Week Nine lecture notes (MGDP2050)
The page has lecture notes for Week Nine (MGDP2050).
Contents
jQuery UI
jQuery UI is a set of interactive components for web pages.
It is built on jQuery. In order to use jQuery UI, you also need jQuery.
- In computer science, this is known as a dependency.
- jQuery must come before jQuery UI, because jQuery depends upon jQuery.
Mixing jQuery UI and Bootstrap
Many of the features in jQuery UI are similar to features in Bootstrap (framework).
Using features from two libraries is not uncommon.
You will probably need to write some custom CSS (and perhaps custom JavaScript).
One library is probably preferable -- simpler, easier.
But sometimes a project is committed to "Library A", which lacks a certain feature. Options include:
- Also using "Library B", which has the feature. (Easy.)
- Writing a plug-in for "Library A". (Difficult.)
Web applications
A web application is any computer program that runs in a web browser.
Single-page application
A single-page application (SPA) is a web application with a single web page.
- The user interacts with the page, including the experience of "navigating from page to page".
- The user never actually navigates away from the page.
Libraries and frameworks
Libraries and frameworks are similar and overlapping concepts.
There is no formal definition of which does what. The terms are used somewhat differently, in various sub-fields of computer science. Opinions vary from one software developer to another.
I think of it this way:
- A library is a smaller concept: more like a toolbox
- A framework is a larger concept: more like an automobile (or better yet, an automobile factory)
For further information, see Libraries and frameworks (computing).
Underscore.js
Underscore.js is a JavaScript library which provides some general-purpose utilities of interest to computer programmers.
It is a dependency of Backbone.js.
- In other words: Backbone.js depends upon Underscore.js.
Backbone.js
Backbone.js is a JavaScript library which is widely used to build single-page applications.
Ajax
Ajax is a programming paradigm, widely used in web design and development.
Ajax is a number of things, the most important being the fact that JavaScript can:
- Send requests from a browser
- Receive responses from the server
- Update the browser's Document Object Model -- in other words, what the user sees (or hears) in the browser.
Ajax happens without the user browsing from page to page, handled automatically by JavaScript.
JSON
JSON is a data format for text data, widely used in web applications.
JSON is an alternative to XML.
JSON file
A JSON file is a text file containing JSON data (and nothing else).
JSON files have the .json file extension.
JSON data is commonly delivered via web service, and not as a text file.
