Yes, I know. This is a long discussion. But let us try to get some ideas on why you selected the one that you are using. Or even not using any of them.
I personally use jQuery and now having interest on ExtJS.
We have also some projects that we are using inline ColdFusion Ajax features but dealing with bugs is the most time consuming stuff that we are complaining. Having some fixes on ColdFusion 8.0.1 is nice but still having complex generated codes and reported compatibility issues is a big question. Component updates also would be an issue. It would not be so easy to update embedded features in ColdFusion such as FCKeditor or ExtJS libraries which still has the old version in ColdFusion 8.0.1.
On the other hand probably ColdFusion will have a commercical aggreement with ExtJS in near future and this can bring some interesting fancy stuff with a better support.
But still I think jQuery is clean and easy to manage. Probably same for ExtJS or some other frameworks and instead of using ColdFusion tags - which would be nice for newbies -, I prefer having my own code. JSON support is a great feature and integrating other frameworks via JSON etc. is a real fun for me. I also would like to feel the full control on the code that I am using and while using ColdFusion tags, I am very scary on generated code. How many of you are using CFFORM tag? Or embedded validation etc.? :)
What do you think? What about other frameworks? Dojo, Spry, Prototype, AJS, MooTools etc.
Please feel free to share your ideas.
May 14
May 14, 2008 at 2:27 PM jQuery rulez! :)
Here is a nice blog post
http://jquery.com/blog/2006/08/20/why-jquerys-philosophy-is-better/
May 14, 2008 at 3:34 PM I would also mention YahooUI Library. (ExtJS is my 2nd favourite).
Just an new tutorial with YUI:
http://www.insideria.com/2008/05/writing-your-first-yui-applica.html
May 14, 2008 at 3:46 PM Of course YUI is also one of the major one. :)
Andras, thanks for the update.
May 14, 2008 at 3:50 PM It depends on what do you need a JS library for. If just for adding a bit of interaction to page then almost any of those libraries will do.
If you need a set of premade UI components, then ExtJS is probably the best match right now.
I personally use Yahoo UI. I love the event classes and rely on CustomEvents a lot. And if you build your own UI components then YUI Module and Container are very good base for them.
YUI has a bit more verbose API, but I see it as a plus not a minus. For example I find lots of jQuery using code hard to read, you have to mentally parse what all the special $() etc do. And after minimizing/compressing JS it doesn't really matter how verbose the API was, what matters is how maintainable it is later on, and YUI wins here IMO.
May 14, 2008 at 4:28 PM I've been pretty amazed at the depth of what is available in YUI 2.5.1. Its pretty amazing.
May 14, 2008 at 8:01 PM I would recommend prototype library if are doing some heavy lifting Javascript using classes, events, Ajax etc. I wrote a sample application a while ago which uses various prototype features e.g. Templates, Event, Ajax etc. Here is the url http://cfprototype.riaforge.com
May 15, 2008 at 12:21 AM Having used JQuery, Mootools, Prototype and Spry in the past I can't speak for the functionality of ExtJS, though it's interface components are gorgeous.
I will plug JQuery in that it is a framework that continues improve dramatically with each release. Invariably, you will have to move beyond what the UI library or the JS framework provides you in functionality. Having a framework like JQ that assists in that process and dramatically reduces the amount of code I have to write for modifying and parsing the DOM or handling AJAX requests is a big plus.
May 15, 2008 at 4:07 PM jquery is a lot easier.
extjs is definitely harder to grasp and lacks code examples.
overall, jquery is better.