Hi i'm a pretty experienced front end developer with excellent sass, less, css, javascript, jquery, html, grunt etc. Now when i want to achieve some interaction that can't be done in plain html, css i turn to jquery/javascript for user triggered events and ajax and this has served me well and still feels like the standard for web development. However i feel i need to learn a Javascript framework but i'm not sure what type of projects i would pick angular 2 over Jquery. Can i use it to build websites or is it just for apps? i was thinking of doing a portfolio site using angular but this seems over kill. Can someone shed some light on this with some examples

You may find these two stackoverflow questions useful:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14994391/thinking-in-angularjs-if-i-have-a-jquery-background

 

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29864588/comparing-javascript-vs-angularjs

Hi Adam,

 

I found myself asking myself a similar question. I wanted to learn a new framework but wasnt sure which one would be the one for me. I found a nice course on frontendmasters.com which helped me to pick.

 

It does require that you play but it is worth it.

I wouldn't use Angular 2 at all. It's unstable and the spec is continually changing. If you like the Angular way of working then stick with 1.x Otherwise I'd recommend looking at React, I very strongly believe and so do many major players in the field that the React way of doing things is where front-end is headed, if it's not React and something else comes along I would bet my bottom dollar it will be very heavily influenced by React.

 

Any of these frameworks can be used to build apps or websites, or even native apps in React's case. But there's absolutely no point in using framework just for the sake of it, it is a tool. You wouldn't use a hammer to insert a screw. So by all means learn a framework like React, and once you understand what it does and how it works then you will know when it's appropriate to use it, or when a little vanilla JavaScript might be more suffice.

Edited April 19, 201610 yr by rbrtsmith

Rob, I realise this is a highly subjective question, but how difficult or hard is it to pick up React as a beginner ? How much time/weeks/months would you say you'd need to invest to get a competent grasp of this ?

 

Like I say, I know this is super subjective but worth asking from an experienced hand like yourself.

It depends how good your JavaScript and DOM knowledge is. If both are solid React is quite minimal and can be learnt in a relatively short period of time. React only cares about the UI layer of your application, the state and business logic you write with plain old JavaScript or you handle those with other libraries like Redux for state.

Edited April 21, 201610 yr by rbrtsmith

It depends how good your JavaScript and DOM knowledge is. If both are solid React is quite minimal and can be learnt in a relatively short period of time. React only cares about the UI layer of your application, the state and business logic you write with plain old JavaScript or you handle those with other libraries like Redux for state.

 

Hey Rob,

 

Thank you so much for your swift reply!

 

I won't lie, I am very new to JavaScript itself though I have been taking a good look at what FrontendMasters provide in terms of training for it.

 

I will spruce up my JavaScript and DOM knowledge as I keep an eye on React which is kind of just ahead on the horizon so to speak for me.

@@Mazzuccato

 

I thought it would be better to answer your question in this thread instead as a status update.

 

What prompted me to learn React?

 

Last year I realised my front end knowledge wasn't at the level I wanted it to be at - everything moves so fast and front end is no longer simple html and css. In terms of javascript, I was "a bit of jquery and a lot of google-ing" type of developer.

Then I started learning - vanilla javascript, css preprocessors, task runners, node js, etc.

I am still learning, of course, always learning, like all of us.

 

The particular reason I am learning React right now is because I intend to use it to revive and expand an app I have been working on.

 

You're right, there are so many different technologies out there, more come out every day and you can get confused as to what you need next.

React and Angular have established themselves as useful frameworks that won't be just-another-thing-to-learn-because-everyone-else-is-doing-it and knowing either (or both) is a great advantage.

 

How difficult it is?

 

As with everything else, there is a learning curve. You need to have a decent knowledge of javascript, command line, task runners, bit of node, etc, so you are aware of how the whole thing works together.

 

I haven't gone too far with course yet, from what I have seen so far, it's not overcomplicated and not too difficult to get your head around React.

 

Angular or React? I want to get a feel of how both work, to be familiar with both of them, so I can understand for myself the purpose of each one and what can be done with them. Additional courses, like NoSQL databases, MongoDB in particular, are also great to go through.

 

Difficult to say how long it would take to learn something, I'd just pick something and start learning and practising, the more you practise, the more you understand it

 

hth

Hey Teodora!,

 

Thank you for your detailed reply. I greatly appreciate it.

 

I see, you are or were working on an old app, OK makes perfect sense.It helps explain a lot and your perspective on it and the way you are approaching it.

 

Yes, there was a time when I first looked at html or css or javascript or php or whatnot and be dumbfounded! Fortunately I am no longer at this stage but like you say, there is always something you seem to learn or discover new as you go along.

 

 

Reading between the lines, you appear to like or recommend the frontend masters series courses so I will hopefully check these out in due course when I am ready for this kind of stuff.

 

Have an awesome Friday!

Here's the React course I am taking - https://reactforbeginners.com/

 

Codeschool.com have good courses on various languages, tools and frameworks - https://www.codeschool.com/ Their javascript path is worth it, along with other courses, like the one on MongoDB. I like how their courses can be taken as a standalone items or in conjunction with other courses, for example the MEAN stack path - https://www.codeschool.com/mean

 

Front end masters is great and well worth it! Great workshops from industry top experts. I love Kyle Simpson's courses

Thank you so much Teodora! You are super helpful!

 

Yes I have had a brief peep around the various course providers out here, codeschool, team treehouse, and frontend masters seem some of the more higher end better quality courses you can study and view with pleasure. Pluralsight seem another good quality provider as well! I think they merged with Trainsignal or something ?

 

 

Course providers like Udemy are on the low end quality wise and more often than not, are of sub standard quality and quite often feature poor audio or visual performance. Lynda are 'good' though often cover the basics than to go indepth like team treehouse might.

 

I have got your suggestions above noted!

 

Many thanks!

While it's worth learning both Angular and React I can say I will never build a new project in Angular again, I don't normally ditch tools, but angular tries to be the super multitool whereas React is just the UI and then that can be paired with other tools to build your application.

 

The way Angular tries to deal with state overtime is really poor in comparison to React. There's a whole bunch of other reasons too. Angular also takes way longer to learn as it's so monolithic - there's a directive for everything, whereas with React when you wish to solve things you just use JavaScript, and with our friend NPM a useful module / abstraction is only an 'NPM install' away.

 

Be prepared to spend many, many hours learning JavaScript before you're ready for React. I probably spent a good 500+ hours learning and working with JavaScript before I was ready to start looking at React.

Edited April 22, 201610 yr by rbrtsmith

I appreciate your input on this. I will sure as heck check out both React and Angular within the confines of what you wrote above in terms of Angular being a detriment in the manner you describe.

 

I can bet this is going to mean many an hour learning the stuff over many months no doubt.

Edited April 23, 201610 yr by Mazzuccato

For now forget about Angular and React / any other framework. Spend time just with JavaScript. If you don't understand closure, prototypes hoisting and a bunch of other things including raw DOM manipulation you're not yet ready for a front-end framework.

For now forget about Angular and React / any other framework. Spend time just with JavaScript. If you don't understand closure, prototypes hoisting and a bunch of other things including raw DOM manipulation you're not yet ready for a front-end framework.

 

I agree with you on this.

 

I will focus on JavaScript for now.