JavaScript News and Updates (July 2020)

Greetings and salutations to JavaScript admirers and welcome to a new edition of our digest. During July, we’ve been closely following the developments/events in the Realm of JavaScript and gathered some interesting bits of news and are eager to share them with you.

Get ready to learn about the new feature from Google that will save the battery of your laptop when using Chrome, get a foretaste of a new DHTMLX code snippet tool, become familiar with the new JS library for Bitcoin’s sidechain, find out how innovative rules execution engine and performance monitoring technologies can benefit the JavaScript community, and discover how Facebook motivates people to search for bugs in its products. As a bonus, we will provide you with tips and articles, including useful materials from DHTMLX, to broaden your knowledge and skills in JavaScript.

Off we go!

New Tools and Updates

Google Works on Limiting JavaScript Timers in Chrome

Google seems to be very serious about improving the energy efficiency parameters of its popular Chrome browser. The company has already started working on measures against undisciplined ads that drain your PC’s battery and cause network congestion, and now it is time to address energy-consuming JavaScript timers in Chrome.

Google has developed a new flag feature that is expected to reduce the frequency of JavaScript timer wakeups in background web pages to 1 per minute, thereby significantly expanding the battery life of your laptop and not affecting user experience in Chrome. According to the published tech document, the Google team has already tested the flag feature with 36 various background tabs in Chrome 86.

The result proved the potential of this novelty to expand the battery life on devices using Chrome by up to 2 hours. This feature won’t impact websites or apps that utilize WebSockets or long polls to get messages or updates. Google plans to deliver its new flag feature together with the production/stable release of Chrome 86 that is coming very soon.

Meet New Code Snippet Tool From DHTMLX

Our Development team has always been working on ways to improve the experience of our customers in using DHTMLX products. This month we are excited to present to you the new code snippet tool. This handy instrument is designed to give web developers who just start using our libraries a better insight into the inner part/code part of our components and helps to apply our technologies when developing apps more efficiently.

How does it work? It is pretty straightforward. You just have to select the needed sample, specify the version of the product, and you can start exploring peculiarities of code written by our devs or experiment with it by introducing various changes and see how it affects the component on the fly. Apart from the learning aspect, our new product can also be extremely helpful in reporting bugs or technical issues to the DHTMLX support team or enhancing collaboration within the project team, as you can easily edit, save, and share snippets. Moreover, developers can also use this tool for creating snippets from scratch. Read our blog post to learn more about this new tool.

pTokens Presents JavaScript Library for Bitcoin’s Sidechain

pTokens, the start-up company specialized in the area of cryptocurrencies, has recently introduced an open-source JavaScript library LiquidJS that has been designed for the innovative sidechain of Bitcoin named Liquid Network, launched by Blockstream in 2018. According to the development team, the new library will facilitate access to the Liquid Network for external apps, becoming a big help for developers in interactions with the blockchain. Moreover, LiquidJS can also be utilized for simplified integration with wallets as well as convenient working with decentralized applications, financial instruments, and swaps. The pTokens team hopes that the library will give a boost to the development of the Liquid’s ecosystem and make it possible to transfer cryptocurrencies from other blockchains to the Liquid Network. According to Blockstream officials, the value of LiquidJS won’t be limited to currency transferring operations in the future.

Progress Presents New Rules Engine for JavaScript Apps

Progress, the major provider of advanced solutions for development and deployment of business apps, has recently unveiled a new rules execution engine named Corticon.js. This serverless technology is aimed to simplify and accelerate the process of creating, testing, and deploying rules to critical JavaScript apps. Using this novelty, it is possible to make use of sophisticated business rules across JS apps without coding. The new technology can be effectively applied in various industries such as financial services or insurance and help to reduce expenditures. If you want to become familiar with the capabilities and benefits of this product in more detail, read the release article.

Introducing New Performance Monitoring Technology for Python and JavaScript

Sentry, the start-up specialized in the development of bug-monitoring systems for application developers, has rolled out its new Performance Monitoring tool intended for apps written in Python and JavaScript. It is claimed that the new product enables programmers to detect and fix bugs much faster by detecting root causes of poor performing API calls and other errors in real-time using just a few lines of code. Thus, this technology will help developers to make apps high-performant, cut costs on “bug hunting”, prevent future performance issues, and keep end-users satisfied. Developers can test Performance Monitoring and estimate its benefits for free.

Facebook Promises Solid Money Rewards for Critical Bugs in Hermes and Spark AR

The American social network giant Facebook has increased the payout amounts within its bug bounty program. Potential bug hunters have a chance to gain up to $40,000 for critical vulnerabilities in the Hermes JS engine and the Spark AR platform used for the creation of fancy AR effects in the company’s products. The level of payments will depend on the impact of bugs on the operability of the mentioned technologies. With the growing popularity of AR effects among Facebook users, the company wants to exclude any serious vulnerabilities in this functionality and puts high hopes on the help of the bug bounty community. If you are interested in this undertaking, find more info on the payout amounts here.

Useful Tips and Articles

Visualize your Data with DHTMLX Diagram

DHTMLX Diagram is one of the most promising JavaScript libraries currently available in our product line. Using a convenient API of this intuitive diagramming tool, web developers can easily add various diagrams to web apps in a few lines of code. Moreover, our library allows implementing highly-customizable live editors (Org Chart Editor and Diagram Editor), strengthening your data visualization capabilities.

Thanks to the availability of the editing tools, end-users can build even complex diagrams on the fly, adjust their appearance, apply custom shapes, and automatically arrange them using the auto-layout feature. Check out our latest overview video and estimate the key features of the Diagram Editor.

Building UML Class Diagrams with DHTMLX Diagram library

Class diagrams are one of the most widely-used types of diagrams in UML as they vividly present the structure of a specific system by visualizing its different aspects. In software engineering, the UML class diagram is an indispensable tool when it comes to the development of complex applications. These diagrams give a clear picture of the application composition to the whole development team and translate the model into a programming code.

If you are looking for a simple and not time-consuming way to implement a basic UML class diagram for your project, you should consider the DHTMLX Diagram library. This versatile diagramming tool will help you to build class diagrams and other popular diagrams with minimal effort and utilize a wide range of customization capabilities. Read our step-by-step guide and learn how to create the class diagram for your project using DHTMLX Diagram without any difficulties.

Insight into JS Template Literals

Handling string hadn’t been considered as a strength of JavaScript before the release of the 6th edition of ECMAScript 2015 specification. ES6 added a lot of useful features to JavaScript, including a more advanced way of creating strings in JavaScript named a template literal.

This feature significantly simplifies the process of string concatenation, ensuring improved readability of JavaScript code. Moreover, template literals also bring in a lot of interesting things such as embedded expressions, string interpolation, and the capacity to define multiline strings. If you want to get a deeper insight into template literals and learn about tagged templates, read this informative article.

Handy Methods to Make the Best Use of JS Arrays

Arrays in JavaScript are special variables that allow web developers to place several elements in a single value with the help of special syntax. For instance, JS arrays include a variety of helpful methods that can significantly simplify the whole development process. The proper use of these methods can also facilitate the reduction of the development lead time and enhance the performance of the written code. If you want to exploit the capabilities of JS arrays to the utmost, get acquainted with 15 array methods.

Using SVG in React Apps

In recent years, React has become one of the most popular JavaScript frameworks (along with Angular and Vue.js) among web developers for building fast and efficient web applications. But React applications can become even more sophisticated thanks to the use of SVG. This vector graphic format is a great tool for creating advanced custom UI elements and it can be efficiently applied in React apps. Maciek Sakrejda from pganalyze has prepared a helpful article on how to do it properly.