July 15, 2015
The main use of JavaScript remains in creating amazing user experiences in web and mobile apps. Yes, JavaScript is also growing in popularity on the server side, especially for IoT applications. But the user interface is where most people can see the impact of recent use of JavaScript to create dynamic single-page web apps. Accelerance certified partner companies are already working on client projects using the latest JavaScript frameworks and libraries.
Here are the top 3 most popular JavaScript frameworks that help developers be productive at creating these web apps:
Angular 2 - https://angular.io/ is already written in ECMAScript 6 and includes mobile features support for touch event gestures, tuning for performance and low-memory usage on mobile platforms, UI components with responsive, cross-device support, animation support and I18N.
Ember allows developers to create scalable single-page applications but also comes with a lot of built-in support for standard code features like a rock-solid behavior when the user clicks the browser Back button. Ember is a better choice if you’re creating a multipage, long-term project.
Backbone.js is a lightweight MVC framework, which means it’s good for building fast and responsive applications—especially single-page web apps.
You really need to ask about the experience with these modern JavaScript frameworks when selecting an outsourced software development team. Accelerance certified partners started using these frameworks over a year ago and have successfully completed many successful projects. Make sure you ask for examples of these projects when you select your partner.
In addition to frameworks there are a couple other thinks to look for depending on the other software technologies you want to use.
CoffeeScript – a large following by Ruby developers who write Ruby-like CoffeeScript code that is transcompiled into JavaScript code. If your web app is written in Ruby on Rails then ask for the developer’s experience with CoffeeScript for implementing your user interface.
TypeScript – a Superset of JavaScript created by Microsoft and used to create scripts for client-side execution in the browser or on the server side using Node.js. If your web application is implemented in Microsoft ASP.NET then TypeScript experience is helpful.
MEAN Stack – a combination of four technologies in a “full stack” to create web applications based on the MongoDB NoSQL database, Express web application framework used with node.js, AngularJS for single page web app user interfaces and the Node.js JavaScript runtime engine. The term MEAN was coined in a 2013 blog post by Valeri Karpov, who was a MongoDB developer at the time. Accelerance has at least 10 certified partners expert in use of the MEAN stack for creating web apps.
The best way to select an outsourcing partner is ask which of these frameworks, languages and stacks they recommend for your specific application when you are hiring a partner to develop your entire app. Then weigh their answers along with references to clients where the partner has used the recommended technology.
However if you are looking to extend your existing development team with an outsourcing partner then you should ask for the specific framework experience you need to fit the decisions you have already made. Ask for evidence of hiring the type of developer you need and ask to interview candidates yourself. That way you will get developers that fit your technical requirements as well as your company culture.