Are you looking for a JavaScript framework that can help you build modern, scalable, and rich web applications? Do you want to avoid the hassle of wiring together different libraries and tools to achieve your goals? Do you want to focus on your business logic and user experience, rather than the technical details of the framework? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you should consider Ember.js, a framework for ambitious web developers.
Ember.js is an open-source JavaScript framework that follows the model-view-controller (MVC) pattern. It provides a complete solution for building web applications, including features such as routing, data management, testing, and deployment. Ember.js is designed to make you productive and happy as a developer, by incorporating common idioms, best practices, and patterns from the web development community.
In this blog post, we will explore the main features and benefits of Ember.js, and show you how to get started with your first Ember.js application. We will also compare Ember.js with some of the other popular JavaScript frameworks, and explain why Ember.js is a great choice for your next web project.
What is Ember.js and why should you use it?
Ember.js is a JavaScript framework that was created in 2011 by Yehuda Katz and Tom Dale, two prominent members of the web development community. They wanted to create a framework that would enable developers to build ambitious web applications, without having to deal with the complexity and boilerplate code that often comes with web development.
Ember.js is based on the MVC pattern, which separates the application into three layers: the model, the view, and the controller. The model layer handles the data and business logic of the application. The view layer handles the user interface and presentation of the application. The controller layer handles the user interactions and application state transitions.
Ember.js provides a set of conventions and tools for each layer of the MVC pattern, so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you start a new project. For example, Ember.js has a built-in router that handles the URL management and navigation of your application. It also has a data layer called Ember Data, which allows you to access data from various sources, such as REST APIs, GraphQL, or local storage. Ember.js also has a testing framework that makes it easy to write and run tests for your application.
Ember.js is not just a framework, but also an ecosystem of addons and libraries that extend its functionality and features. For example, you can use Ember CLI, a command-line tool that helps you create, develop, and deploy your Ember.js applications. You can also use Ember Inspector, a browser plugin that helps you debug and inspect your Ember.js applications. You can also use Ember Animated, a library that provides core animation primitives for Ember.js. You can find many more addons and libraries on Ember Observer, a website that categorizes and scores published Ember addons.
Some of the benefits of using Ember.js are:
- Productivity: Ember.js helps you get started quickly and easily, by providing a consistent and intuitive structure for your application. You can use generators and blueprints to create new entities and files, and follow the naming and folder conventions to organize your code. You can also use the Ember CLI to automate common tasks, such as building, testing, and deploying your application.
- Stability: Ember.js follows a six-week release cycle, releasing a new minor version every six weeks. Each minor version is backward compatible with the previous one, and comes with a deprecation guide that warns you of any changes that will affect your code in the next major version. Ember.js also provides codemods, which are automated scripts that can update your code to the latest version of the framework.
- Performance: Ember.js is built on the Glimmer rendering engine, which is one of the fastest rendering technologies on the market today. Glimmer compiles your templates into a highly-optimized virtual machine, which executes your code with minimal overhead. Glimmer also uses a technique called incremental rendering, which only updates the parts of the DOM that have changed, resulting in faster and smoother user experience.
- Community: Ember.js has a vibrant and supportive community of developers, who are always ready to help and share their knowledge and experience. You can join the Ember.js community on various platforms, such as Discord, Stack Overflow, Twitter, or Reddit. You can also attend Ember.js events, such as EmberConf, EmberFest, or Ember Meetups, where you can meet and network with other Ember.js enthusiasts.
How to get started with Ember.js?
To get started with Ember.js, you will need to install some prerequisites on your system, such as Node.js, npm, and Git. You will also need to install Ember CLI, which is the official command-line tool for Ember.js. You can install Ember CLI by running the following command in your terminal:
npm install -g ember-cliOnce you have installed Ember CLI, you can create your first Ember.js application by running the following command in your terminal:
ember new my-ember-appThis will create a new folder called my-ember-app, and generate the files and folders for your Ember.js application. You can then change into the newly created folder, and start the development server by running the following commands in your terminal:
cd my-ember-app
ember serveThis will start a local web server on port 4200, and open your browser to http://localhost:4200. You should see a welcome page that says “Congratulations, you made it!”. You can also open your code editor and explore the files and folders of your Ember.js application.
