Javascript Toolkit Comparison

With the increased demand of "WEB 2.0" features such as drag 'n drop, AJAX, and client-side processing, the need for a robust javascript library in uPortal 3 becomes more and more obvious. These pages are dedicated to discussion around the many available javascript libraries*. I will focus mainly on the 6 with the most hype currently: Prototype, Dojo, Mochikit, Yahoo! UI, Google, and JQuery. Feel free to add any others which might be worth considering. For a good article reviewing some of these libraries, visit sitepoint.com.

 

Prototype

Dojo

Mochikit

Yahoo!

Google

JQuery

Simple AJAX

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

Drag n Drop

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

Basic Visual Effects

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

Advanced Visual FX

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

Java integration

 

 

 

 

(plus)

 

Event handling

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

(plus)

Back button support with Ajax

 

(plus)

 

 

(plus)

 

Developer tools

 

 

(plus)

 

(plus)

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

Rated Features (0-4 stars)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minimal Learning Curve

(star)(star)(star)

(star)(star)


(question)

(star)(star)(star)

(red star)

(star)(star)(star)(star)

Ease of use (API)

(star)(star)(star)

(star)(star)

(question)

(star)(star)(star)

(red star)

(star)(star)(star)

Widget Collection (useful or not)

(star)(star)

(star)(star)(star)(star)

(star)(star)

(star)(star)(star)

(star)(star)(star)(star)

(star)

Documentation

(star)(star)(star)

(star)(star)

(star)

(star)(star)(star)(star)

(star)

(star)(star)

Developer Community

(star)(star)(star)

(star)(star)

(star)

(star)(star)(star)

(star)(star)(star)

(star)(star)

Refined UI effect examples

(star)(star)(star)

(star)(star)(star)

(star)

(star)(star)(star)(star)

(star)(star)(star)

(star)(star)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filesize Range (KB)

46-137

18-276

5-113

2-300

(question)

10-44

Licensing

MIT

AFL / BSD

MIT/AFL

BSD

Apache **

MIT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Demos

http://script.aculo.us

http://www.dojotoolkit.org/

http://www.mochikit.com/demos.html

http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/

GWT

http://www.jquery.com/demos

More Info

Prototype JS Library

Dojo JS Toolkit

Mochikit JS Toolkit

Yahoo UI Library

Google Web Toolkit

JQuery JS Library

Other JS libraries not evaluated here:

  • Zimbra Ajax TK (Kabuki)
  • DWR

* I will assume that the terms library, toolkit, and framework are inter-changeable. This may merit its own discussion page, just not here.
** Google offers its Java libraries under Apache license, but its Java to Javascript converter is proprietary.