JavaScript Trends in 2020
2020 is just around the corner, as unbelievable as that sounds. If you’re curious about what the future of the programming world might be, you’re in the right place. We tried to analyze trends in 2019 and want to share some insights into key directions for the JavaScript ecosystem.
Read on to find out!
JavaScript Language Keeps Going Strong
For years in a row, JavaScript is the most sought-after and fast-growing programming language. It remains one of the smartest choices when it comes to the development of interactive web interfaces since it’s supported by all modern browsers.
As the annual survey held by Stack Overflow shows, about 70 percent of 72.525 professional developers stated they use JavaScript. Moreover, it’s one of the most wanted languages meaning that 17.8% of respondents have not yet used it but want to learn it.
According to the data provided by stackshare.io, over 10400 companies worldwide use JavaScript in their stacks. The language is the heart of any big tech company, such as PayPal (likewise, the online payment giant was one of the earliest adopters of NodeJS), Netflix, Groupon, Walmart, and LinkedIn.
After all, 16 from 25 US unicorn companies (the top privately-held startups valued at over $1 billion) mention JavaScript in their technology stacks. It’s therefore unlikely that JavaScript goes off the grid in the near future.
TypeScript Usage Will Surge
We can safely say that 2019 was the year of TypeScript. It was designed by Microsoft to expand JavaScript opportunities and develop large applications for both client and server-side execution. As TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript, existing JS programs are also valid TypeScript software.
JavaScript developers view TypeScript as a tool that results in fewer bugs while also being easier to read code with the types and object interfaces offering self-documentation.
In the Stack Overflow survey released in 2019, TypeScript is rated as one of the top three most loved languages, falling behind Python and Rust. Moreover, GitHub stats show this language continues to gather momentum, and its community is growing. It wouldn’t be surprising to see TypeScript climb even higher in 2020.
Framework Wars: React Will Continue to Rise
JavaScript frameworks have become an integral part of the development of every contemporary web project. For better or worse, the tools’ choice is quite extensive burdening developers with questions on which one to use. The issue will remain relevant in 2020.
According to Stack Overflow, JavaScript-based tools occupy the first three places among the most wanted web frameworks by developers. They are React (21.5%), Vue.js (16.1%), and Angular (12.2%). The search trends on Google for those three frameworks also confirm React is the top library. And finally, React is leading in npm trends and is still growing.
React is the best choice for creating dynamic and interactive user interfaces. Some industry leaders writing codes with the help of React are BBC, Pinterest, WhatsApp, Reddit, and the list is actually extensive!
The first version of React was released in May 2013 by Facebook in order to maintain the increasing ad campaign traffic. Since then, the staff has been working on adding new and advanced features to React’s functionality. Summing up, a massive contribution, strong community, and ubiquity of React will not only help it stay its ground but also become better and stronger.
Web Components Will Become More Framework Independent
The momentum behind framework-agnostic components is growing, given their simplicity and convenience. For instance, such systems can operate without a framework or with a framework-spelling standardization. They are supported by modern browsers and are free from JavaScript fatigue.
The components are based on Custom Elements allowing you to define new HTML tags, HTML templates to specify layouts, and the Shadow DOM which is component-specific by nature.
DHTMLX. Latest Updates and New Frontiers
We’d like to end up with the achievements of our team developing JavaScript components in 2019. Thus, for instance, the Suite JS library has received an extensive update and now available in version 6.3. It’s completely renewed and provide 20+ full-featured UI widgets for building powerful and modern web interfaces.
It’s important to note that we made Suite compatible with the most trendy frameworks. As you may already guess, our library supports smooth integration with React, Angular, and Vue.js applications. Moreover, we added a sense of modernity by developing our Suite UI library in accordance with the Material Design guidelines.
Our JavaScript/HTML5 Gantt Chart becomes even smarter and more flexible. DHTMLX team put a lot of efforts to add new functionality, including:
- Time constraints for tasks
- Backward scheduling
- Managing multiple tasks by drag-and-drop
- Smooth zooming by mouse wheel
- Expanding & collapsing split tasks
- Specifying decimal units for the duration of tasks
- Scrolling the timeline via mouse click & drag
- MS Project link formatting, and much more.
This year our team made a dhtmlxGantt chart compatible with Salesforce. Thus, our users are able to create full-featured applications for project management with the help of the Salesforce Lightning component and DHTMLX Gantt chart.
DHTMLX Scheduler JavaScript event calendar allows adding custom HTML content for timeline cells, dragging & dropping events by the body and provides the RTL support. Scheduler 6.3 comes with enhanced UI/UX for mobile screens and polished compatibility with Suite 6 library.
Diagram library v2.2 allows creating custom types of shapes, building mixed diagrams and org charts, and exporting data to the JSON format. You can create new types of shapes, including Venn diagrams, UML class charts, network diagrams, life cycle charts, and much more. Have a look at our one-minute video overview to know more:
dhtmlxSpreadsheet received new powers and abilities with a minor update. The new v3.1 offers essential features for working with data in a more convenient way. Users are able to export files to and import them from Excel, set number formatting and auto-filling of cells.
In 2019 we rolled out a minor update of our JavaScript Pivot Table. The 1.4 version provides the ability to present grid data as a flat structure and export to CSV format.
And last but not least, our team developed Excel2Table, a library to convert Excel files to HTML tables. It allows you to place the tables directly on your website while preserving formatting. Besides, you can link HTML tables with the Excel file for dynamic data loading. Excel2Table is an open-source project, available on GitHub.
2019 was a quite eventful year for our DHTMLX team, and 2020 promises to be even more fruitful! Good luck and keep up the good work!
