Vue.js — a progressive framework for web application development

Web development has undergone significant advancements in recent years, from which your medical business can draw the best — all to deliver an interactive, user-friendly, and visually pleasing digital solution in a quick and cost-effective time frame. 

Many Javascript frameworks exist today to facilitate the developers' work by providing a backbone for smoother web application engineering. This article will focus on one of such backbones (aka framework) — Vue js. Maybe it will be the number one choice for solving your digital business challenges?

Vue.js is an open-source incrementally-adoptable JavaScript framework built from the ground up for developing UI on the web and powering sophisticated SPAs. 

By bringing together the best of Angular and React frameworks, Evan You created the most progressive framework around, officially released in 2014, which is still considered one of the lightest frameworks to begin with and adapt to [1]. 

While startups prefer it to fast-track MVP development, enterprise-level companies favor it for the simplicity of integrating with existing systems.

The JS foundation and flat learning curve have contributed to establishing  Vue as a sought-after frontend solution, favored by such world-known projects as Behance, Gitlab, Adobe, Alibaba, Livestorm, Upwork, Xiaomi, and others. 

So, what other perks does the framework incorporate?

Vue.js adheres to a component-based architecture that allows a frontend code to be separated into independent components. 

These components can be based on CSS, JavaScript, and HTML. At the same time, a developer does not need to generate individual files for each element — the framework splits the CSS, JavaScript, and HTML code automatically.

Such a code-splitting approach brings in the following benefits for developers, making the entire process of web app delivery more seamless with hassle-free further maintenance:

A Document Object Model (DOM) represents HTML pages containing the data about its elements, components, and page content by forming DOM objects arranged in a tree structure. A browser leverages this structure when rendering pages.

But the problem is that with each user request, updating the entire DOM tree can affect the performance of your feature-rich web solution. Therefore Vue.js uses a virtual DOM (an actual replacement of the real one) that refreshes selected components rather than re-rendering the whole DOM.

Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) architectural pattern split the View part (UI) from its Model part (logic). Vue.js focuses on the ViewModel part of this entire architecture and thus unites View and Model through a two-way communication approach — or, to put it another way, two-way data binding. 

As a result, when a developer modifies data within the Model or View layer, the framework will update the data on the other layers, creating code synchronization and ensuring data consistency. It is absolutely essential for time and money savings during further app testing.

The possibility to incorporate new functionality into your existing applications is worth its weight in gold these days. Vue.js supports many third-party libraries and needs only JavaScript for deployment, allowing developers to scale a solution by introducing new tech without significant loss of time.

As for the module bundler's choice for the Vue development environment, doubts often emerge: Webpack or Vite (also launched by Evan You)? While Vite has been considered a "killer" of Webpack recently for its speed advantage, some developers are not in a hurry to switch to the Vite tool because of the reduced customization possibilities.

In addition to extensive developer support and rich documentation to assist in answering challenging issues, the framework is relatively easy-to-learn, making it a worthy alternative to Angular and React. Or is it? 

Let's move on to a brief comparison of the three frameworks with Vue.js as a mixture of the first two.

Vue combined the peculiarities of Angular (syntax, simplicity) and the best parts of React (two-way data binding, component-based approach), becoming a worthy alternative to both of them. 

While each of them is component-based and aims to create UI quickly, these frameworks have their differences, the main of which implies:

Angular requires a steep learning curve (for example, related to necessary TypeScript deepening). On the contrary, although it presents a few challenges, especially learning the JSX syntax, React demands less effort and time to master.

When it comes to a framework size, it is worth mentioning that the size of the libraries is crucial because it determines runtime. So, Angular has the most significant size at 500KB; React comes second at 100KB, followed by Vue at 80KB, the lightest.

Moreover, there are vast Vue alternatives for libraries. For example, Vue alternatives for React libraries are Nuxt.js (alternative for React Next.js) or Gridsome (alternative for React Gatsby.js). It lets developers be more flexible in choice and meet an application's needs on a pinpoint basis.

Although Vue has an impressive community base, as mentioned above, React and Angular come out as winners in this phase of the comparison, primarily due to the support from Facebook and Google, respectively. 

Angular is a fully-fledged "TypeScript-based" framework. At the same time, React includes Javascript libraries, while Vue is a progressive Javascript framework.

So, which to choose? The answer is simple — it all goes down to the business requirements and the time and money resources you are willing to put into delivering a medical solution.

Even though Vue.js tries to stand up to its giant competitors, it continues to evolve significantly with a launch of a new version in September 2020 — Vue 3.0.

There are no particular syntax changes, so developers won't have to "retrain" with the transition from Vue 2.0 to Vue 3.0. 

Still, the Vue 3.0 is a supercharged Vue 2.0 version that incorporates even more perks:

Thus, Vue 3.0 is intended for developing more complex and feature-rich UIs for a fully-fledged web application delivery both within SMEs and enterprise-level businesses.

Vue is considered an excellent choice for designing interactive animated UIs for the web in a fast-delivery context. However, it is not a one-size-fits-all solution that will suit every business. 

It is worth considering reliability and scalability to package your ideas into a future-proof digital healthcare solution. If you'd like to discuss your technology choices in more detail and successfully implement your business plans, our Medtech team is here to help — Let's talk.

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