwide. If you worry about the interface there is jQuery UI, which extends jQuery and provides a number of user interface elements. I would suggest to look at it.
Sproutcore is free and works with grails. It has a good library of default components as well.
Dojo has improved a lot. I used the framework recently and they cover many different aspects (from widget library to data repository abstractions). They are improving documentation with tutorials. In addition, you can follow a declarative approach (using tags on your HTML elements) reducing the amount of javascript code.
However, the choice depends on your specific needs. Frameworks such as jquery or mootools are great for manipulating the DOM easily. Howver, if you are looking for a consistent widget framework maybe Dojo or yahoo YUI can be more suited to your needs.
If it's a small project and you are not already familiar with GWT, you'll find it tough to justify the investment in the time spend on learning. GWT's true potentials starts shining when you are familiar with the toolset and development/debugging/deployment workflow.
ExtJS requires paid license for commercial use. But if you can afford it, it might be the fastest route to a good-looking app with powerful UI.
JQuery is good but as someone already pointed out, you need to pick and choose your plugins and resolve version incompatibility issues on your own. For example, if you need an editable grid, jqGrid is a good option, but you'll need to figure out which version will work with your jquery version and other plugins. Similary things like form-validation, masked input etc. often require third-party plugins (or rolling your own). It can become tedious if you are working solo and on a tight deadline.
In my experience, DOJO has much higher learning curve than most other popular JS libraries.
Summary:
GWT, if the project is large-enough to justify the learning effort (or you can reuse the skills in other projects)
jQuery, if you have time and patience for integrating myriad of plugins on your own.
ExtJS, if you value time and convenience over money
DOJO, probably never ;)