15 Top Free JavaScript Libraries and Plugins for Web Developers
JavaScript has long established its dominance on the web. Even though it is not yet the most popular language for web development, it is gaining favor with each passing day. JavaScript’s rise can also be credited to the fact that it is backed by the presence of several useful free JavaScript libraries and plugins for you to work with.
Don’t believe it yet? Well, the JetPack plugin for WordPress now features an admin panel interface almost entirely coded using React.js Similarly, WordPress.com desktop apps now rely heavily on JavaScript. All said and done, JavaScript is a rather useful and amazing development language that you should surely treat seriously.
Free JavaScript libraries and plugins can aid in development by helping you provide a framework for your coding. But where do you find them? And which free JavaScript libraries are the best ones? In this article, we take a look at some of the best and most useful as well as totally free JavaScript libraries and plugins.
01. AngularJS
AngularJS, or simply Angular, has long been the dominant name in the world of free JavaScript libraries. It is an open source framework that has the backing of Google, and this very fact should be enough to impress anyone.
AngularJS is a modular framework, so if you are building a complex web application that requires easy backend to frontend communication, AngularJS might be a suitable option for you.
Apart from Google itself, Angular is also used by the likes of PayPal Checkout and iTunes Connect.
02. React
React is another extremely popular name and can never be missed out in a roundup of free JavaScript libraries. React has earned a reputation for being the ultimate JavaScript library for designing user interfaces.
Since React is rather popular for UI development and design, it is often used in assonance with other JavaScript libraries in complex projects. For example, you can use React to power the frontend and UI of your app and simultaneously use Node.js to manage the server-side administration of the same app.
React is open source and backed by Facebook. As discussed above, Jetpack’s new admin interface makes good use of React code.
03. Underscore.js
Underscore.js is a JavaScript library that does not fiddle with default JS functionality. It does not extend any built-in functions; in other words, it lets the native JavaScript methods and objects be, and just adds some extra specializations and “helpers” for you to work with.
Underscore.js is a perfect choice if you need a library that does not dictate terms and you are comfortable working with built-in JS objects. It can boost your productivity by adding extra modules and helpers to JavaScript functionality.
04. Babylon.js
If you are into video game development, Babylon.js might be meant for you. It is a free JavaScript library based on WebGL. Thus, Babylon.js is not just a library, it is a full fledged 3D video game engine.
Babylon.js can be used to create high quality games that comply with all major web standards and coding rules. Plus, since Babylon.js is cross browser compatible, your games too will run across different web browsers as well as platforms.
05. Ember
Ember, or Ember.js, is a JavaScript library that works as a web app framework. Wondering what that means? Well, Ember performs the hard task of decision making and allows you to focus solely on your code.
Ember comes with its own templating engine and it updates automatically when data structures change. Plus, Ember plays well with REST API applications too. However, do not expect grand flexibility from Ember. It has its own set of rules and frameworks and you must work within that.
Ember is popular because it can save time by allowing you to code quick and swift; but it is not as flexible as other free JavaScript libraries.
06. Backbone.js
Backbone.js is a very simple and straightforward JavaScript library and framework. Its USP is the fact that it can fit within a single JavaScript file. Naturally, its small size and simple nature has led to the rise in popularity of Backbone.js
But don’t let its smaller size fool you! Backbone.js comes loaded with almost all the features that you can ask for: routing support, key binding, declarative event handling as well as ability to connect with RESTful APIs.
If you are looking for a simple JS framework for your web apps, Backbone.js is a good option.
07. Clipboard.js
As the name suggests, Clipboard.js lets you copy content to clipboard without any dependencies. This means your app can copy data to clipboard without relying on Flash or anything else.
Clipboard.js relies on Selection and execCommand APIs. It works seamlessly across all popular web browsers and is barely 3 KB when zipped.
08. Textillate.js
Textillate.js is a nifty JavaScript plugin for CSS3 text animations. You can use it to add animations to every single letter of text on your page. It relies on animate.css for text effects and animations.
Note that Textillate.js is not truly dependency-free. You will require jQuery to run it in addition to animate.css and Lettering.js libraries. That said, it offers a wide array of CSS3 text animations so you can take your pick and apply the required effects easily.
09. Lettering.js
Lettering.js is another JavaScript plugin for web typography. It lets you control the style and appearance of every single letter on the page. You can control individual lines as well as words and various other aspects, such as kerning.
Lettering.js is very popular when it comes to free JavaScript libraries for text management and animations. It requires jQuery to work with, so be sure that you have it set up before trying your hand at Lettering.js
10. WOW.js
WOW.js is a JavaScript library for revealing animations as you scroll down the page. It requires no jQuery to work with and is just 3 KB when zipped.
Basically, as you scroll down the page, WOW.js offers reveal animations on the content. It is a very simple library that works seamlessly with animate.css and requires no rocket science to work with.
Note that WOW.js is free for use in personal projects as well as GPL based open source projects. If, however, you have a closed source proprietary project, you will need to purchase a license for $29.
11.?Chartist
Chartist lets you create simple responsive charts for your web projects. You can customize every single aspect of the charts and since Chartist uses SVG to render them, your charts can also obey CSS rules and custom code.
