Industrial Use-Cases Of JAVA-SCRIPT
Introduction to JavaScript
JavaScript is a client-side, object-based scripting language that is used to handle and validate client-side data. JavaScript is also used for making the user interface of the web pages more dynamic, making it responsive to events like the movement of the mouse, mouse click on a certain HTML element, a button click, etc, using which we can improve the user experience.
Features of JavaScript
Light Weight: JavaScript is a lightweight scripting language because it is made for data handling at the browser level only. Since it is not a general-purpose language so it has a limited set of libraries.
Dynamic Typed: JavaScript supports dynamic typing which means types of the variable are defined based on the stored value. For example, if you declare a variable x then you can store either a string or a Number type value. This is known as dynamic typing.
Object-Based Language: JavaScript is an object-based scripting language that provides built-in objects like String, Math, Date, etc.
Functional Style: This implies that JavaScript uses a functional approach, even objects are created from the constructor functions and each constructor function represents a unique object type.
Platform Independent: This implies that JavaScript is platform-independent or we can say it is portable; which simply means that you can simply write the script once and run it anywhere and anytime. In general, you can write your JavaScript applications and run them on any platform or any browser without affecting the output of the Script.
Prototype-based: JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting Language. This means JavaScript uses prototypes instead of classes. In JavaScript, each constructor function is associated with a prototype object. This is a bit confusing concept but consider it this way, like we have a class in Java which is like a blueprint and then we create objects for the class, in JavaScript, we define an Object prototype which is used to create other objects. Don’t worry if you don’t understand this now, you will understand this as you will progress with the tutorial.
Interpreted: JavaScript is an interpreted language which means the script written inside JavaScript is processed line by line and is not compiled before execution(although this is changing slowly, with different JavaScript engines being created by different browsers). These scripts are interpreted by a JavaScript interpreter which is a built-in component of the Web browser.
Asynchronous: JavaScript can be used to do complex processing asynchronously which means that the whole page will not have to wait for the JavaScript processing, and once the script processing completes we can easily modify the HTML code to show or hide data. Also, we can use JavaScript to send a sync HTTP requests to the server for server-side processing too.
Frameworks of JavaScript
JavaScript frameworks are JavaScript programming libraries that have pre written code to use for standard programming functions and tasks. It’s a framework to create websites or web applications around. Here are some popular frameworks:
- Angular
One of the most powerful, efficient, and open-source JavaScript frameworks is Angular. Google operates this framework and is implemented to use for developing a Single Page Application(SPA). It extends the HTML into the application and interprets the attributes to perform data binding.
2. React
Created by Facebook, the React framework has earned popularity within a short period. It is used to develop and operate the dynamic User Interface of the web pages with high incoming traffic. It makes the use of a virtual DOM, and hence, the integration of the same with any application is more straightforward.
3. VueJs
Though developed in the year 2016, this JavaScript framework has already made its way into the market and has proven its worth by offering various features. Its dual integration mode is one of the most attractive features for creating high-end SPA or Single Page Application. It is a much reliable platform for developing cross-platform.
4. NodeJs
NodeJs is a server-side JavaScript run-time environment, which works on cross platforms and is open-source. The framework is capable of driving asynchronous I/O with its event-driven architecture. It works in the JavaScript Runtime environment and shows Java's similar properties like threading, packaging, o forming loops.
Where can we use JavaScript?
1. Web Development
JavaScript is a client scripting language which is used for creating web pages. It is a standalone language developed in Netscape. It is used when a webpage is to be made dynamic and add special effects on pages like rollover, roll out and many types of graphics. It is mostly used by all websites for the purpose of validation. In addition to validations, it supports external applications like PDF documents, running widgets, supporting for flash applications, etc. It can also load content into a document whenever the user requires it without even reloading the entire page.
2. Web Applications
With technology, browsers and personal computers have improved to the extent that a language was required to create robust web applications. When a user explores a map in Google Maps then the user just needs to click and drag the mouse. All detailed view is visible by just a click. This is possible due to JavaScript. It interacts with the browser without sending messages to and fro to the servers. JavaScript uses Application Programming Interfaces(APIs) that provide extra powers to the code.
