AppSuite:UI developer primer

What you should know

This article explains the languages and frameworks used within the AppSuite frontend. It is aimed at developers that want to work with the frontend, be it creating new plugins or applications or modifying existing code.

Basics

• JavaScript: No surprise there, the AppSuite frontend is written in JavaScript. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQVTIJBZook
• HTML5 & CSS3. http://caniuse.com/

Frameworks

• jQuery: JQuery is used for document handling and manipulation. http://jquery.com/
• backbone.js: Backbone is our Model-View-framework of choice. http://backbonejs.org/
• underscore.js: Underscore provides easy and consistent functional tools, like map, select and invoke. http://underscorejs.org/
• Twitter Bootstrap: Frontend Framework, helps building responsive designs. http://twitter.github.io/bootstrap/
• require.js
• Modernizr

Theming

• less.js: LESS extends CSS with dynamic behavior. http://lesscss.org/

Recommended reading

• Talks To Help You Become A Better Front-End Engineer In 2013: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/12/22/talks-to-help-you-become-a-better-front-end-engineer-in-2013/
• Designing Better JavaScript APIs: http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2012/10/09/designing-javascript-apis-usability/
• Subscribe: JavaScript Weekly. http://javascriptweekly.com/
• Subscribe: HTML5 Weekly. http://html5weekly.com/
• Good articles: http://www.html5rocks.com/en/