20 JavaScript Tools that Developers Should Know about
JavaScript was originally designed as a client-side programming language. Hence, it lacks some of the advanced features provided by other modern programming languages. But the web developers can easily extend and enhance the programming language by choosing from a wide range of JavaScript frameworks, libraries, editors, and IDEs. Based on their requirements, the developers can use widely used JavaScript libraries and frameworks like jQuery, NodeJS, AngularJS, React.js, Ember.js, Meteor.js, Backbone.js and Polymer.js.
Some frameworks like NodeJS even enable programmers to write both client-side and server-side code in JavaScript. The web developers also have option to use specific JavaScript tools to automate common web development tasks, assess quality of code, perform unit tests, and manage project dependencies. These JavaScript development tools further help developers to build large and complex web applications with JavaScript without putting extra time and effort. Hence, each web developers must be familiar with a number of widely used JavaScript tools.
20 Widely Used JavaScript Tools for Building Modern Applications
1) Grunt
As a JavaScript task runner, Grunt makes it easier for developers to perform repetitive and common web development tasks. A programmer can use Grunt to perform minification, compilation, linting, unit testing and similar repetitive tasks simply by configuring a Gruntfile. Also, he can take advantage of a hundreds of Grunt plug-ins to accomplish common web development tasks without putting extra time and effort. At present, Grunt is being used by several large companies and projects.
2) Gulp
Gulp aims to make complex tasks simple and manageable by preferring code over configuration. In addition to being easy to learn and configure, Gulp further enables developers to accomplish a variety of tasks by using plug-ins. Gulp comes with many built-in plug-ins for basic functionality. Also, each Gulp plug-in is simple and focuses on a single activity. The tool further processed various activities sequentially through a concept called streams. The streams make it easier for programmers to create build directly and rapidly.
3) QUnit
Despite being simple and easy to use, QUnit is a powerful JavaScript unit testing framework. It is currently being used by jQuery, and can also be used for testing generic JavaScript code. The web developers can download and install QUnit in a number of ways. Likewise, they also have option to create unit tests by using two distinct functions. The flexibility provided by QUnit makes it easier for JavaScript developers to write test for individual functionality of the web application.
4) Jasmine
The JavaScript testing framework supports behaviour driven development. Hence, Jasmine allows web developers to test JavaScript code without requiring DOM and relying on other frameworks. The testing framework can be used for testing websites, NodeJS projects as well as plain JavaScript code. Also, the simple syntax rules of Jasmine make it easier for web developers to write tests without putting extra time and effort.
5) Istanbul
In addition to assessing the quality of code, the web developers also need to measure the code coverage. Istanbul is a code coverage tool written in JavaScript. It is designed with features to help users measure the percentage of code being tested. So the developers can use Istanbul to make the code bug-free by increasing code coverage. At the same time, they can also avail a number of robust features provided by Istanbul including modular loader hooks, and HTML and LCOV reporting. The developers also have option to use Istanbul as a framework or run it with command line tools.
6) Browserify
When developers write large and complex applications in JavaScript, they have to deal with a large number of files. So they need robust tools to manage all JavaScript files and their dependencies efficiently. Browserify is designed with features to make the code manageable by dividing a large application into smaller modules. It further allows developers to use several core node modules and many modules on NPM. The developers also have option to use Browserify through command line tools after installing NodeJS with built-in NPM.
7) RequireJS
The file and module loader for JavaScript is compatible with major web browsers. The developers have option to use RequireJS with various browsers and JavaScript environments. RequireJS is designed with features to make simplify modular code development. It further loads various modules or files through script tags. Also, the optimization tools included in RequireJS make it easier for developers to combine and minify their JavaScript code. Hence, RequireJS helps developers to boost the performance of JavaScript applications without putting additional effort.
8) NPM
At present, NPM is one of the most popular package managers for JavaScript. It is designed with features to find, share and reuse packages of code written by various developers. The web developers can use NPM to find popular JavaScript libraries and gather components from several JavaScript frameworks. Likewise, they can use the packages discovered by NPM for building front-end and back-end of web applications, robotics and Internet of Things (IoT) apps. Also, NPM enables users to assemble all these packages efficiently to simplify development of large applications.
9) Bower
Bower makes it easier for developers to manage the frameworks, libraries, utilities and resources used by a web application. The developers can use Bower to manage any component of the website that contains HTML, CSS, JavaScript, fonts or images. But Bower lacks the capability to concatenate or minify these front-end files. It simply keep tracks of the packages used by the web application, and ensure that the application uses the most appropriate and recent versions of these packages. At the same time, Bower can fetch, install and save the required packages without requiring any manual intervention.
10) Komodo IDE
The cross-platform IDE supports a number of web programming languages including JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, Python and Go. The web programmers can use Komodo IDE to debug the JavaScript code both locally and remotely. The IDE further allows programmers to take advantage of features like version control and code completion. The code collaboration feature of the IDE further enables businesses to build websites by deploying remote programmers. However, Komodo IDE is a licensed technology, and businesses have to incur expenses to take advantage of this cross-platform IDE.