How to build your first Ember.js application?
To build your first Ember.js application, you will need to learn some of the core concepts and features of Ember.js, such as:
- Templates: Templates are the files that define the user interface of your application. They are written in HTML, with some Ember-specific syntax that allows you to insert dynamic content, such as data, expressions, or components. Templates are stored in the
app/templatesfolder, and have a.hbsextension, which stands for Handlebars, the templating engine that Ember.js uses. - Components: Components are reusable pieces of user interface that can be composed together to form complex layouts. They consist of two parts: a template and a JavaScript class. The template defines the HTML structure and appearance of the component, while the JavaScript class defines the behavior and logic of the component. Components are stored in the
app/componentsfolder, and have a.hbsand a.jsfile, with the same name as the component. - Routes: Routes are the objects that manage the URL and navigation of your application. They are responsible for loading the data and rendering the template for each URL. They also handle the user actions and transitions between different URLs. Routes are stored in the
app/routesfolder, and have a.jsfile, with the same name as the route. Routes are also defined in theapp/router.jsfile, which maps each URL to a route. - Models: Models are the objects that represent the data and business logic of your application. They are usually fetched from a backend server, using Ember Data, the data layer of Ember.js. Models are stored in the
app/modelsfolder, and have a.jsfile, with the same name as the model. Models can also have relationships with other models, such asbelongsToorhasMany. - Controllers: Controllers are the objects that store the state and logic for each route. They are used to manipulate the data and communicate with the components and the route. Controllers are stored in the
app/controllersfolder, and have a.jsfile, with the same name as the route. Controllers can also have properties and actions, which are used to store data and handle user events.
To illustrate how these concepts and features work together, let’s build a simple Ember.js application that displays a list of blog posts. We will use a mock API service called JSONPlaceholder, which provides fake data for testing and prototyping purposes.
Step 1: Generate the application
First, we need to generate a new Ember.js application, using the Ember CLI. We can run the following command in our terminal:
ember new ember-blogThis will create a new folder called ember-blog, and generate the files and folders for our Ember.js application. We can then change into the newly created folder, and start the development server by running the following commands in our terminal:
cd ember-blog
ember serveThis will start a local web server on port 4200, and open our browser to http://localhost:4200. We should see a welcome page that says “Congratulations, you made it!”.
Step 2: Generate the model
Next, we need to generate a model for our blog post. A model is an object that represents the data and business logic of our application. We can use the Ember CLI to generate a model by running the following command in our terminal:
ember generate model postThis will create a new file called app/models/post.js, and add a test file and an import statement for our model. We can open the app/models/post.js file, and define the attributes and relationships of our model. For example, we can write the following code:
import Model, { attr } from '@ember-data/model';export default class PostModel extends Model {
@attr('string') title;
@attr('string') body;
}This code defines a model class called PostModel, which extends from the Model class provided by Ember Data.
Step 3: Generate the route
After defining the model, we need to generate a route for our blog post. A route is an object that manages the URL and navigation of our application. It is responsible for loading the data and rendering the template for each URL. We can use the Ember CLI to generate a route by running the following command in our terminal:
ember generate route postsThis will create a new file called app/routes/posts.js, and add a test file, a template file, and an import statement for our route. We can open the app/routes/posts.js file, and write the code to fetch the data for our route. For example, we can write the following code:
{ this.store.push({ data: { id: post.id, type: ‘post’, attributes: { title: post.title, body: post.body } } }); }); // Return all the posts from the store return this.store.peekAll(‘post’); } } “>
import Route from '@ember/routing/route';export default class PostsRoute extends Route {
async model() {
// Fetch the data from the mock API service
let response = await fetch('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts');
let data = await response.json(); // Push the data into the Ember Data store
data.forEach(post => {
this.store.push({
data: {
id: post.id,
type: 'post',
attributes: {
title: post.title,
body: post.body
}
}
});
}); // Return all the posts from the store
return this.store.peekAll('post');
}
}
This code defines a route class called PostsRoute, which extends from the Route class provided by Ember.js. It also defines a model method, which is a hook that runs before the route is rendered. The model method is where we can load the data for our route, either from a backend server, a local storage, or a mock service.
