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This article discusses the good and the bad points
of using JavaScript in your website designs. It points out the areas
where JavaScript excels as a web based programming language and also
describes situations where its use can actually detract from the
performance of a website.
First of all, JavaScript is a browser based programming language
that actually runs client side. This means that any code that you write
in JavaScript is delivered along with your web pages and the scripts
that you write actually run from within the users' browser rather than
directly on the server that is serving the web page. There are
situations where JavaScript is an excellent solution for implementing
neat features in a web design but there are also situations where using
JavaScript can hurt your websites performance. It is my aim in this
article to describe the best ways to use JavaScript and how to
circumnavigate the downsides of using this versatile and powerful
scripting language.
JavaScript for Web Design - The Advantages
JavaScript is an excellent solution to implement when validating
input forms on the client side. This means that if a user forgets to
enter his name in a form for instance a JavaScript validation function
can popup a message to let him know about the omission. This is a far
better solution that having a server side validation routine handle the
error because the server does not have to do any additional processing.
An asp or php routine could be written to achieve the same task but the
JavaScript would not allow the form to be submitted unless it was
completed properly in the first place, a much more robust solution!
Another area where JavaScript excels is in the creation of dynamic
effects such as rollover images and scripted slideshows, where its use
has become commonplace. Because JavaScript runs inside the clients
browser it can be used to change the appearance of the users screen
after the page has been sent by the server. This allows it to create
some very impressive dynamic image effects.
JavaScript for Web Design - The Disadvantages
One of the major draw backs to using JavaScript is that it tends to
severely bloat web pages. JavaScript code can quickly add up to
hundreds of lines of code if you are using it to do anything even
remotely interesting. That said the problem of large chunks of
JavaScript code is easily solved by storing the JavaScript code off
into separate JavaScript source files that have a .js extension. This
cleans up your web page code because the JavaScript code is stored
separately to the HTML page itself, leaving a much cleaner and more
readable web page.
Because of JavaScript's tendency to bloat web pages it can be very
detrimental to the search engine friendliness of your web site. This is
because when a search engine arrives at your site looking for quality
content and keywords to determine what your page is al about, the last
thing it wants to see is hundreds of lines of JavaScript code. Again,
this problem is easily solves by neatly storing JavaScript code away in
script files with a .js extension and linking to the script file in
your HTML documents.
Conclusion:
JavaScript is a feature rich and useful browser based script that if
used properly can achieve some great effects and improve the experience
for the end user. There are drawbacks to its use in that it tends to
bloat web pages. The key thing to remember is to get the best of both
worlds by using JavaScript code in external script files. That way the
code is separated from your content so you get all the benefit of
JavaScript functionality but without the adverse effects of the
associated code bloating.
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