by Kusal Arthanayake

In this issue we will take a look at the use of free JavaScript frameworks.

What is a JavaScript framework? Simply it is a collection of functions that is put in together to make web developers life easy. Normally you would have to hand code lot of JavaScript code even in a normal website but these frameworks have readymade solutions for all your JavaScript needs.

DOJO, jQuery, Spry, MooTools, Yahoo User Interface Library (YUI), Google Web Toolkit (GWT) are some of the most popular and well tested free JavaScript frameworks.

These JavaScript frameworks give your websites that extra edge to stand out from the rest.

Most of the frameworks are,

• Free to download.
• Support animation effects (Slide, Fade, Blind, Shake, Grow, Fx, Highlight etc...).
• Navigation (Menu Bars, Tabbed Panels, Table Manipulation, Collapsible Panel, Accordion etc...).
• Support AJAX (GET, POST, JSON etc…)
• Inbuilt Widgets (Form widgets, Validation widgets, Calendars, Editors etc..)

A JavaScript framework gives you the same kind of power like flash for less computer resources. These frameworks are surprisingly easy to use, most of the times you only need knowledge of simple JavaScript and html.

Let’s look at some examples to see the real power behind these frameworks.

jQuery Thick Box

Above effects can be done with a few lines of code.

http://jquery.com/demo/thickbox/

http://jquery.com/

YUI Calender

http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/examples/calendar/calcontainer.html

http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/

  GWT Rich Text Editor 

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/spry/samples/data_region/TooltipwithData.html

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/spry/home.html

(Comes as an inbuilt widget in Dreamweaver CS4)

DOJO Form Widget (Dijit)

http://www.dojotoolkit.org/

http://docs.dojocampus.org/

Spry Form Validation Widget

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/spry/samples/

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/spry/home.html

(Comes as an inbuilt widget in Dreamweaver CS3 and CS4)

We have only scratched the surface of JavaScript frameworks. Please visit the given links and feel the power of interactive web development.

Every framework has it's own pros and cons. Therefore experiment with everything and decide which framework is right for you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_JavaScript_frameworks

We’ll meet in the next issue with more free stuff that can help you in web development.