JavaScript in Web Applications

In web applications, the traditional use of JavaScript is to execute code in the browser.  Browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, etc.) have the capability to execute JavaScript after a web page loads.

The use of JavaScript in web applications enables developers to create rich user interfaces.  Developers can code to validate input forms before they’re submitted, make calls back to the server to populate auto-suggest and auto-complete fields, auto-save user provided content, and even mimic behaviors traditionally only seen in applications that run on the desktop.  Using JavaScript, developers can create some impressive user interfaces that are pleasant to use and would have been clunky, less intuitive, and less responsive otherwise.

One early and remaining concern with JavaScript is different browsers handle the same code in slightly different ways – that is, they don’t always adhere strictly to the standards and sometimes the standards have gaps that the browser developers have to fill.  To overcome this problem, there are JavaScript libraries designed to detect the browser they’re running on and use special cases for that browser to ensure things run smooth.  Then, the web application developers rely on the library to do the right thing, decoupling the browser specific code from their application.  At Fieldstone Software, we regularly use jQuery, a popular JavaScript library.

Recently, the use of JavaScript has been extended beyond the browser – it’s being used on the server side as an alternative to technologies like PHP, ASP.NET, etc.  To learn more about this, read about Node.JS.

For more information about JavaScript, read the Wikipedia page.

We use JavaScript in virtually ALL of our web applications.  Check out our portfolio to see some of the things we’ve built.  Contact us if you have questions.