Summary

This chapter covered a lot of ground around JavaScript and client-side development. This included writing basic JavaScript. We also covered using the popular client- framework, jQuery. From there, we presented the many other client frameworks that build on JavaScript and jQuery. These frameworks are available to help make developers more successful. Core frameworks discussed were as follows:

Bootstrap—You can use Bootstrap to build fluid, responsive user interfaces. Bootstrap makes your web app work well on any device size. Bootstrap is part of the ASP.NET templates. You can customize Bootstrap to match any look and feel or design for your site.

Bower and Gulp—Bower is the client-side package manager for web development. It allows you to easily install and maintain the many shared libraries that make up a modern web application. Gulp is a task manager for these libraries. You can use it to minify your code (among other things).

Knockout—The Knockout library provides easy-to-use, declarative data binding to your JavaScript model. This binding is based on MVVM and is two-way binding by default. Knockout is easy to use and powerful.

AngularJS—The AngularJS library allows you to create complex client code that works as MVC. Angular uses directives in your markup to make binding and showing/hiding data much easier. Angular is powerful. However, there is a steeper learning curve when trying to master Angular.

You can combine the many client-side techniques learned in this chapter for your own, project-specific web architecture. This will help you build mobile-first, responsive, and user-pleasing sites.