JavaScript

From IndieWeb


JavaScript (JS) is a programming language used for progressive enhancement on IndieWeb sites, sometimes in web servers running [[node.js], and unfortunately also abused for fragile [[js;dr] sites that fail in various conditions like poor connectivity or being archived by the Internet Archive.

Libraries

Generally useful libraries being developed by IndieWeb participants that run in Javascript:

Criticism

Sites break without Javascript

Javascript seems to have engendered web development methodologies that depend on it. Many sites seem to break without it, become inaccessible.

Although it is unlikely that visitors of your site still use a browser that does not support javascript as a technology, there are situations in which this is relevant to you as a webmaster.

See also: antipatterns

More Fragile Than HTML

Many sites now depend on Javascript to generate the page in a browser, rather than generating the page on the server and sending HTML. This is a more fragile approach:

Breaks Browser User Features

JS breaks links in new tab

As illustrated by: https://twitter.com/gabrielgironda/status/721115498474270721

DEAR #FRONTEND DEVELOPERS: PLEASE STOP MAKING SITES WITH LINKS I CAN'T COMMAND-CLICK TO OPEN IN A NEW TAB. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU

JS breaks form submission UI

As described by “Modern” web design antipatterns:

I press Enter, and nothing happens. So I click the submit button – which is, as it turns out, a <div> with attached JavaScript. That JavaScript changes the <div> text to “please wait…” and then it sends off an asynchronous API request. When it gets the response from the server, it then changes the location URL in my browser.

Congratulations on reimplementing <form> the long way around!

JS breaks select menu keyboard UI

Ibid:

I clicked on it, and tried typing “wa” – and nothing worked. It didn’t jump down to “Washington.” It didn’t even jump to “Washington” then back to “Alaska.” Oh, and of course cursor keys didn’t work either – I had to use my mouse to scroll and click and this hurts my wrist and is slow and error-prone. […]

Because it turns out that the dropdown box, rather than being a <select>, was a fucking <div> with JavaScript to set the value. And doesn’t have any keyboard access. For bonus points, they invented some HTML tags like <dropdown> to contain it. Why?! Standards exist for a reason!

Can Encourage Bad Engineering

A smiling guy labeled DEVELOPERS wearing an untucked light blue polo shirt and teal pants pouring a massive jug (the size of his torso) of olive oil labeled JAVASCRIPT into a medium sized bowl of salad labeled WEBSITE

As summarized by: https://twitter.com/fox/status/716879915333750784

I have seen the worst engineering in my career lately and I have one message:

STOP TRYING TO WRITE EVERYTHING FRONT-END IN JAVASCRIPT

Instead: Use JavaScript only for progressive enhancement.

See Also

Open Source IndieWeb related projects and tools
Topics Why open source?How to open source a projectOpen for contributionsIndieWeb Principles
PHP b2evolutionCASSISKnownFalcon (portions) • p3kstapibasdobradoGravMiniflux-legacyprocesswireReader SelfTextpatterntt-rssTwyneTYPO3
WordPress (PHP) Indieweb PluginWebmentionSemantic LinkbacksMicropubIndieAuthPost KindsSyndication LinksWebSub pluginsSee Template:WordPress for others.
Python Bridgy FedBeautifulSoupBleachBundledjango CMSIndieWeb SearchIndieWeb Utilskakumf2utilNefelibataninkaPublpython-indiewebRed WindRequestsronkyuuWoodwind
Ruby Dark MatterFeedbinFrancisCMSMicropublishPublifyRuby on RailsSinatraSingulusTransformativewebmention.ioJekyll
JavaScript AerosolCMSCASSISGhostCamelIndieKitEleventy
Others Hugo (Go) • FirefoxNetNewsWire