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Beyond jQuery: JavaScript tools for the HTML5 generation

Today's JavaScript libraries are tuned for mobile devices, Canvas-based animation, HTML5 video, local databases, server interaction, and more

By Peter Wayner, InfoWorld, 01/03/12

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The Baker Framework is a similar project with a slightly different aesthetic approach. While Treesaver wants the text to flow into a convenient layout for the page, Baker assumes a constant width to make life easier for designers. Both of the tools make it possible to deliver booklike content directly from the Web.

Local databases
It's easy to forget that cookies can store 4,096 bytes of data. You would never want to store that much because each cookie is bundled together with subsequent trips to the server -- that's why local databases were invented. Taking advantage of them is getting easier as new libraries simplify the details of interacting with the API.

HTML5SQL, for instance, will feed relatively simple SQL statements to the database, allowing you to create tables, fill them with data, and then query them. You'll spend more time crafting your SQL than your JavaScript.

If you don't want to think in SQL while writing JavaScript, TaffyDB accomplishes much of the same tabular querying with JSON, and the queries and the updates can be chained together.

Server-side processing
The JavaScript libraries are traditionally aimed at the browser, but this is often just half of the problem. If you're going to write an AJAX call to the server, you need something at the server to field the request and compose a response. A number of libraries come with both client and server components that work in synchrony.

Both SAJAX and XAJAX are built for PHP. After you create a PHP function and register it on the server, the JavaScript code can call it and receive the results. It's an ideal way to add functionality without refreshing the entire page for each change.

Some of these libraries go a bit deeper. PHPLiveX, for instance, offers an integrated file uploading feature and some intelligent caching to improve performance. A number of libraries take this same approach, and of course some are more integrated with the standard libraries than others. jQuery-PHP is such an option for those who want a plug-in for jQuery.

There are good server-interaction libraries for almost every platform. Direct Web Remoting offers Java stack lovers the chance to call Java code on the server from the client with some security to prevent arbitrary calls. The code also includes a channel for the server to push some information to the clients that are logged in, a useful feature for broadcasting new information.

Many of these libraries offer a similar combination of code that lives on both ends of the connection, but nothing is as extreme as the Google Web Toolkit. All of the GWT code is written in Java and compiled into JavaScript to run in the browser. Pyjamas does something similar for Python programmers.

Debugging tools
One of the biggest challenges for JavaScript programmers is building larger applications, and bigger always means more debugging. While you can get by with embedding alert statements in smaller pages, larger ones require more structure for the debugging information.

Firebug, an extension for Firefox, offers an elaborate debugging platform, including conditional breakpoints and the ability to edit the state. The JavaScript can write directly to the console object with three levels of severity.


For more enterprise computing news, visit InfoWorld. Story copyright InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.

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