My dear reader, how are you? السلام عليكم
The artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of – Leonardo Da Vinci
In this post, we will continue our web-journey and explore the User Interface (UI) development frameworks. I list the top most popular and trending CSS and JavaScript frameworks for 2019 and resources to learn them.
In 2019, based on community-wide usage, the following are the top CSS frameworks endorsed both by industry and community. Although there are many more, but I will only list the top four.
- Bootstrap (DirectMe) — One of the most popular responsive CSS frameworks available to date. They label themselves as a platform to “Quickly prototype your ideas or build your entire app with our Sass variables and mixins, responsive grid system, extensive prebuilt components, and powerful plugins built on jQuery.”
- Materialize CSS (DirectMe) — Based on Google’s ‘Material’ design and provides abstract components like simple buttons, lists, attractive hover effects, and floating ‘plus’ buttons.
- Semantic UI (DirectMe) — Treats words and classes as exchangeable concepts. Classes use syntax from natural languages like noun/modifier relationships, word order, and plurality to link concepts intuitively.
- Material UI (DirectMe) — Material UI looks as though it’s the brainchild of Materialize CSS and Bootstrap. It has the simplicity of Materialize CSS, and the beauty that Bootstrap brings in. Material-UI is ideal for designing user interfaces, dashboards, material cards, and even beautiful landing pages. Experts recommend it because of its great integration with many JavaScript frameworks which I will list later in this post.
We will now list the top three JavaScript (JS) frameworks for 2019. I will rank them according to the ease of use, community support, stability, and support for previous packages in the latest releases.
- React (DirectMe) — Developed by Facebook. One of the best available open-source JS frameworks that follow the development structures of DOM approved by W3C. React has gained popularity in a very short period of time. It makes the use of a virtual DOM and hence, the integration of the same with any application is easier. Another benefit of React is its great management of single-page applications (SPAs) with many dynamic components.
- Angular (DirectMe) — Developed by Google. One of the most powerful, efficient, and open-source JavaScript frameworks. This framework is operated by Google and is basically implemented to use for developing SPAs. It extends the HTML into the application and interprets the attributes in order to perform data binding.
- Vue (DirectMe) — Developed in 2016. This JS framework has made its way into the market and has proven its worth. Its dual integration mode is one of the most attractive features for the creation of high-end SPA or Single Page Application. It is a much reliable platform for developing cross-platform.
Finally, let us list the top build tools/task runners.
- Webpack (DirectMe) — Written in JaveScript. Initially, it is a module bundler, though it is quite often used instead of other task runners. This advanced tool provides developers with control over how it splits the modules, allowing them to adjust builds to particular situations and workaround solutions that don’t function properly out of the box.
- Grunt (DirectMe) — Written in Node.js. It is categorized as a task runner. It is a command-line tool for front-end developers to run predefined repetitive tasks. Whereas, tasks are defined declaratively with configuration objects, which are handled by plugins to keep the core package at a sufficient size. It is used to automate JavaScript workflows like concatenating and minifying JS files, carrying out tests, refreshing browser to upload script changes and so on.
- Gulp (DirectMe) — Written in Node.js. It is also categorized as a task runner. The core difference between Grunt and Gulp is that where Grunt uses configuration objects to define tasks declaratively, Gulp defines them as JavaScript functions.
In order to learn any of these, the best way I recommend is to pick up a tool, follow a free Youtube tutorial series to get a quick hands-on and start using it in your next projects. The more you will use them in your projects, the more you will make yourself familiar with the opportunities they bring in.
I hope you will find these useful for your next front-end design projects on the web. In the future posts, I will list the most popular backend servers and databases that are being used today with some useful insights on their implementation complexities. Happy Learning!