3. Presentations
JavaScript also provides the facility of creating presentations as a website. JavaScript provides RevealJS and BespokeJS libraries to build a web-based slide deck. Reveal.js creates some of the most beautiful and interactive decks using HTML. A user can easily insert nested slides. Even if the user is not aware of the programming language then they can easily build a site with so much help online. These presentations are touch optimized and work great with mobile devices, phones, and tablets. With all this JavaScript also provides different transition styles, themes, and slide backgrounds. It supports all CSS color formats. JavaScript also provides Bespoke.js plugin with a wide variety of features. These include responsive scaling, animated bullet lists, and syntax highlighting for code examples. It provides themes which are polished and not too flashy. The quickest way to start Bespoke.js is using a generator. It allows the user to set titles to your presentation and go through a set of questions to get the plugins required.
4. Web Servers
Using Node JS, a web server can be created. The advantages of Node JS are that it is event-driven and would not wait for the response of the previous call. It moves to the next call and takes advantage of events to get notifications when a response is received for a previous call. The servers built on Node JS are very fast and do not use buffering and transfers chunks of data. In addition to this, it is single threaded with event looping which is used in a non-blocking way. The HTTP module can help in creating a server by using the createServer() method. This method is executed whenever someone tries to access port 8080. In response to this, the HTTP server should display HTML and should be included in the HTTP header.
5. Games
Not only websites but use of JavaScript also helps in creating games for leisure. The combination of Javascript and HTML5 makes JavaScript popular in game development as well. It provides the Ease JS library which provides simple solutions for working with rich graphics. It also has an API that is familiar to all flash developers with a hierarchical display list. A user can create a Stage and it will render the display list to its target canvas. Ease JS also has 2D bitmaps called Sprites which are drawn directly to render the target for transformations.
Companies That Are Using JavaScript:
LinkedIn relies on NodeJS for its mobile site. A few years back, LinkedIn used Rails for its mobile site. As with other large Rails applications, it was slow, monolithic, and it scaled poorly.LinkedIn switched over to NodeJS to solve its scaling problems. Node’s asynchronous capabilities allowed the LinkedIn mobile site to perform more quickly than before while using fewer resources. Node also made data sharing and building APIs easier for LinkedIn developers.
How doesn’t Google use JavaScript? Seriously, it’s everywhere. Google’s search results that spring up as your typing get there with JavaScript. The Gmail web client is powered by JavaScript. Google Docs? Yeah, that’s JavaScript too. Google develops and usually open sources it’s own JavaScript tools. The most obvious example is AngularJS. Angular is used most prominently in Google’s DoubleClick advertising platform, but it’s also one of the most popular front end frameworks available. It’s even part of the MEAN stack. Google’s more intensive services, like Google Docs, use Closure Tools. This set of tools compiles JavaScript into a lower-level faster form more suited for rich and highly responsive web applications. There’s another big point to touch on. Google developed Chrome. Chrome, being a web browser, needed a JavaScript engine, so Google also made V8. V8 not only powers Chrome, it’s at the heart of NodeJS. So, without Google, there would be no Node.
PayPal
PayPal has obviously been using JavaScript on the front end of their website for a long time, but that’s only the beginning.
The online payment giant was one of the earliest adopters of NodeJS. During an overhaul of their account overview page, they decided to try building the page in Node at the same time as their usual Java development. The NodeJS version worked out so well, that they chose to use it in production and build all client-facing applications in Node going forward. That means that most of what you see in your account is running on Node.
PayPal even went as far as to create and maintain their own version of Express, called KrakenJS. It’s pretty obvious that they like JavaScript over at PayPal.
Uber
Uber needs to handle loads of data in real time. They have millions of requests coming in continuously, and that does not just hit on a page. Uber needs to track driver locations, rider locations, and incoming ride requests. It has to seamlessly sort that data and match riders as fast as possible.
All of that plays to NodeJS’s and JavaScript’s strengths. Node is designed to handle requests and handoff data quickly. It’s asynchronous capabilities are a huge part of that. Node is central to Uber’s user facing stack for just that reason.
Microsoft
You’re probably not going to find JavaScript powering Windows anytime soon, but Microsoft relies on JavaScript for a whole lot else.
Microsoft needs to work closely with JavaScript to built its Edge web browser. All browsers need to process and execute JavaScript efficiently, so Microsoft has developed and maintains its own JavaScript engine for Edge. Actually, there has been talk of them creating an alternate version of NodeJS with the Edge engine.
JavaScript Is Everywhere!
These are only a few examples, but you can certainly find more. So much of the web runs on JavaScript, it’d be much harder to find a company that doesn’t use JavaScript in some way.
These companies are among the largest tech companies in the world. Many are also running the largest production deployments of NodeJS. The others are responsible for important parts of the JavaScript ecosystem as a whole.
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