JavaScript Developer Tools

JavaScript is the backbone of the web and is consistently the most popular language among developers. It’s ease of use, extendability, and wide-ranging support makes it a flexible and relatively easy-to-adopt programming language. The number of available tools to help with JS development is another commonly-cited reason for its popularity. 

What are some of the most common JavaScript developer tools?

Browsers: both the Google Chrome and Mozilla teams have built and integrated a number of amazing tools to help develop, debug, and fix JavaScript.  

• Chrome: The DevTools features in Chrome are usually the first stop when testing or debugging JavaScript. Chrome’s DevTools view makes it easy to see and explore sources, add breakpoints, pause script execution, see function calls, actually fix code in real time, and much more. Chrome’s lighthouse testing tools is also excellent for seeing how JavaScript is affecting page speed and performance.
• Chrome Extensions: Chrome also has a rich ecosystem of extensions which can help JavaScript developers. A quick search of “JavaScript” yields quite a few useful extensions such as the ability to see what JavaScript is interacting with DOM elements, delete JS cookies, or debug specific frameworks, like React.
• Firefox: Firefox has always been committed to helping JavaScript developers. Firefox itself has an entirely separate developer version with many great features like a visual editor, performance metrics, and memory leak identification. Firefox’s normal browser has integrated the much loved firebug debugging tool and includes much of what the developer version has to offer. 

IDEs: Text editors have grown from simply formatting JavaScript code to much more. IDEs and editors like Atom, Sublime, Webstorm, Visual Studio, and others now have thousands of plugins and packages which can help with anything from refactoring to syntax checking to autocomplete. 

JavaScript Frameworks: While the majority of websites are built with platforms like WordPress or Drupal, the majority of web applications are built with some sort of JavaScript framework. These frameworks make developing, deploying, and maintaining applications much easier. With robust out of the box functionality, frameworks like React, Vue.js, and Angular help developers save time and ship better web apps. Also, because of their widespread use, JavaScript frameworks have large developer communities which contribute to improving the frameworks, help with issues, and create educational content. 

There are also hundreds of paid tools which serve to make the life of a JavaScript developer easier and less bug-prone. LogRocket, for instance, helps JavaScript developers debug code more quickly by showing exactly what a user did to trigger an issue. Get a free trial today.