Top 4 Package Managers for Web App development

Benny Alexander May 22, 2017 0 comments

Developers need to factor in a lot of third party dependencies when building a web application.  A Package Manager helps to streamline the latest versions of assets like plugins, libraries, frameworks, and utilities so that the development is quicker and in line with expected outcomes. The top 4 package managers for web app development that add immense value to a developer’s life include –

1 – Grunt – The JavaScript task runner is a great tool to automate routine and repetitive tasks that take up much of the efforts of the developer. Some examples would be minification (shortening the code for improving the responsiveness of the app), linting (checking code for potential issues or errors), or unit testing (checking and validation of smallest testable part of a software). Since these require a lot of efforts and time, the Grunt package manager can improve development time and enhance accuracy.

2 – Webpack – This module bundler converts all modules with dependencies into static assets that denote these modules. It ensures quicker load time with the help of features like code splitting (loading only the necessary code required at a specific time or trigger), extensive plugin library, and smart parsing (can process almost any 3^rd party library). The on-demand loading also reduces calls to serve and loads the page quicker, thus improving the user experience on the web app.

3 – Gulp – This toolkit allows you to streamline your workflow, make the development process faster, and ensure quicker delivery of the product. It removes the need to repeatedly compile stylesheet and JavaScript with every update made to the code. The master gulpfile.js ensures that almost any routine task during development can be automated. By programming a ‘watch’ for specific triggers like changes to style sheets, gulp can automatically re-compile the code.

4 – npm – Touted as the world’s largest software registry with 450,000 packages of reusable and free codes, this package manager for javascript ensures multiple advantages.  You can now easily re-use node.js  libraries to implement specific functionality in your web app with the help of npm (node package manager). You can not only install code, you can also share and distribute code to elevate the cross-team productivity within your organization.

Stay tuned as we bring to your inbox more such popular tools and software development resources that can ease your work and ace your customer service delivery experience.

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