In this case, we are using the fetch API to make a GET request to the JSONPlaceholder service, which returns a list of fake blog posts. We then convert the response to a JSON object, and loop through each post. For each post, we use the store service, which is an instance of Ember Data, to push the data into the Ember Data store. The store service is a central place where we can manage and access our data. We use the push method to create a new record in the store, and pass an object that contains the id, type, and attributes of the post. The type must match the name of the model class, which is post in this case. The attributes must match the names of the model attributes, which are title and body in this case.
After pushing all the posts into the store, we use the peekAll method to return all the records of the post type from the store. The peekAll method does not make any network request, but only returns the data that is already in the store. We then return the result of the peekAll method as the model for our route. The model is an array of PostModel instances, which we can use in our template to display the data.
Step 4: Generate the template
Now that we have the data for our route, we need to generate a template for our blog post. A template is a file that defines the user interface of our application. It is written in HTML, with some Ember-specific syntax that allows us to insert dynamic content, such as data, expressions, or components. We can use the Ember CLI to generate a template by running the following command in our terminal:
ember generate template postsThis will create a new file called app/templates/posts.hbs, and overwrite the existing file that was generated by the route generator. We can open the app/templates/posts.hbs file, and write the code to render the data for our route. For example, we can write the following code:
<h1>Ember.js Blog</h1>
<ul>
{{#each @model as |post|}}
<li>
<h2>{{post.title}}</h2>
<p>{{post.body}}</p>
</li>
{{/each}}
</ul><h1>Ember.js Blog</h1><ul>
{{#each @model as |post|}}
<li>
<h2>{{post.title}}</h2>
<p>{{post.body}}</p>
</li>
{{/each}}
</ul>This code defines a template for our posts route, which uses HTML tags and Ember-specific syntax to create the user interface. It uses the h1 tag to display the title of the blog, and the ul and li tags to create a list of blog posts. It also uses the each helper, which is a built-in helper that allows us to iterate over an array or an object. The each helper takes an argument, which is the array or object that we want to loop over. In this case, we pass the @model property, which is a special property that refers to the model of the current route. The @model property is an array of PostModel instances, which we can access inside the each block. We use the |post| syntax to assign each element of the array to a local variable called post, which we can use inside the each block. We use the h2 and p tags to display the title and body attributes of each post, using the {{post.title}} and {{post.body}} syntax. The {{...}} syntax is called a mustache expression, which is a way to insert dynamic content into the template. The mustache expression evaluates the value of the expression inside the curly braces, and renders it as a string in the template.
Step 5: Test the application
Now that we have the model, the route, and the template for our blog post, we can test our application and see the result. We can open our browser and go to http://localhost:4200/posts, which is the URL that corresponds to our posts route. We should see a page that displays the title of the blog, and a list of blog posts, with their titles and bodies. We can also open the Ember Inspector, which is a browser plugin that helps us debug and inspect our Ember.js applications. We can use the Ember Inspector to see the data, the components, the routes, and the performance of our application.
Step 6: Add more features and functionality
We have successfully built our first Ember.js application, which displays a list of blog posts. However, we can add more features and functionality to our application, such as:
- Adding a navigation bar and a footer to our application, using components and layouts.
- Adding a detail page for each blog post, using nested routes and dynamic segments.
- Adding a form to create a new blog post, using actions and modifiers.
- Adding a search feature to filter the blog posts by title or body, using computed properties and helpers.
- Adding a pagination feature to limit the number of blog posts per page, using query parameters and controllers.
We will cover these features and functionality in the next parts of this blog post series. Stay tuned for more!
Conclusion
In this blog post, we have learned what Ember.js is and why we should use it. We have also learned how to get started with Ember.js, and how to build our first Ember.js application that displays a list of blog posts. We have used some of the core concepts and features of Ember.js, such as models, routes, templates, components, and Ember Data. We have also used some of the tools and addons that Ember.js provides, such as Ember CLI, Ember Inspector, and JSONPlaceholder.
We hope that this blog post has given you a good introduction and overview of Ember.js, and that you are excited to learn more and build more ambitious web applications with Ember.js.
