A JavaScript library is a
library of pre-written
JavaScript 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
JavaScript, 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 and
Yahoo! 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 technolo ...
,
PHP,
Ruby, and
Java. 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 ...
or
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 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 cod ...
runtimes. However, some npm packages offer
CDN support for use of the library in both Node.js runtimes as well as the browser.
See also
*
Ajax framework
*
Widget toolkit
A widget toolkit, widget library, GUI toolkit, or UX library is a library or a collection of libraries containing a set of graphical control elements (called ''widgets'') used to construct the graphical user interface (GUI) of programs.
Most widge ...
*
List of JavaScript libraries
*
Comparison of JavaScript frameworks
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Javascript Library
JavaScript