By

The JavaScript core includes a number of functions that provide the following capabilities:

  • Store data in variables;
  • Activate a part of the code in accordance with certain scenarios that are carried out on the website page;
  • Create content that is updated automatically;
  • Manage multimedia capabilities (work with video, animate images).
  • Just a few lines of script code can do amazing things. That’s why the language is so popular among developers.

What is an API

But even more possibilities are provided by the functionality that is available as an add-on to the main components of Javascript. We are talking about application programming interfaces (APIs) that significantly expand the developer’s toolkit.

APIs are ready-made code modules that help a programmer to implement some complex tasks. Usually, such “blanks” are divided into browser-based and third-party APIs.

Browser APIs include:

  • DOM (Document Object Model) API.
  • Geolocation modules.
  • Canvas and WebGL APIs.
  • Audio and video APIs.
  • And third-party interfaces include, for example, the Twitter and Facebook social media APIs.

When we load a page in a browser, HTML and CSS are processed first, followed by scripts.

However, the language does not contain some useful tools. There are no:

  • A standard library.
  • Standard interfaces for working with servers and databases.
  • Systems for managing packages.

Where JavaScript can be used

JavaScript is processed in client-side web applications, i.e. in the browser. Thanks to this, it can run on any operating system, and web interfaces based on it are cross-platform.

Therefore, Javascript is widely used in such areas:

  • AJAX scripts are used in this well-known approach that involves asynchronous data exchange between the user’s browser and server resources.
  • Comet is a way of working of web applications when the server sends data to the browser without additional requests during an HTTP connection.
  • Browser OSes – the code of some browser operating systems, which mostly (sometimes more than 75%) consists of scripts.
  • Bookmarks – A javascript is widely used in the operation of a program that is placed in browser bookmarks.
  • Browser scripts are program modules that are written in this language and provide a lot of possibilities (autocomplete forms, change the format of pages, hide unwanted content, add interactive elements to pages).
  • Server-side applications are code snippets that run on the server side where Java 6 is used.
  • Mobile applications – Javascope can be useful in this popular direction as well.
  • Widgets – the language is used to write various mini-programs that are used in the workspace and are very convenient.
  • Application software – the object-oriented JS language is used to create individual programs, including simple games.
  • In addition, JavaScript is of great importance when learning to program.