Up-and-coming Front-End and JavaScript Trends | ELITEX Blog

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Blog / Up-and-coming Front-End and JavaScript Trends | ELITEX Blog

Trends in front-end development take time to identify. It may take several years for the technology to become the practice of developers. We can safely say that SPA, PWA, SSR, and Typescript concepts will be in trend for a while. JavaScript will also remain a trend in front-end development. Indeed, most major front-end projects in 2024 will still use JavaScript frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular. As predicted by many experts, these trends will be on the rise in 2024. We look closer at the trends in the JavaScript world in 2024.

SPA – single-page applications

Users’ choice in web development favors SPA – single-page applications. Their main difference from multi-page applications is that the transition between pages does not involve a full reload, significantly speeding up the work. Single pagers are naturally faster and cheaper to develop. They are easy to use, and users can quickly find and load all the necessary information. Such websites are more mobile-friendly than traditional websites. SPA remains one of the technology trends in 2024.

Progressive web applications

IT providers will continue to use the PWA – Progressive Web Applications. Their main difference is the ability to work offline through a browser that uses cached data. They can be installed on the user’s device while not requiring a large amount of memory. The main advantage of PWAs is the significant improvement of the user experience, which guarantees an increase in the conversion rate.

Server-side rendering

Programmers will use SSR (server-side rendering). It allows rendering the content on the server side, which improves the application’s performance. However, the main advantage is that the search robots will index the site, which means it will appear higher in search results.

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Coders will continue to use TypeScript in frameworks. For large projects, you can use it to improve development workflow, detect errors at the compilation stage, and improve code readability, making it easier to train new developers.

Semantic HTML coding is also worth mentioning. It has nothing to do with a framework but allows you to index the website better and match it with search queries.

JavaScript is a constant trend in front-end development. It is also one of the most popular modern programming languages. Nearly every website uses JavaScript in its structure. It continues to evolve as more features appear in the JavaScript family. Currently, there are 1.4 million JS libraries available for JavaScript developers.

A wide range of JavaScript frameworks helps make the language easier to use overall. JavaScript frameworks are a handy tool for quick and easy development. Frameworks usually contain a set of components and widgets designed to create any web application. The widgets are parts that are available for combination and integration into any environment. However, it is vital to stay up to date and keep up with modern trends in front-end development so that you can choose the best UI solution for your app. Let’s explore the front-end development trends and the most popular JavaScript frameworks. 

React, Vue, or Angular: what to choose for your next frontend project

Just as a CMS requires a ready-made website customized to the editor’s needs, frameworks allow developers to create a unique set of features to build applications. JavaScript frameworks, then, improve developer productivity because they already include certain rules, patterns, and features.

New JS frameworks are coming out all the time. It is often difficult to keep track of them. Companies are interested in performance, speed, popularity, and availability of talent, while developers strive to improve their technical solutions to meet the demand. It is important to understand how in-demand framework is to choose the most suitable one for you.; you need to know your project requirements and the pros and cons of all frameworks.

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The three major frameworks of JS

You need to analyze the frontrunners to know what you should aim for. Stack Overflow’s developer survey revealed the most popular web frameworks. React, Angular, and Vue retain their top positions. They are all in the top five, and React wins with a score of 40%.

React.js

React is famous for its speed, simplicity, and ability to create rich and mobile-friendly apps with reasonable coding effort. React provides better performance thanks to its ability to prevent updates from DOM, resulting in faster and smoother rendering of applications. It leads to a better user experience. Based on feedback from the community back in the pandemic times, the React team has redesigned the upgrade process to allow the testing of new features before they come into production.

React was first used by Facebook developers in 2011. Gradually, it gained a good base, a large number of tools, and broad community support. React is used in many large companies for user interface development: Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, and BBC. The 2020 version was characterized by only a few updates that made embedding React in another environment easier. It also introduced a concurrent experimental mode that helps applications respond quickly and adapt efficiently to the performance of the device their device.