11) Eclipse with JSDT
In addition to being open source, Eclipse with JavaScript Development Tools (JSDT) also supports major operating systems. Eclipse with JSDT further provides a number of useful features like inline code completion, timely warning to fix the coding errors quickly, automatic code completion, and code refactoring. The plug-ins provided by the tool make it easier for developers to create robust JavaScript applications rapidly. The users also have option to choose from a large collection of plug-ins, along with taking advantage of a variety of configuration options. But many programmers complain that some of these plug-ins are unstable and not well maintained.
12) Visual Studio Code
In addition to being open source, the latest version of Visual Studio also supports multiple operating systems Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. At the same time, it is also designed with JavaScript Intellisense feature. The JavaScript Intellisense feature enables web programmers to avail useful programming hints and code auto-completion. Visual Studio Code further does not require programmers to add and configure plug-ins. It further provides debugging tools for JavaScript. However, the most recent version of Visual Studio is designed based on Atom. The design affects the loading time of the robust IDE adversely.
13) NetBeans
In addition to being open source and cross-platform, NetBeans also supports several web technologies including HTML5 and JavaScript. It helps programmers to reduce coding time by availing features like auto-completion of code, pointing out errors at the time of debugging, and built-in terminal. The developers can further customize and extend NetBeans using a variety of community plug-ins. As the tool supports NodeJS, it becomes easier for developers to build isomorphic JavaScript applications rapidly. However, many programmers complain that NetBeans is slower than other JavaScript IDEs, and also consumes additional memory.
14) Sublime Text
Sublime Text is designed as a cross-platform and customizable text editor for code. The users have option to customize each aspect of the text editor according to their specific needs. Sublime Text is also considered to be faster and lightweight than other text editors, while consuming less memory. The developers can further take advantage of a wide variety of community plug-ins, along with availing features like option to select and edit multiple lines of code, and syntax highlighting. But Sublime Text does not come with a debugger. Also, the developers have to incur additional expenses to take advantage of all features of the licensed text editor.
15) WebStorm
Despite being a lightweight IDE, WebStorm enables programmers to use JavaScript for both client-side and server-side development. It further comes with a number of useful features like intelligent code completion, automatic code refactoring, tracks local changes in the source code, built-in web server, and robust plug-ins. WebStorm further supports popular JavaScript frameworks like React, Angular, Node.js and Meteor, along with supporting JavaScript task runners like Grunt and Gulp. However, many programmers complain than the IDE sometimes consume a huge amount of CPU. Also, the users have to incur additional expenses as WebStorm is a licensed IDE.
16) Atom
Atom is designed by the community on Github as a modern and hackable text editor. It currently supports only Windows platform. Atom scores over other JavaScript tools due to its advanced package management features. The text editor helps programmers to write high quality code by highlighting the files, lines or folders with uncommitted edits. When a programmer installs Atom, two distinct command line commands are added automatically. The command line tool atom runs the web application, while apm handles Atom Package Manager. As Atom does not run as a native application, it creates several sub-processes. The sub-processes make the tool consume additional memory, while affecting its speed and performance adversely.
17) JSLint
While writing JavaScript code, programmers often commit simple coding errors like referring to undeclared variables. The smart developers use static code analysis tools to write quality and flawless code. As an online code analysis tool, JSLint makes it easier for programmers to identify the flaws or errors in their code. They can simply paste the JavaScript code on the textarea displayed on the website and find out these coding errors based on a number of criterions and options.
18) Babel
Many developers nowadays prefer using modern client-side scripting languages like CoffeeScript, TypeScript and LiveScript. Despite being inspired by JavaScript, these languages make it easier for programmers to perform certain tasks like creating new classes. As a robust transpiler, Babel enables developers to take advantages of new features provided by the latest version of JavaScript which major web browsers do not support fully. The web developers can use Babel to avail a number of new features like classes, block scoping, arrow function, async function, constants, decorators, modules, and function bind.
19) JSDoc
Nowadays, clients require web developers to write readable and maintainable code. The readability of the code makes it easier for programmers to add new features to the application or fix bugs within a shorter amount of time. The developers need robust tools to document their JavaScript code without putting extra time and effort. JSDoc is hugely popular among web programmers as an API documentation generator for JavaScript. It enables user to embed documentation comments directly into the source code. Also, JSDoc tool can generate a HTML documentation website by scanning the source code of the application.
20) UglifyJS
The minifier or compressor is written in JavaScript. UglifyJS provides a variety of tools that make it easier for web developers to optimize and deploy JavaScript code. For instance, the developers can take advantage of a parser provided by UglifyJS to create an abstract syntax tree (AST) from JavaScript code. Likewise, they can use the code generators to produce JavaScript code from the ATS output. UglifyJS further provides a compressor, scope analyzer and mangler, along with APIs like tree walker and tree transformer.
On the whole, each web developer nowadays has option to choose from a wide range of JavaScript frameworks, libraries, editors, and IDEs. Some of these JavaScript tools are open source and free, whereas others are licensed and commercial. Likewise, the features and performance of individual JavaScript tools differ. But each tool enables developers to extend and enhance the client-side programming language, and reduce development time significantly. Hence, it is always important for developers to pick the right and combine JavaScript tools according to specific needs of each project.
