This article offers no solutions to the poor state of umbrella technology. Rather, a different kind of umbrella is the topic today: a new JavaScript library called Umbrella.js.
The Umbrella.js library provides methods for manipulating a website’s document object model (DOM), handling events such as button clicks, and enabling fancy AJAX functionality. In other words, it provides much of the basic nuts and bolts needed to create interactive websites and web applications.
Umbrella.js replicates almost all of the methods of the tried-and-true jQuery library, and adds some new ones as well. The jQuery library has been in use for many years and is quite mature. Most experienced web developers know it backwards and forwards.
You might fairly ask, “Why do we need a library that does pretty much the same thing as another, established library?” Umbrella.js offers some interesting advantages:
$(.)
with u(.)
. This makes the library easy for experienced web developers to pick up and use.Along with the similarities with jQuery, there are some differences that developers should consider. Umbrella.js implements AJAX functionality differently, which will require developers to set aside some time to learn. Umbrella.js also offers no support for Microsoft browsers prior to Internet Explorer 11; this helps keep the size down.
Fortunately, the documentation for Umbrella.js is quite good, so developers should have no trouble giving the library a try for either experimenting or developing real applications.
Like jQuery, Umbrella.js is completely open-source under the MIT license, so given its advantages, we can expect a growing community of developers to further improve and refine the library while keeping its small-footprint principle.
By way of looking at the bigger picture, let’s consider what it means to have a small-footprint version of an existing, mature, trusted library. This is pure speculation at this point, of course, but here are a few possible outcomes.
Whatever happens in the future, for right now Umbrella.js seems to be a worthy companion to, if not competitor of, jQuery. It should stay that way as long as its developer community continues to support it and document it as it has done so far. So when a nice web app pops in your phone’s browser without an endless “Loading…” message, you just might have Umbrella.js to thank for it. Umbrella.js won’t keep you dry any more than a real umbrella will, but an Umbrella.js-powered weather app just might steer you out of the rain.