Websites using Canjs

Okay, let s break down CanJS, covering its overview, revenue aspects (which are a bit nuanced), alternatives, pricing, and customer care considerations.

CanJS Overview

• What it is: CanJS is an open-source JavaScript framework designed to simplify building complex, data-driven web applications. It emphasizes conventions and a component-based architecture. Think of it as a well-structured toolkit for creating maintainable, scalable, and testable applications.

• Key Features & Philosophy:

  • Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture: Helps organize your code into logical sections (models for data, views for display, controllers for interaction). Promotes separation of concerns.
  • Data binding: Automatically updates the view when the data changes, reducing manual DOM manipulation. CanJS uses observable data structures.
  • Component-based: Encourages building applications out of reusable, self-contained components.
  • Template system (Mustache/Handlebars): Integrates with popular templating engines for rendering dynamic content.
  • Routing: Manages application state based on the URL, enabling navigation and deep linking.
  • Testing: Designed with testability in mind.
  • Plugins and extensions: Offers a variety of plugins to extend its functionality (e.g., for data persistence, UI widgets).
  • Real-time Updates: Plays very well with server-sent events and websockets.
  • Progressive Enhancement: CanJS is designed to work in browsers that support modern web standards, but can also be configured to support older browsers.

• Use Cases: Suitable for building:

  • Single-page applications (SPAs)
  • Web applications with complex data interactions
  • Real-time dashboards
  • CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) applications
  • Applications requiring strong data binding and componentization

Revenue

• No Direct Revenue: CanJS is open-source and completely free to use. There are no licensing fees.

• Indirect Revenue (via DoneJS): CanJS is a core part of the DoneJS framework. DoneJS is built on top of CanJS and provides a more complete application development platform, offering tools for build processes, testing, and deployment. The DoneJS framework provides a comprehensive application development platform, which includes commercial support.

• Sponsored by Bitovi: Bitovi, a software consultancy, is the primary sponsor and maintainer of CanJS. Bitovi derives revenue from:

  • Consulting services related to CanJS, DoneJS, and other JavaScript technologies.
  • Training and workshops on CanJS and related technologies.
  • Providing commercial support for CanJS and DoneJS (often as part of a larger DoneJS package).

Alternatives

Here s a breakdown of CanJS alternatives with a focus on their strengths and best-use cases:

• React:

  • Strengths: Huge community, vast ecosystem, virtual DOM for efficient updates, component-based, JSX syntax.
  • When to Use: Widely applicable, especially for UI-focused applications, large projects, and when a large community and many readily available libraries are important.

• Angular:

  • Strengths: Comprehensive framework, strong structure (TypeScript), dependency injection, two-way data binding, good for enterprise applications.
  • When to Use: Large, complex applications, enterprise projects where structure and maintainability are paramount, and teams familiar with TypeScript.

• Vue.js:

  • Strengths: Progressive framework (easy to adopt incrementally), simple API, virtual DOM, component-based, good performance.
  • When to Use: Projects of various sizes, especially when ease of learning, speed of development, and good performance are important. Great for SPAs and adding interactivity to existing websites.

• Svelte:

  • Strengths: Compiler-based (transforms code into highly optimized vanilla JavaScript at build time), excellent performance, no virtual DOM overhead, simple syntax.
  • When to Use: Performance-critical applications, projects where bundle size is a major concern, and when you want a different approach to framework design.

• Ember.js:

  • Strengths: Convention over configuration, highly opinionated, strong focus on productivity, excellent routing, Ember CLI (command-line interface).
  • When to Use: Large, ambitious projects, teams that value convention and productivity, and when a batteries included framework is desired.

• Backbone.js:

  • Strengths: Lightweight, flexible, provides basic structure (models, views, collections, routers), allows for more freedom in choosing libraries.
  • When to Use: Smaller projects, projects where you want more control over the architecture, and when you prefer a minimalist framework.

• Stencil:

  • Strengths: Focuses on building web components that can be used in any framework (or no framework), strong support for TypeScript, good performance.
  • When to Use: Building reusable UI components for multiple projects, creating design systems, and when you want framework-agnostic components.

Pricing

• CanJS: Free (open-source, MIT license).
• DoneJS: Pricing varies depending on the level of support, training, and consulting services required. Contact Bitovi for a custom quote. You can use DoneJS without commercial support, but you ll be responsible for your own support.

Customer Care Details

• CanJS:

  • Community Support:

    • GitHub: CanJS s source code and issue tracker are on GitHub. You can report bugs, request features, and contribute to the project.
    • Forums/Community: Check the CanJS website and Bitovi s website for links to community forums, Discord channels, or mailing lists.
    • Stack Overflow: Use the canjs tag on Stack Overflow for asking and answering questions.

  • Commercial Support (through Bitovi):

    • Bitovi offers paid support plans for CanJS and DoneJS. These plans typically include:
      • Priority support
      • Guaranteed response times
      • Consulting services
      • Training

  • Documentation:

    • CanJS has comprehensive documentation on its website. This is the primary resource for learning the framework. Bitovi also provides documentation for DoneJS.

Key Takeaways

• CanJS is a powerful, mature, and well-structured JavaScript framework, particularly suited for data-driven applications.
• It s free to use, but commercial support is available through Bitovi.
• Consider your project s needs and team s expertise when choosing between CanJS and its alternatives (React, Angular, Vue, etc.).
• The strength of CanJS comes from its conventions, component-based architecture, and strong data binding capabilities.
• DoneJS builds on CanJS to offer a more comprehensive platform, including build tools, testing, and deployment support.
• Check out the CanJS and DoneJS documentation and community resources to learn more.