Chartist has its own animations API that can be used to animate the charts. You can customize it by means of media queries. Also, every chart created using Chartist is mobile-friendly and totally responsive.
Bear in mind, however, that Chartist animations offer limited support for older versions of Internet Explorer.
12. DropzoneJS
DropzoneJS is an open source and free JavaScript library that lets you add support for drag and drop file uploads and media previews in your web pages. It is free of any dependencies and compatible with almost all the major web browsers.
You can customize DropzoneJS to suit your needs and even tweak it by means of CSS animations. Furthermore, you can use it in combination with server-side scripts such as Node.js or PHP.
13. Babel
The biggest issue that many developers tend to have when working with JavaScript is that of browser compatibility. Older web browsers tend to be dropped in favor of newer ones, but not all users update. There are still machines and devices out there that are running old versions of IE, after all!
Babel is not just a JavaScript library. Instead, it is a proper compiler that compiles your JS code to ES5 compliant nature. This means your code can run on new browsers such as Edge as well as older ones, such as IE 9.
Using Babel, you can make use of all the new and fancy features of any JS library such as React, and simultaneously make it run on old web browsers without breaking a sweat.
14. PhantomJS
PhantomJS is a JavaScript plugin that lets you run and test your code without consuming excessive memory resources. Other that code testing, PhantomJS also lets you capture screenshots, automate page browsing as well as monitor network transactions all from inside the native JavaScript API.
PhantomJS offers native support for all the popular web standards including JSON and Canvas.
15. three.js
three.js is a 3D library for JavaScript. It lets you create 3D visualizations as well as render 3D to HTML5, SVG and WebGL.
three.js is a simple and minimal library that is a blessing for folks looking to work with 3D concepts. Essentially, most 3D visualizations tend to rely on game engines to get the job done. However, what if you just need a simple visualization without having to rely on a heavy game engine? What if, in other words, your visualization has nothing to do with gaming?
three.js solves this problem by outputting simple 3D visualizations in a direct manner.
Over To You
So that brings us to the end of this roundup of some of the best and most useful free JavaScript libraries for your projects.
Which one do you use the most? Any free JavaScript libraries that you think deserve a mention on this list? Have your say in the comments below!
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That again was no use: he but got another smile and a friendly look of the sort he no longer wanted. I said I thought I could gallop if Harry could, and in a few minutes we were up with the ambulance. It had stopped. There were several men about it, including Sergeant Jim and Kendall, which two had come from Quinn, and having just been in the ambulance, at Ferry's side, were now remounting, both of them openly in tears. "Hello, Kendall." We have this great advantage in dealing with Plato—that his philosophical writings have come down to us entire, while the thinkers who preceded him are known only through fragments and second-hand reports. Nor is the difference merely accidental. Plato was the creator of speculative literature, properly so called: he was the first and also the greatest artist that ever clothed abstract thought in language of appropriate majesty and splendour; and it is probably to their beauty of form that we owe the preservation of his writings. Rather unfortunately, however, along with the genuine works of the master, a certain number of pieces have been handed down to us under his name, of which some are almost universally admitted to be spurious, while the authenticity of others is a question on which the best scholars are still divided. In the absence of any very cogent external evidence, an immense amount of industry and learning has been expended on this subject, and the arguments employed on both sides sometimes make us doubt whether the reasoning powers of philologists are better developed than, according to Plato, were those of mathematicians in his time. The176 two extreme positions are occupied by Grote, who accepts the whole Alexandrian canon, and Krohn, who admits nothing but the Republic;115 while much more serious critics, such as Schaarschmidt, reject along with a mass of worthless compositions several Dialogues almost equal in interest and importance to those whose authenticity has never been doubted. The great historian of Greece seems to have been rather undiscriminating both in his scepticism and in his belief; and the exclusive importance which he attributed to contemporary testimony, or to what passed for such with him, may have unduly biassed his judgment in both directions. As it happens, the authority of the canon is much weaker than Grote imagined; but even granting his extreme contention, our view of Plato’s philosophy would not be seriously affected by it, for the pieces which are rejected by all other critics have no speculative importance whatever. The case would be far different were we to agree with those who impugn the genuineness of the Parmenides, the Sophist, the Statesman, the Philêbus, and the Laws; for these compositions mark a new departure in Platonism amounting to a complete transformation of its fundamental principles, which indeed is one of the reasons why their authenticity has been denied. Apart, however, from the numerous evidences of Platonic authorship furnished by the Dialogues themselves, as well as by the indirect references to them in Aristotle’s writings, it seems utterly incredible that a thinker scarcely, if at all, inferior to the master himself—as the supposed imitator must assuredly have been—should have consented to let his reasonings pass current under a false name, and that, too, the name of one whose teaching he in some respects controverted; while there is a further difficulty in assuming that his existence could pass unnoticed at a period marked by intense literary and philosophical activity. Readers who177 wish for fuller information on the subject will find in Zeller’s pages a careful and lucid digest of the whole controversy leading to a moderately