We've now covered HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (if you haven't, check last post). The next step is to consider frameworks and libraries, which are part of the tech stack.
A tech stack refers to a collection of applications, platforms, languages, and tools that build your website.
Despite the fact that you can make a webpage without these tools, you won't get very far as a web developer without them.
What are frameworks
There are many ways to create a webpage, including from scratch, but it takes a lot of time to add more complexity. JavaScript frameworks can help. A framework is a form of prepackaged code that determines how your website program should interact.
Frameworks help you develop your website faster, and they are made by other developers, so the code is already tested. Frameworks comes with plug-ins,tools, built-in programs, so you can install them in your website files.
You can choose from a number of frameworks that use different programming languages for the backend and frontend of your website. Let's mention a few notable ones.
Backend frameworks
- Django (have loads of built-in features, python based)
- Spring Boot (powerful; good for large scale cloud projects; java-based design)
- Ruby on Rails (best for small projects; Ruby-based)
- Flask (easy set-up;also python based)
- Express Js
Frontend frameworks
- React
- Vue
- Backbone
- Ember
- Angular
Above are all JavaScript based except Angular which is typescript-based.
What are libraries
A library consists of a set of specific tools and features that can be added to your website to make it function better. Unlike a framework, a library does not offer a structured approach to your website but instead implements different behaviors and actions.
To get an idea of what these libraries are capable of, let's take a look at a few different ones.
- A jQuery library for manipulating HTML, DOM, and CSS
- Scrollline.js: a tool for viewing how far you have scrolled
- Using React.js to create interactive UIs
- Chart.js allows you to make charts using JavaScript.
- Wow.js allows you to see animated scrolls
The most important libraries are jQuery and React.js (we could cover them in subsequent sections). Both are very popular and have several thousand unique features you can use to build really cool stuff.( I love cool stuff 😎)
