Chapter 18. Using JavaScript and Client-Side Frameworks
by Mike Snell, Lars Powers
Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Unleashed, Third Edition
- About This eBook
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents at a Glance
- Table of Contents
- About the Authors
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- We Want to Hear from You!
- Reader Services
- Introduction
- Part I: Introducing Visual Studio 2015
- Chapter 1. A Quick Tour of Visual Studio 2015
- Chapter 2. The Visual Studio IDE
- Chapter 3. The .NET Languages
- What’s New in C# 6.0 and VB 14
- Language Primer
- Language Features
- Infer a Variable’s Data Type Based on Assignment
- Create an Object and Initialize Its Values (Object Initializers)
- Define a Collection and Initialize Its Values
- Creating an Instance of a Nonexistent Class
- Add Methods to Existing Classes (Extension Methods)
- Add Business Logic to Generated Code (Partial Methods)
- Access and Query Data Using the .NET Languages
- Write Simple Unnamed Functions Within Your Code (Lambda Expressions)
- Splitting an Assembly Across Multiple Files
- Working with XML Directly Within Your Code (VB Only)
- Removing Unused Arguments from Event Handlers (VB Only)
- Creating an Automatically Implemented Property
- Dropping the Underscore in VB for Line Continuation
- Working with Dynamic Languages/Objects
- Covariance and Contravariance
- Asynchronous Programming
- The .NET Framework
- Summary
- Part II: An In-Depth Look at the IDE
- Chapter 4. Solutions and Projects
- Chapter 5. Browsers and Explorers
- Chapter 6. Introducing the Editors and Designers
- Part III: Working with the Visual Studio Tools
- Chapter 7. Working with Visual Studio’s Productivity Aids
- Chapter 8. Testing Code
- Chapter 9. Refactoring Code
- Chapter 10. Debugging Code
- Chapter 11. Deploying Code
- Chapter 12. Developing Applications in the Cloud with Windows Azure
- Chapter 13. Working with Databases
- Part IV: Extending Visual Studio
- Part V: Building Web Applications
- Chapter 17. Building Modern Websites with ASP.NET 5
- Chapter 18. Using JavaScript and Client-Side Frameworks
- Chapter 19. Building and Consuming Services with Web API and WCF
- Part VI: Building Windows Client Apps
- Chapter 20. Building Windows Forms Applications
- Chapter 21. Building WPF Applications
- Chapter 22. Developing Office Business Applications
- Part VII: Creating Mobile Apps
- Chapter 23. Developing Windows Store Applications
- Chapter 24. Creating Windows Phone Applications
- Chapter 25. Writing Cross-Platform Mobile Applications with Apache Cordova
- Index
- Code Snippets
Chapter 18. Using JavaScript and Client-Side Frameworks
JavaScript has become the key language for client-side development of web applications. It runs in all browsers on all platforms on all device types, and it delights users with the increased interactivity, responsiveness, animations, and native-like feel it allows us to produce. JavaScript is required for writing client applications for ASP.NET or any other web server platform (PHP, Ruby, Python, and so on) because it runs on the client—all clients. JavaScript even extends to mobile applications, including Windows Store (WinJS) and cross-platform apps built with Cordova (see Part VII, “Creating Mobile Apps”). It’s fair to say that if there is a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) call involved, there is a good chance you’ll need JavaScript skills to write a portion of the user interface.
There was a time when web developers all but ignored JavaScript. These developers wrote a lot of code that ran on the server, spent time making things look nice with Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), but used JavaScript sparingly for two reasons. First, JavaScript seemed complex because it is a dynamic language (and not very object-oriented). Second, the implementation of JavaScript to work with an HTML document object model (DOM) was different across browsers. This meant writing code for one browser and then fallback code to support other browsers and older versions. This was too much work. However, it resulted in the rise of JavaScript client frameworks.
JavaScript client frameworks ease the burden of writing cross-browser compliant JavaScript. They unlock the power of the ubiquitous nature of the language. These frameworks (such as the popular jQuery) make it easy to work with the DOM for partial-page updates, animations, touch, responsive design based on screen size, client-side data interactivity, and similar. These frameworks continue to evolve and make developers more productive.
This chapter is not as much about Microsoft Visual Studio features as it is about using Visual Studio to write client-side code. Our intent is to give Visual Studio web developers a foundation for using these technologies in their applications to delight their users.
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