What You Need to Know About Web Development Frameworks

In the computer programming industry, a framework is defined as a software library that can be used in place of common code that provides generic functions. In these instances, frameworks are used to provide the user with specific functions. The main purpose of software frameworks is to allow designers and programmers to address software requirements instead of the low-level aspects of working systems. This has the effect of reducing development time of software applications. Programmers that are tasked to develop banking web sites for example can address the issues of account withdrawals instead of the inner workings of request handling and state management.

One of the most common criticisms levied against frameworks is that they tend to make code a lot more complicated than it should be. Furthermore, instead of the reduced development time claimed by its proponents, frameworks actually result in a more time consuming process since users will have to spend more time learning to use them. On the other hand, you only need to learn the framework once, after which any future projects will be a lot easier to accomplish. In most cases, the most effective frameworks are those that are based on common code of the project, as opposed to the generic frameworks developed for general applications.

The Application Programming Interface Or API

The API or Application Programming Interface is closely related to the framework, in that they allow certain software applications to interact with other software, in the same way that the user interface allows humans to interact with computers. APIs offer the advantage of fast implementation, and they are relatively easy to maintain. In addition, they provide users and web developers with a flexible means of two-way communication, which makes them ideally suited to web applications. Below are some of the most commonly used frameworks in today's programming scene.

Ruby on Rails

This is an open source web application framework that utilizes the Ruby programming language. It is intended primarily for use with Agile development methodology, and offers the benefits of rapid development.

Django

An open source web application framework, Django is written in Python and follows the model-view-controller architectural structure. Django was originally developed for the management of news web sites for The World Company.

Code Igniter

Code Igniter is an open source web application framework that is used for the development of dynamic web sites. Utilizing PHP, Code Igniter was released with goal of allowing developers a much faster means to set up certain projects.

CakePHP

CakePHP is an open source web application framework for web applications that is written in PHP. It is partly based on Ruby on Rails, and uses many of the same key concepts.

.NET

Developed by Microsoft,.NET Framework comes with an extensive library of coded solutions that allow developers to deal with a host of programming problems..NET is primarily run on Microsoft's IIS web server.

Struts

Apache Struts is a free open-source framework intended primarily for developing Java web applications.

JBoss

An open source framework solution, JBoss Application Server uses Java to offer cross-platform compatibility with any system that utilizes that programming language.

In addition to the frameworks listed above, there are a number of Javascript frameworks that are primarily intended to streamline Javascript development by dealing with inconsistency issues in the browser, and providing a more user friendly API.

jQuery

jQuery is a cross-browser library that focuses on the interaction between JavaScript and HTML. It is currently used in as many as 20% of the 10,000 biggest websites in the world, and is largely considered to be the most popular Javascript library around.

MooTools

MooTools is an open source object-oriented Javascript based framework that allows cross-browser compatibility in an elegant and flexible package. MooTools offers the benefits of a comprehensive and easy to use application programming interface.

Prototype

Prototype is a Javascript framework that offers a number of utilities including an Ajax framework. Although it is usually distributed as a standalone application, it is also commonly used in conjunction with Ruby on Rails and various other frameworks.

Much more information about frameworks can be found online and in programming books. There are websites, such as bestprogrammingbooks.net, that organize programming books by category, language, database etc.