React is a library at its core and has a large arsenal of related libraries. It is suitable for MVP, small and medium projects. TypeScript support helps in enterprise development. It can also be chosen for developing websites with minimal business logic in the front end as there is a boilerplate. However, there are no imposed solutions in React, so JavaScript experts with solid development experience and knowledge of both architectural patterns and native functionality of JS are required.

React is quite active in changing public APIs and behavior, and updates through versions are usually straightforward. Since Facebook stands for stability, there is complete compatibility between versions and the ability to connect libraries from different versions to the application.

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Angular

According to a Stack Overflow survey, Angular is the fourth most popular web framework. It has a reputation for being a powerful and robust solution that provides a responsive user experience and has an attractive look. It is widely used for solid, large-scale enterprise solutions despite its complexity. The Angular team is improving this framework to keep it on the cutting edge of JavaScript technologies. 

The Angular Package Format is a structure and format specification that allows most third-party libraries to work seamlessly with the Angular environment. When Google released Angular in 2010, the framework revolutionized the development industry and found acceptance among the coders community. When Angular2 was released, it was written from scratch in TypeScript. This version has an entirely different architecture, a lower barrier to entry, and high-quality documentation.

Angular is popular as a framework for developing large enterprise applications because it includes a number of architectural solutions, including TypeScript. On the one hand, this can be a limitation, but on the other hand, it can be a quick solution for a standard case. There are also DI mechanisms that make testing and dependency replacement easier. 

Benefits of Angular

In 2021, Angular received several improvements, including Package Format with faster execution and more independence from internal APIs, API-simplified dynamic component creation, and ESBuild optimization of global scripts and CSS.

The Angular team releases major updates every six months. Since it is characterized by dependency on previous versions and components, the framework has a service with a detailed description for migrating versions. In addition, Angular has an Ivy compiler that flags errors when they occur before the interpreter executes the code. The framework basis is the RxJs library. The functional code is essentially based on reactive programming, leading to a declarative paradigm: unit tests can easily cover the code, and the testing tools are built-in.

Vue.js

Vue is another popular framework that has been close on the heels of the frontrunners for some time. Vue is well-known due to its modular architecture, flexibility, extensive documentation, and large community. In 2014, a former Google employee developed Vue. Chinese giants like Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi, and other big companies like GitLab mainly use the framework. 

Vue is suitable for small and medium-sized applications. The high speed at the beginning allows you to create an MVP quickly. The scalability of the Vue application also helps in the dynamic development of the project. Version 3.0 provides full support for TypeScript. The scalability is easier than Angular. Vue is also easier to learn, so companies increasingly hire junior JavaScript developers with Vue skills.

The release of Vue 3 and its latest v.3.3.0 had several improvements in the framework’s work that could influence trends in JS frameworks in 2024. Since market leaders are always trendsetters, let us take a look at the latest updates to Vue that will influence web development. Vue has received improved performance implemented through a template compiler developed and enhanced to render static content quickly. The Composition API built into Vue 3.0 makes organizing and reusing codes more accessible. 

So, Vue 3.0 makes the framework attractive for large projects due to the lack of performance penalty and readability improvement. Vue’s internal structure has been transformed into a series of individual modules. The new architecture provides better support and allows end-users to reduce execution time by up to half. Based on Vue’s component APIs, developers can create unique UI libraries using the defineCustomElement method. With easy HTML integration, support for declarative rendering, and real-time development monitoring, Vue can challenge the dominance of React and Angular in 2024.

Popularity and availability of developers

If we look at the statistics about the number of downloads, React is chosen more often than the other two frameworks. The availability of developers in the job market is also an essential factor for companies looking for a dedicated team. If we evaluate the popularity of job offers with a request for specialists for these frameworks in Google Trends, we can see that React developers are in high demand.

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Solutions for use in JavaScript frameworks

There will be several solutions that integrate well with these popular frameworks. DevExtreme offers a comprehensive collection of powerful components complementing React, Angular, or Vue. Particular components include DataGrid, PivotGrid, TreeList, Charts, Form, Maps, and others. Also, the framework consists of more than 50 intuitive and easy-to-use tools. An integrated theme builder allows developers to modify the included themes or create their own.

