Riot.js is officially described as a “React-like user interface micro-library”. So the JavaScript library is identical to React.js, a JavaScript UI framework maintained by a community of individual programmers and companies including Facebook and Instagram. Riot.js makes it easier for programmers to create frontend of websites. It further helps web programmer to curtail the amount of time and efforts required for building modern user interfaces (UIs) by directly calling JavaScript functions from the library. At the same time, Riot.js is designed specifically with features to reduce the boilerplate and unnecessary complexity associated with UI development.
Features that Make Riot.js an Efficient Client-Side Library
Custom Tags: While developing UI with Riot.js, programmers have option to create and reuse custom tags. They can even use the custom tags as building blocks for UI design. The custom tags can be created simply by combing HTML and JavaScript in the most appropriate way. These tags are further converted into JavaScript before the code is executed by the web browsers. As all web browsers support HTML and JavaScript, the custom tags can be used effectively for creating a variety of user interfaces.
Events: The programmers can use events to make the Riot.js web components communicate with each other seamlessly. The events can also be used to load the custom tags properly each time the web page is loaded. They can further pass the standard event object as the first parameter into the event handler. They can further normalize the event handlers across various web browsers by using properties like e.currentTag, e.target, e.which and e.item. Likewise, they can use conditionals to hide or show elements based on certain conditions.
Access to Document Object Model (DOM): While using Riot.js, programmers can access the DOM elements based on their name attributes. But the DOM elements are not instantiated till the update() event fired. So the programmers need to call the update() event before accessing or selecting any DOM element. They still have option to add context to the query to access DOM elements by mentioning the context in the root tag.
Virtual DOM: Like React.js, Riot.js also includes virtual DOM. The virtual DOM has the capability to update itself each time state changes. The framework compares the actual DOM and virtual DOM, and makes changes to the user interface quickly and efficiently. So any changes made to the user interface will reflect to end users almost instantaneously.
Router: The programmer can use Riot router to navigate through the web application. Despite working with major web browsers, the riot is implemented by the framework in a minimalistic way. It simply monitors the changes made to the URL hash (#). The developers can simply call; the riot.update() method to update all expressions on the page globally.
Isomorphic JavaScript: Riot.js makes it easier for programmers to use the same JavaScript development code on both client and server sides. It allows programmers to create custom tags that can be executed at the web server end. But they can still create the custom tags using HTML and JavaScript. While creating a custom tag, the developers simply has to specify whether it will be executed by the web browser or the web server.
Option to Format Rendered Text Values: The text values rendered by Riot expressions are not formatted by default. But the programmers can easily format the text values rendered by Riot expressions by creating custom tags. They can simply define the custom tags, and use them inside other tags to render formatted text to end users.
Despite being a mature JavaScript library, Riot.js is open source and free. So web programmers can use the framework to create frontend of websites without increasing project overheads. Also, Riot.js is being updated at regular intervals to meet the emerging trends in user interface development.
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