Part II in a series of articles about an online web application I am working on. Read Part I

I'm am currently in the process of making my own web service, which will have a single-page-app (SPA) type of structure/interface. This is exactly the type of project that the bevy of JavaScript frameworks like Backbone.js, Angularjs, Ember.js, Knockout.js, and Meteor are build for, thus I've taken it for granted that I would use one of these frameworks as the client-side infrastructure for my app. After much review and fiddling around it turns out that I will not be using one of them. At least not for now. Below are some of reasons why (note these reasons may not apply to you, you may rightly decide that a Javascript framework is a great choice for your project(s) - these are one person's opinions only):

Using any of the frameworks requires more commitment from my code base than I want to give right now

One of my biggest surprises/disappointments after spending a lot of time with Backbone.js and Angularjs was realizing that my (imho) perfectly awesome JavaScript/jQuery foundation layer, which I just slaved over creating, would not only have to be modified - it would have to be thrown out the window. This is because none of these frameworks are a container for your JavaScript - they are a replacement for it. Sure you might use a little bit of JavaScript/jQuery within any one of the frameworks, but overall you'll be doing-Backbone, or doing-Angular, or doing-Ember, or whatever. It's even common advice for Angular experts to tell newbies to not use jQuery at all while they are getting started, so that they can learn the 'Angular way'. Thanks, but no thanks.

I don't want to abandon my universally usable and performant JavaScript/jQuery that I can take and integrate easily into almost anything (well almost anything but these frameworks, apparently). Maybe in the future as one of the JS frameworks becomes more mature and dominant I will reconsider. Honestly, I think a platform would have be as ubiquitous as jQuery has grown to be, for me to volunteer myself for platform lock-in on the level these frameworks require now.

I want to continue building my expertise in JavaScript/jQuery themselves and don't want to have it abstracted away from me

This is a big one for me. I can do what needs to be done with JavaScript, even reasonably well on a case by case basis. But I want to really master it. I don't want to just know Angular, or Backbone. I want to come up with solutions for the real-world, big-picture DOM/JS obstacles that I run into, presumably like the makers of the Javascript frameworks did. I want to eventually have the knowledge that I *could* make my own framework. And at that point, even if I decide to use someone else's framework I will have much more appreciation for my choice, and I will have more knowledge for how to leverage it.

Who are the frameworks a good choice for?

Don't get me wrong I am really glad I spent the time I did looking into Backbone.js and Angularjs (I actually looked at others, but I spent the most time with Backbone and Angular). They are demystified for me now, and there are a lot of good bits, patterns, and big-picture issues that I'm more informed about now than I was previously. I can easily imagine that someone who isn't a JavaScript expert and who just wants to commit to learning the idiosyncrasies of one of the frameworks can build some really great stuff. I can also imagine that true JavaScript masters might be taking their knowledge and one of these frameworks to bring their projects to an even higher level of organization and efficiency (though I'd actually be interested in hearing from the John Resigs of the world regarding their thoughts on current framework implementations).

Categories: JavaScriptDrupalJquery