conservative conclusion. Others will doubtless be content to accept Prof. Jowett’s verdict, that ‘on the whole not a sixteenth part of the writings which pass under the name of Plato, if we exclude the works rejected by the ancients themselves, can be fairly doubted by those who are willing to allow that a considerable change and growth may have taken place in his philosophy.’116 To which we may add that the Platonic dialogues, whether the work of one or more hands, and however widely differing among themselves, together represent a single phase of thought, and are appropriately studied as a connected series. Before entering on our task, one more difficulty remains to be noticed. Plato, although the greatest master of prose composition that ever lived, and for his time a remarkably voluminous author, cherished a strong dislike for books, and even affected to regret that the art of writing had ever been invented. A man, he said, might amuse himself by putting down his ideas on paper, and might even find written178 memoranda useful for private reference, but the only instruction worth speaking of was conveyed by oral communication, which made it possible for objections unforeseen by the teacher to be freely urged and answered.117 Such had been the method of Socrates, and such was doubtless the practice of Plato himself whenever it was possible for him to set forth his philosophy by word of mouth. It has been supposed, for this reason, that the great writer did not take his own books in earnest, and wished them to be regarded as no more than the elegant recreations of a leisure hour, while his deeper and more serious thoughts were reserved for lectures and conversations, of which, beyond a few allusions in Aristotle, every record has perished. That such, however, was not the case, may be easily shown. In the first place it is evident, from the extreme pains taken by Plato to throw his philosophical expositions into conversational form, that he did not despair of providing a literary substitute for spoken dialogue. Secondly, it is a strong confirmation of this theory that Aristotle, a personal friend and pupil of Plato during many years, should so frequently refer to the Dialogues as authoritative evidences of his master’s opinions on the most important topics. And, lastly, if it can be shown that the documents in question do actually embody a comprehensive and connected view of life and of the world, we shall feel satisfied that the oral teaching of Plato, had it been preserved, would not modify in any material degree the impression conveyed by his written compositions. breakfast in the kitchen by candle-light, and then drove the five The bargaining was interminable, something in this manner:— Then follows a long discussion in Hindi with the bystanders, who always escort a foreigner in a mob, ending in the question— There was a bright I. D. blanket spread on the ground a little way back from the fire, and she threw herself down upon it. All that was picturesque in his memories of history flashed back to Cairness, as he took his place beside Landor on the log and looked at her. Boadicea might have sat so in the depths of the Icenean forests, in the light of the torches of the Druids. So the Babylonian queen might have rested in the midst of her victorious armies, or she of Palmyra, after the lion hunt in the deserts of Syria. Her eyes, red lighted beneath the shadowing lashes, met his. Then she glanced away into the blackness of the pine forest, and calling her dog to lie down beside her, stroked its silky red head. The retreat was made, and the men found themselves again in the morning on the bleak, black heath of Drummossie, hungry and worn out, yet in expectation of a battle. There was yet time to do the only wise thing—retreat into the mountains, and depend upon a guerilla warfare, in which they would have the decided advantage. Lord George Murray now earnestly proposed this, but in vain. Sir Thomas Sheridan and other officers from France grew outrageous at that proposal, contending that they could easily beat the English, as they had done at Prestonpans and Falkirk—forgetting that the Highlanders then were full of vigour and spirit. Unfortunately, Charles listened to this foolish reasoning, and the fatal die was cast. "They said they were going for our breakfast," said Harry. "And I hope it's true, for I'm hungrier'n a rip-saw. But I could put off breakfast for awhile, if they'd only bring us our guns. I hope they'll be nice Springfield rifles that'll kill a man at a mile." "Dod durn it," blubbered Pete, "I ain't cryin' bekase Pm skeered. I'm cryin' bekase I'm afeared you'll lose me. I know durned well you'll lose me yit, with all this foolin' around." He came nearly every night. If she was not at the gate he would whistle a few bars of "Rio Bay," and she would steal out as soon as she could do so without rousing suspicion. Boarzell became theirs, their accomplice in some subtle, beautiful way. There was a little hollow on the western slope where they would crouch together and sniff the apricot scent of the gorse, which was ever afterwards to be the remembrancer of their love, and watch the farmhouse lights at Castweasel gleam and gutter beside Ramstile woods. "Yes, De Boteler," continued the lady, "I will write to him, and try to soothe his humour. You think it a humiliation—I would humble myself to the meanest serf that tills your land, could I learn the fate of my child. The abbot may have power to draw from this monk what he would conceal from us; I will at least make the experiment." The lady then, though much against De Boteler's wish, penned an epistle to the abbot, in which concession and apologies were made, and a strong invitation conveyed, that he would honour Sudley castle by his presence. The parchment was then folded, and dispatched to the abbot. "A very pretty method, truly! You know not the miners and forgers of Dean Forest!—why I would stake a noble to a silver-penny, that if you had discovered he was hidden there, and legally demanded him, he would be popped down in a bucket, to the bottom of some mine, where, even the art of Master Calverley could not have dragged him to the light of day until the Forest was clear of the pack:—but, however, to speak to the point," perceiving that the steward's patience was well nigh exhausted—"I saw Stephen Holgrave yesterday, in the Forest." HoME欧美一级 片a高清
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