Kendo

Developers using React, Angular, or Vue can also benefit from Kendo. It provides four separate JS libraries for all of these frameworks. Each of these libraries claims to have a unified API with themes. Kendo includes extensive information on demos, roadmap, documentation, and support. Everything is well organized depending on which framework the developers are using in their projects.

Ember.js

Ember.js open-source web framework JS. It has not been on the market that long but has proven to be a reliable solution. The learning curve can be long as the structure of the framework is quite unusual. The UI created with Ember is HTML-driven, so developers work with HTML templates during development, which are the main components of the framework. Ember apps offer an integrated development environment with automatic reloading and a test runner. In addition, the built-in Ember router supports nested URLs with data retrieval, nested loading, and error substitutions. Documentation includes tutorials and API references.

DHTMLX

DHTMLX is another robust solution to help developers build complex web and mobile applications; while the library is not very comprehensive but has all the basic components needed for a simple project. It contains a set of complete HTML5 features based on Material Design that can be easily customized. The most powerful among them are Gantt, Scheduler, Kanban, and Grid. All components are compatible with React, Angular, and Vue.

Backbone.js

The Backbone.js project claims to offer a short learning curve. The framework claims to provide complex functionality with less code. The library is simple and well-structured. However, there is not enough additional information, which can be a disadvantage for novice programmers. The interaction of models and views organizes the development process. The state of the models is displayed in views that react to any change, and the operations run automatically.

Syncfusion

Syncfusion is a UI suite that you can use in a JS framework. Its components include DataGrid, Charts, ListView, Scheduler, PDF Viewer, and Excel Library. The tools can be used for mobile and web development. The resources, designed to shorten the learning curve, are well structured. There are demos, detailed documentation, video tutorials, as well as electronic resources, a community forum, and technical support.

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Node.js set to be a trend

Node.js is an open-source and cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment. Its design allows the creation of scalable network applications. Node JS uses Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine. The programming language helps in the execution of JavaScript code on the server side and the development of real-time network applications. Additionally, Node JS uses an event-driven architecture and runs on a single thread, so it is very lightweight. Node.js is also compatible with IDEs like Visual Studio and Eclipse and supports simple code editors like Sublime Text and Notepad++. In addition, Node JS is supported by a document-based model database, unlike traditional SQL databases that implement relational models.

With Node.js, developers can easily create scalable applications thanks to its lightweight and flexible code. Moreover, thanks to the solution’s modular design, you can make changes without having to intervene radically in the system. This feature is especially useful for streaming media sites like Netflix, applications like LinkedIn, where short message processes are quick, and microservices applications like PayPal. Another argument for the continued popularity of Node.js in 2024 is the dedicated community that continues to develop open-source tools used by programmers worldwide.

Which framework should you choose?

The year 2024 will still be a challenge. The world still feels the consequences of the pandemic, and it definitely changed the perception of the entire economics and, particularly, the IT sphere. But companies quickly adapted and turned to more digitized ways of working. They are striving for sustainability, which can be achieved through automation ensured by IT teams. When repetitive tasks are automated, developers can turn to more complex issues. UI Frameworks and libraries are valuable assets because they facilitate processes and provide turnkey solutions for some specific requirements.

JavaScript Trends 2024 shows that we will not stand still. The development process continues, so make sure you do not miss anything important. When choosing your best JS framework, you should pay attention to popularity, availability of specialists on the market, applications, labor costs, speed of stack development, and, what can be a crucial factor, project requirements.

If it is well thought out, and there is an understanding of the final look of the product, Angular may be the most obvious choice. If it is not, or if it is a medium-sized app project, React or Vue are the right choices. Based on our overall development experience, we recommend Angular for complex and large-scale projects. React is great if you need high performance and the project itself has a tight timeframe. And if you have limited time and need a small project, you can confidently choose Vue.

Conclusion

It’s important to keep up with the new advances that programming languages like JavaScript make over time to be successful in developing an app UI. Keeping track of the latest trends in JavaScript development allows us to set ourselves apart from the competition as JavaScript experts. We are constantly analyzing which trends are beneficial to our development process and our customers and integrating them into our front-end workflow.

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