Ember.js and its usability

Time is valuable, which is why it’s vital to have tools that are not only enjoyable to use, but that let you spend your time creating features and helping your customers. According to developers, that’s Ember - it helps to make better things faster, whether you are working on a small project or big, alone or with a team. So, today we are going to highlight some importance of Ember.js and explain why you should use Ember, and how it can impact you.

So, let's get started -

Ember.js, the original name was SproutCore MVC framework, is an open source, free JavaScript client-side framework used for developing web applications. It allows building client-side JavaScript applications by providing a complete solution which contains data management and an application flow.

It was developed by Yehuda Katz and initially released on in December 2011. The stable release of Ember.js is 3.4.1 and this was released on August 27, 2018; 29 days ago.

Ember.js, the framework is designed “for creating ambitious web applications. Not only single-page web applications (SPAs) but desktop and mobile apps, too. Apple Music is one of the most notable examples of an app built with Ember - a music streaming service that’s able to support millions of users.

Ember.js has the following core concepts −

Router

The URL loads the app by entering the URL in the address bar and user will click a link within the app. The Ember uses the router to map the URL to a route handler. The router matches the existing URL to the route which is then used for loading data, displaying the templates and setting up an application state.

Models

The route handlers render the model that persists information to the web server. It manipulates the data stored in the database. The model is the simple class that extends the functionality of the Ember Data. Ember Data is a library that is tightly coupled with Ember.js to manipulate with the data stored in the database.

Components

The component controls the user interface behavior which includes - a template which is written in JavaScript, and a source file which is written in JavaScript that provides the behavior of the components.

Templates

Templates are a powerful UI for the end-users. Ember template provides user interface look of an application which uses the syntax of Handlebars templates. It builds the front-end application, which is like the regular HTML. It also supports the regular expression and dynamically updates the expression.

Features of Ember.js

Bindings

The binding is a powerful feature of Ember.js which helps to create a link between two properties and if one of the properties gets changed, the other one is updated automatically.

The future

The JavaScript future, that is. With the help of the Babel JavaScript transpiler, Ember allows developers to use future JavaScript standards and transpile them for use in browsers today. Generally, compiling speaks to transforming source code into another language that can be very different, while transpiring refers to transforming code into another language that’s similar, e.g. between versions of JavaScript.

Node.js and npm

Ember CLI uses Node.js run time and npm to get the dependencies. Node.js is an open source, used for developing server-side and networking applications. It is written in JavaScript. NPM is a node package manager used for installing, sharing and managing the dependencies in the projects.

Ember Add-ons

This is Ember’s plugin repository, contributed to by the Ember.js developer community. It’s got everything you need. Other plugins in the add-ons library include tools for JSON APIs, caching, AJAX requests, and autocomplete functionality.

Ember Templates

Built into that beautiful UI are Ember’s templates, which are written with the Handlebars templating language. Handlebars are named for its use of double curly brackets and it allows developers to use way less code. Templates make a lot of features possible in Ember, like Components, Outlets, and Expressions. Templates are also automatically updated if anything changes to their underlying data. That’s because within Ember’s MVC architecture, its templates are backed by models, and they support data binding. Updates to the model are immediately reflected in the template, with no extra work.

Ember-CLI

Ember and Ember-CLI are two different things entirely, but neither would be totally whole without the other. Ember-CLI is a command line utility that comes along with the Ember framework’s software stack. For the non-developer, a CLI, or a command line interface, is a simple visual interface that lets humans interact with a computer’s operating system. Ember-CLI is a productivity rocket ship, with support for tools like CoffeeScript, Handlebars, LESS, and Sass. Ember also comes with the option to use other components of its software stack including Ember Data, a data library, and Ember Inspector, a testing extension for debugging apps.

Dev Tooling

Of course, Babel is just one part of the Ember toolchain. When you use ember-cli - the official command line interface for Ember - you gain a host of other productivity-enhancing tools for free.

The first of these is Broccoli.js - a highly efficient build system that can concatenate, transpire, and minify your code. Ember’s integration with Broccoli sets up the most common tasks for you. Next up is the combo of JSHint, testing, and LiveReload. JSHint and LiveReload integrations succeed by placing the libraries directly into the build process. So when you change a piece of code, it triggers a Broccoli rebuild, which then triggers a browser refresh. Within seconds you can see the result of your work, just by hitting save. There’s more wonderful stuff baked into ember-cli.

Views

Views represent particular parts of your application (the visual parts that the user can see in the browser). A View is associated with a Controller, a Handlebars template and a Route. The difference between views and templates can be tricky. You will find yourself dealing with views when you want to handle events or handle some custom interactions that are impossible to manage from templates.

Controllers

Ember Controllers are routable objects meant to decorate a model with display logic. They sit between the template and model to deal with logic and properties that do not belong to the view or the model. When you have a property that needs to be in the template but doesn't exist in the model, you can place it the controller. The controller can also be used to make model data more readable to the user.

Stability Without Stagnation

Ember can give you the productivity benefits, the dev tooling, and the ecosystem, as well as the features in the framework itself. Ember gives deprecation warnings in earlier minor versions. If you’ve cleared those deprecation warnings in the last version of the series, then you should be able to transfer without incident. So you’re able to upgrade to a major version without anything breaking.

Community

There are amazing community contributors who are working hard to make it as easy as possible to follow web best practices, and they created a set of tools referred to as ember-a11y.

Why use Ember.js?

• Consider the following points to understand the use of Ember.js −

• Ember.js is an open source JavaScript framework under the MIT license.

• It provides the new binding syntax using the HTMLBars template engine which is a superset of the Handlebars templating engine.

• It provides the Glimmer rendering engine to increase the rendering speed.

• It provides the Command Line Interface utility that integrates Ember patterns into the development process and focuses easily on the developer productivity.

• It supports data binding to create the link between two properties and when one property changes, the other property will get upgraded with the new value.

Ember.js installation

You can easily configure the Ember.js in your system. By using the Ember CLI (Command Line Interface) utility, you can create and manage your Ember projects. The Ember CLI deals with different kinds of application asset management such as concatenation, minification, and versioning.

 

Lastly, Ember sets itself apart by collecting the best practices internally. It can also speed up the process of moving developers between projects. By keeping your tech stack consistent and coherent, Ember can help make your organization more agile and better equipped to handle change. By building on the shoulders of giants, Ember helps you tackle more ambitious challenges than your resources would otherwise allow.

There are lots of ways to get started using it - we’d recommend this for beginners, or for intermediate developers. You’re starting to get an idea of how it can fit into your own workflow. You can always check out Ember.js tutorial. Try Ember - the first level is free so give it a try!

You can share your experiences with us in the comment section. Thank you!