JavaScript is one of three core technologies that form the foundation of web applications. It’s possible that you are wondering what the JavaScript programming language is if you are new to the site. To learn JavaScript, you must first understand its potential applications. Given your long-term career goals and aspirations, this will help you determine whether learning JavaScript is a good investment.
In this blog, we’ll go over the benefits of JavaScript and look at some of the most common scenarios in which you’d use it.
What is JavaScript, and how does it work?
You can bet that JavaScript is running in the background whenever you see a webpage that does more than just display content. JavaScript enables you to make a website more interactive by automating content updates, creating animated graphics, and resizing web page elements.
HTML, CSS, And JavaScript: The Power Of Three
For most people, HTML and CSS are the first things they learn to code. After that, they learn JavaScript. It makes sense! Web development relies on these three components. HTML and CSS allow you to define a web page’s structure and style, respectively. These are the other two languages that are used to create websites. You’ll need JavaScript to create an interactive site and dynamically update its content.
- HTML: The headers, body text, and any images you want to include are all part of the HTML structure of your page.
- CSS: CSS determines the appearance of the page (it’s what you’ll use to change fonts, background colors, and so on).
- JavaScript: The magical third element is JavaScript. JavaScript makes your site or project dynamic once you’ve created your structure (HTML) and aesthetic vibe (CSS).
What Is The Purpose Of JavaScript?
Now that we’ve covered the fundamentals of JavaScript let’s look at the question: what is the purpose of the JavaScript programming language?
While JavaScript is best known for front-end web development, it has a wide range of applications. Front-end refers to the part of a website that a user can see. Let’s look at four of the most common applications of the JavaScript programming language.
Front End Web Development
You can add dynamic features to a website using JavaScript, such as changing text and content and images that resize themselves. Changes to the user’s experience affect the way they interact with the site in their web browser because they are visible to the user.
Here are a few examples of front-end changes that JavaScript can make to a website:
- When a button is pressed, information is displayed.
- Make a dropdown menu that appears when you click it.
- Users can enlarge or reduce the size of an image.
- On a website, display a series of tabs.
- On a website, use animations.
- On a web page, you can listen to or watch audio or video.
Back End Web Development
For server-side programming, you can also use JavaScript in conjunction with Node.js. A website’s backend is the code that runs behind the scenes on a web server to make it work.
JavaScript and Node.js can be used to save data from a form to a database. A JavaScript back-end could handle payments, save user posts, and perform any other back-end tasks that a website requires.
Mobile app development
Traditionally, mobile applications were written in operating-system-specific languages. Swift is used for iOS development, while Java is used for Android development. JavaScript is a modern programming language that can be used to build mobile applications. Recent developments in technology have made it possible to do this.
React Native is one of these frameworks. By using the JavaScript and React framework, you can develop mobile-friendly applications. The Phonegap platform from Adobe lets you create mobile apps with web technologies. Other frameworks that you can use for this are Angular and Vue.
Game Development
JavaScript is used in online games. Because JavaScript isn’t as powerful as other game-making languages, many of these games are simple platform games. Cookie Clicker is one of many JavaScript-powered games available on the internet. There are numerous disadvantages to using JavaScript to create a browser-based game. Game developers, on the other hand, frequently use the language to make simple games. If you want to make large games, JavaScript does not scale well on its own.
For example, JavaScript is used in many of the computer games that today’s high school students play. The benefit of using JavaScript for basic game development is that it allows you to make something that runs in the browser.
Applications of JavaScript
JavaScript is popular can be found all over the Internet;; there is no way to avoid it. In fact, JavaScript is used to display the contents of this web page in a variety of ways. The comments box on our blog, for example, is powered by JavaScript; when you click to submit a comment, a JavaScript function is executed. We’ll show you a few examples to use JavaScript to help you better understand how it’s used.
PayPal
Since its inception, PayPal has relied on JavaScript (again, because it is so fundamental to all websites). However, to power their web applications, the online payment company has experimented with tools like Node.JS. PayPal has even gone so far as to create Kraken JS, their own version of the Express JavaScript framework. This graph depicts how much JavaScript is used by PayPal.
Walmart
The Java programming language was initially used to power Walmart’s web application. However, as the company’s website grew, it realized it needed something more efficient. As a result, Walmart decided to go with Node.JS. Node.js is currently being used to serve web pages at Walmart.com.
In their projects, Facebook, the social media behemoth, employs JavaScript. React was created by Facebook, and it is still one of the most popular JavaScript libraries in the world today. React is so popular that it’s used by everyone from CloudFlare to the BBC. The web versions of Facebook’s Instagram and WhatsApp platforms are built with React. This demonstrates how heavily Facebook relies on JavaScript.
Netflix
Netflix’s web application was initially built in Java. Netflix engineers, on the other hand, decided that using Java to make changes to their site took too long. As a result, they decided to switch to a different technology to run the site.
Netflix is now heavily reliant on the Node.Js framework. This back-end framework enables the company to render content on their website quickly and efficiently. They were also able to reduce the load on their servers by switching to Node.Js, which improved the efficiency of their services.
Uber
Every day, Uber must deal with millions of requests from drivers and customers. The business needs to work with highly scalable technologies that can iterate quickly. Uber’s platform makes use of Node.js and JavaScript to efficiently handle driver requests. The asynchronous features of Node.Js, which make it easy to send data, are a big reason why Uber chose it.
What Is The Best Way To Learn JavaScript?
What’s the takeaway from this? While HTML and CSS allow you to create a basic web page, JavaScript is the programming language that allows you to bring that page to life. Even though HTML and CSS alone will qualify you for entry-level developer work, investing the time to learn JavaScript will vastly improve your job prospects.
Conclusion
JavaScript is first and foremost, a web development language, but it is so much more. JavaScript can be used to create both front-end and back-end web applications. Simple browser games frequently use JavaScript. You can also make mobile apps with JavaScript.
JavaScript is a widely-used programming language. It’s frequently used in conjunction with other frameworks such as React, Ember, Node.JS, Vue, Angular, and others. These tools include a number of pre-built functions that extend the JavaScript framework’s capabilities. JavaScript is a skill you should learn if you’re interested in web development.
