Web Development Tools - Essay Example

WEB DEVELOPMENT TOOLS Web Development Tools Author Author Affiliation Date Introduction This paper presents a comparative analysis of three different application development frameworks: Express. JS (for node. JS/JavaScript), Ruby on Rail (for ruby) and Grails (for groovy). This paper discusses the basic working of these frameworks such as how they handle template, database access, and integrate automatic builder’s tool. According to the MVC (Model View Controller), these frameworks have something else with the replacement of the controller. Express. JS Express.js is a framework, which is used to build web applications on the server side with the integration of MVC (model view controller) pattern. It is a framework for node.js. In express.js, an application can be built using several languages for instance, EJS (Effective JavaScript) and some other languages. Additionally, there exist a large number of editors that can be used for node.js with express.js framework, however, one of the most commonly used editor is webstorm (the smartest JavaScript IDE). The use of express.js allows developers to develop secure and fast applications with the confidence that there will not be any SQL injection from the hackers. In addition, Node.js language is a very flexible tool, since it was introduced for ease of use and good programming features. Though, it is not a MVC framework, however, if a developer wants to develop an application by following the pattern of MVC, they should develop it as a relation in the stack. Because of these features, the majority of developers recommend the use of this framework (StackOverflow, 2012; Gesoulis, 2015; Hahn, 2014). Any template can be embedded within express.js that has a relation with directory path, locals and callback signatures. If there is a template that cannot be integrated with express.js framework, it can be integrated with consolidated.js (ExpressJS, 2015). Given below is a list of template engine, which is supported by express.js (Beschastny, 2013): Handlebars Jade Ejs There are some other template engines, which support express.js. The list is given below (GitHub, Inc., 2015): Atpl JUST Walrus(website) Htmling Mustache The MVC patterns working in almost every application are mostly built on the MVC pattern, it means each application has a controller that is responsible for controlling the entire application. Express.js introduces a new alternative at the place of controller, which is known as ‘routing’. This routing characteristic of express.js is similar to the controller of MVC. With routers, web applications can be handled more easily. The advantage of this routing is that the developers can develop applications in their own way (StackOverflow2, 2012). Though, Express.js is not believed to be effective in dealing with the databases however, there are some third party tools, which provide facilities that a developer can use to connect a database with express.js. There are some modules, which can be used for creating a connection between the application and the database (ExpressJS2, 2015). Morgan Passport Vhost Csurf Errorhandler Express.js can be integrated with the database. However, developer have to run the driver of Nods.Js in an application for storing data in the database. There are following types of node modules that can be used by developers in an application to store data in the databases (ExpressJS3, 2015): Leveldb MySQL MongoDB SQLite Redis Ruby on Rails Ruby on Rails (For Ruby) is an open-source web development framework that is used to create a powerful application (Rubyonrails1, 2015). In this scenario, Rails framework work with ruby languages. With this framework, the developers have to write less code, and can create sustainable web applications that are secure. Ruby on Rails framework also works on the principle of MVC (Model View Controller) framework. Ruby on Rails framework comes with two main points or guiding principles. First of all, a developer must elaborate the application domain and also elaborate that what can be happened to this domain (Tutorialspoint, 2015). Another most interesting feature of Rails is that it is the mixture of three other languages. These three languages are Smalltalk, pearl and python. With rails framework, a user can build an application10 times faster than developed with java framework. Rails is also an open source tool for working with ruby languages. It is a full stack framework that can use database embedded applications, which can follow the MVC (Model View Controller) pattern. In other words, the developers can write less code on every stage or on every step in the programming along with the database connection. Some of the major characteristics of this framework are discussed below (Tutorialspoint, 2015). Other languages do not provide considerable support for Meta programming, while ruby on rails is capable of generating the code. So the major advantage is that the developer writes less and gets more. With the same principle of ruby, rails also provide the facility of Meta programming. Saving objects in database is another great feature introduced in Rails that was active record. There is no need for too much configuration, if developers follow the naming convention of ruby. While other programming languages, like java and .NET do not work perfectly till the developers write the configuration files of the respective languages. Conventions over configuration means there is no need to write special configuration, just naming conventions are fine. This framework comes with a Scaffolding feature, which allows developers to write special temporary code for checking whether the application is working with other component perfectly or not. There is another built-in feature for testing the code and the correctness of code according to the given requirements or criteria. There are three default modes that can be used during the development of applications: these are, development environment, testing environment and production environment. There are several ways in