A JavaScript library is a

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

of pre-written

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of Website, websites use JavaScript on the Client (computing), client side ...

code that allows for easier development of JavaScript-based applications, especially for

AJAX Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...

and other web-centric technologies.

Libraries

With the expanded demands for

, an easier means for programmers to develop such dynamic interfaces was needed. Thus, JavaScript libraries and JavaScript widget libraries were developed, allowing for developers to concentrate more upon more distinctive applications of

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...

. This has led to other companies and groups, such as

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

and

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...

developing their own JavaScript-based user interface libraries, which find their way into the web applications developed by these companies. Some JavaScript libraries allow for easier integration of JavaScript with other web development technologies, such as

CSS Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone techno ...

PHP PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared toward web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group ...

Ruby A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sa ...

, and

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

. While others provide utilities, often in the form of JavaScript functions, to make repetitive and complex tasks less taxing. Many libraries include code to detect differences between runtime environments and remove the need for applications to allow for such inconsistencies. Almost all JavaScript libraries are released under either a

permissive {{about, , the 1970 British film, Permissive (film), the grammatical mode, Permissive mood, the flavor of software license, permissive free software licence A permissive cell or host is one that allows a virus to circumvent its defenses and replica ...

copyleft Copyleft is the legal technique of granting certain freedoms over copies of copyrighted works with the requirement that the same rights be preserved in derivative works. In this sense, ''freedoms'' refers to the use of the work for any purpose, ...

license to ensure license-free distribution, usage, and modification.

Frameworks

Some JavaScript libraries, such as Angular, are classified as

frameworks A framework is a generic term commonly referring to an essential supporting structure which other things are built on top of. Framework may refer to: Computing * Application framework, used to implement the structure of an application for an op ...

since they exhibit full-stack capabilities and properties not found in general JavaScript libraries.

Packages

All npm packages are JavaScript libraries, but not all libraries are packages. Npm originally stood for "Node Package Manager", as the name implies, npm serves as a package manager for packages used in

Node.js Node.js is an open-source server environment. Node.js is cross-platform and runs on Windows, Linux, Unix, and macOS. Node.js is a back-end JavaScript runtime environment. Node.js runs on the V8 JavaScript Engine and executes JavaScript code o ...

runtimes. However, some npm packages offer

CDN CDN may refer to: Places * Canada (Canadian), a North American country * , a neighborhood in Montreal, Quebec, Canada Technology * Content delivery network, on the Internet * Change detection and notification, of Web pages Transportation * Can ...

support for use of the library in both Node.js runtimes as well as the browser.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Javascript Library JavaScript

Libraries

Frameworks

Packages

See also

References