Chapter 3.1 - Programming in JavaScript.

What is JavaScript?

You've learned about how the core architecture of a website is built, how it is styled and what good styling/design looks like. The question remains: how do we make our websites smarter?

We use JavaScript, an object-oriented programming langauage, to write logic that allows our webistes to have awesome features! With JavaScript implementation we can...

  • Implement User Registration
  • Book a Ticket
  • Create an Online Store
  • Share Photos
  • Write Messages

The possibilites are endless!

JavaScript

JavaScript is a frontend programming language, meaning that it is used by frontend web developers to create interfaces and user-centered features. You can think of HTML, CSS, and even JavaScript files as simple text files that contain keywords. Browsers use these keywords at the time of running your site to create a stunning website to your specifications. The browser can differentiate between HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files at runtime because of the extension you add at the end.

HTML files will use a .html extention. CSS and JavaScript files use .css and .js, respectively.

JavaScript Frameworks

HTML and CSS are really easy to learn since both languages are not logically demanding and they do not change over time. On the other hand, JavaScript is a dynamic language which means it is constantly changing and it is much more powerful. It is constantly improving so writing logic can be easier for the programmer. Because of it's complexity, over time, developers came up with code that made it easier to code. These prewritten pieces of code are called Frameworks and they are essentially improved versions of pure JavaScript. These Frameworks bring efficienty and organization to common coding projects. Some of the most popular .js frontend Framkeworks are...

  • React.js
  • Angular
  • Vue.js

Node.js, another popular Framework, is useful for coding the backend of web applications and it is a useful alternative to Java, Python. etc.

Some of these Frameworks are widely used in industry to create large applications like WeChat, Facebook and Baidu. The great news is that, since all of these Frameworks are written in JavaScript, if you know how to code JavaScript, you will be able to code every part of a website on your own.