How can you choose the right javascript library for your technology stack?

Choose wisely from the start. It's so tempting to just use the newest trendy JavaScript library, but aligning with your project goals avoids issues down the road. First, clarify what features and functionality you need to implement. Defining these requirements narrows suitable libraries dramatically. For example, if you care about speed, don't choose a heavyweight toolkit, but instead use something lightweight like Vue.js. If you're building a simple interface, maybe just skip frameworks altogether and use Vanilla JS.

The technology scenario is changing fast enough where we see new javascript libraries with tempting features getting released every other month. Before we look into the library details we should be clear on what we are trying to achieve in the application and how can the library simplify the development. Since there are few libraries, the features can be compared before deciding the best fit. Post this the stability of the library should be considered, how frequently the releases come and if that contributes to a lot of rework in accepting the changes of the library. End goal should be keeping the solution simple, clean & maintainable. The library should help the developer rather than increasing their pain in implementation.Happy coding ??

That is the beauty of Javascript, the requirements are keep on changing, so the libraries are coming up day by day. It depends on the scope of project but every project requires performance and security, without compromising these 2, any framework which offers easy handling and a good community could be a pick.

To choose the right JavaScript library for your technology stack, follow these steps: 1. Identify your project's specific needs and goals. 2. Research available libraries that align with your requirements. 3. Consider factors like community support, documentation, and performance. 4. Evaluate the learning curve and compatibility with your existing tech stack. 5. Test libraries through small projects or prototypes. 6. Assess long-term maintenance and scalability. 7. Make an informed decision based on a balance of features, ease of use, and community backing. 8. Continuously monitor and update your choice as your project evolves.

During a past project, we considered using jQuery for its simplicity. However, evaluating our performance and scalability needs led us to rethink. Despite jQuery's popularity, it wasn't suited for our modern ES6+ codebase and could impact performance. Instead, we used optimized Vanilla JS. The experience underlined the importance of weighing tech stack requirements against the lure of simple solutions. Choosing simplicity blindly might hurt in the long run.

Although you decide to use some specific library if it has dependencies with some other libraries that are not supported by your stack then it will be a great headache. It happens more often than you think, but usually the solution is an upgrade of the library, but it won’t be easy I f it has breaking changes. In these cases you should start thinking on the trade offs and take a decision based on how much resources do you invest in some improvement or change.

This is always related to the ecosystem we have selected. Cross selection of libraries leads to more problems, as seen in past.

For me its not about the popularity of the library, at our organization it highly depends on the performance and easiness of switching it offers to the resource (front end developer).

Picking the proper framework is always a decision at the start of every project. Coming up with the list of frameworks and getting to know the team who will work on the project and their experience is a critical wager. Picking the proper framework is critical, but ensuring it won’t have a huge learning curve that would affect the timelines and deliverables. Assuming that the team is comfortable and the learning curve is acceptable, creating micro POC with each framework if time permits to showcase the setup, build and deployment to ensure that all avenues are travelled promptly.

It's recommended to take care of some aspects behind the libraries' features. It's not rare to see excellent libraries being abandoned and turning outdated rapidly. Consider a third-party dependency as an eventual entry point of bugs and/or security issues, and ensure it's frequently updated. Measure how solid is the library's community by taking a look at the repository audience (Github stars, for instance), community activity, well-known (tech celebrities) that contribute, and other references of a long-term updated tool.

Test coverage is the basics to ensure the library's community takes care of quality, and there's a first layer of security and consistency. And you can dig into that by looking at the test cases and trying to extract their purpose. Good projects shall have well-written test cases. In addition, look for test structure implementation (e.g. test pyramid). That will never be a guarantee, but it's not probable a poorly tested library will have good quality.

To choose the right library, you need to consider the following factors: - Project requirements: What are the requirements of your project? What features and functionality do you need? What kind of performance and scalability do you need? - Existing tech stack: What other technologies are you using in your project? You may want to choose a library that is compatible with your existing tech stack. - Team experience and skills: What is the experience and skill level of your team members? You want to choose a library that your team is comfortable with and knows how to use. - Community support: How large and active is the community around the library? This is important for getting help and support when you need it.

The most important aspect to consider is, framework usage based on userbase. Network effect is key, as the more users you have for your chosen framework for your codebase, the more examples, Q&As and tutorials your developers will find. A great tool to use is stackoverflow's keyword trends graph, simply put framework names there to see the latest trends against each other in a graph. ie: write react, vuejs, angular etc to review which framework is mentioned more over time and in the latest trends. My personal recommendation is react for web development and react native for mobile dev, as per its massive userbase and online footprint, state of the art virtual DOM and the speed of new development carried out on the framework itself.

Frontend web development is a vast space like any other fields but one key difference is that it changes very rapidly. A feature used few months ago would have been replaced/deprecated by a newer one now. So instead of picking the right one, I would say pick the one with a learning curve that can be absorbed relatively quick and delve into it's internals so that one can get a better understanding of front end development. No matter which library you pick there is no guarantee that it is the one you will be working with forever. I chose React to start my journey into front end and these open source resources can be useful, though they cover concepts of entire full stack: 1.The Odin Project 2.Full Stack Open

A most important aspect to consider while choosing a library for commercial applications are to check following - Maintenance: Is the library you're considering using actively maintained or not? - Open Issue: It's really important to check the library's open issue before you actually use it in a production app in order to avoid potential side effects and business impact - Release Frequency: If the library is not actively maintained or released then it means any potential issue in the future will take time to resolve and can have serious impact on your production application

You can go for any library you want just make sure it is well maintained and you follow proper design principles and your framework enforces MVC or MVVM you dont mess up data flow.