which Rails handle the programming templates with the help of Rails engine. Some of the best engines are listed below: ERB ERB is a default template engine for the development of web applications. ERB stands for embed Ruby. It actually takes a commonly used html along with the ruby code. Rails works with different languages and helps the developers to develop dynamic applications (Ruby-Toolbox, 2015). HAML HAML (Hyper Text Markup Language Abstraction Markup Language) is a way introduced for rails framework in which a developer can design the structure of documents without repeating part of the documents. And the other benefit is that there is an indentation concept instead of closing tags. SLIM SLIM is another template engine, which is used to handle templates by reducing the necessary text from the syntax. Rails also follow the MVC pattern, and there is also a controller in Rails framework (Tutorialspoint, 2015). In fact, this controller is believed to be a main part of any rails application. Controller is also known as Action controller in the context of Rails. All the data is handled using the Ruby DBI (Database Independent Interface) module in this framework. These DBI modules provide interface for accessing the database. Database independent Interface can provide interface with the following databases (Rubyonrails, 2015): Oracle PostgreSQL SQLite SQLRrelay Grails (for Groovy) Java platform offers several frameworks, one of them is “Grails” that is a very powerful framework having the ability to work with some default APIs, and the other great feature is the convention over configuration. Java virtual machine can be integrated with Grails framework. Meta programming and asynchronous programming are also handsome features of Grails. Grails supports several plugins, which enhance its ability of work or enhance its features. For restrictions, rendering or querying, grails support domain specific languages (Grails, 2015). Old name of grails is “groovy on grails” but now a days it is known as Grails. Grails is introduced for groovy. Groovy is programming language like ruby. Groovy is used to build web applications that can run on java virtual machine (Thivent, 2009). Grails can handle any type of template with some special plug-ins, which support Grails framework (Grails-Plugins.Github, 2015). Grails also works on the MVC pattern. In grails, the controller actually handles the complete application using model and view. In grails, a controller is defined or can be identified with a class that ends with the convention of controller and at the place of controller in the application (Grails.Github, 2015). Every dynamic language can make connection with the database for saving the data that is used in an application. For this purpose, languages must have a connection with one database for storing the critical data. Similarly groovy allows developers to create connection between application and database. And the main feature of grails is that it can be connected with two databases at a time. If the developers using the grails 2.0 version or higher then they can connect two database simultaneously (StackOverflow3, 2015). In addition, developers can connect with MySQL to grails intellij IDE. Two methods are available for connecting the MySQL database with grails framework that can be used for building applications. One method is that edit the configuration file for the connection with MySQL. And other method is to use the drivers in a way that framework can put these drivers in the grails application library directory (Marco, 2013). Grails have automated system that is out-of-box, which helps to run application code, compile, test, and deploy it to tomcat while working with any application. This automated system can be built on Gant. Gant is a Groovy DSL over ant (StackOverflow4, 2011). There are some other plugins which can be used for automated builds, such as Gradle Plugin (Johnrengelman, 2015). Conclusion In conclusion, this paper has presented an analysis of three different web application tools. This paper has presented a comparative analysis of three different application development frameworks: Express. JS (for node. JS/JavaScript), Ruby on Rail (for ruby) and Grails (for groovy). This paper has discussed the basic working and features of these tools. All these tools provide effective support and a variety of features for the application development. However, the selection of each tool completely depends on the requirements of an application. For instance, if a developer wants to connect two databases with an application then the selection of Grails tool will be an appropriate option. In the same way, other requirements should be kept in mind while choosing a tool. References Beschastny, L. (2013, 12 15). Express 3.x best layout implementation (template engines). Retrieved from http://stackoverflow.com/: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20592278/express-3-x-best-layout-implementation-template-engines dougwilson. (2015, May 18). strongloop/express. 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Template engine consolidation library for node.js. Retrieved from https://github.com: https://github.com/tj/consolidate.js?_ga=1.131868559.1689633074.1442602429 Grails. (2015, September 21). A powerful Groovy-based web application framework for the JVM. Retrieved from https://grails.org/: https://grails.org/ Grails.Github. (2015, September 21). Controller Usage. Retrieved from http://grails.github.io: http://grails.github.io/grails-doc/2.2.1/ref/Controllers/Usage.html Grails-Plugins.Github. (2015, September 21). Resources Plugin - Reference Documentation. Retrieved from http://grails-plugins.github.io: http://grails-plugins.github.io/grails-resources/ Hahn, E. (2014, March 05). Understanding Express.js. Retrieved from http://evanhahn.com/understanding-express/ Johnrengelman. (2015, February 15). Grails/grails-gradle-plugin. Retrieved from https://github.com/: https://github.com/grails/grails-gradle-plugin Marco. (2013, March 23). 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