Rendering large volumes of information is a crucial requirement for many website features, for which websites often use tables for organizing the rendered data. When loading and processing a large data set on a web page, efficiency is important because it should have a minimal impact on the user experience. 

When you want to show information in tables, a data grid helps you show many records without significantly affecting the website’s performance. A data grid is like an HTML table that renders data in rows and columns, and today, many JavaScript Grid Libraries provide unique features for implementing and operating data grids. 

If you are a web developer looking forward to using a grid library for your applications, it is important to know what they are and what you should look for when choosing a grid library. 

What are javascript grid libraries?

A Javascript grid library is a collection of functions that enables you to easily create data grids for large data sets. Also, a grid library allows you to do various useful functions on the data, such as data fetching, scrolling, sorting, grouping, and filtering. More advanced grid libraries support advanced grid operations such as pagination, advanced searching, sorting with different conditions, and many more. 

Why do you need javascript grid libraries?

JavaScript is the main language used by web applications,s and todays’ websites need to deal with a large volume of data. Therefore, implementing data grids and related functionalities from scratch will consume a lot of development time. A data grid library allows web developers to significantly accelerate development tasks and save development and testing time. 

Also, developing data grids from scratch while preserving the website’s performance is a challenging task. Most data grid libraries can perform data rendering and other related operations efficiently without significantly affecting the website performance. Therefore, JavaScript grid libraries have become popular for data display and manipulation in web and mobile applications.

What are popular javascript grid libraries?

There are many JavaScript libraries on the market. Sencha offers a high-performing grid that lets developers load and manipulates a massive data set on the client-side within milliseconds. Experiments have shown that the Ext JS data grid has an outstanding scrolling speed 300x faster than other popular javaScript grids, which can fetch and display massive sets of data in less than one second. 

Ext Js Grid offers simple to advanced grid functionalities such as filtering, grouping, live data streaming, infinite scrolling, and many more. Using plugins, you can add extra functionalities such as column re-sizing,  row operations, and paging toolbar. 

There are also many open-source javascript grids available. For example, Grid.js is also a free and open-source JavaScript grid library based on TypeScript. You can easily use it with other javascript frameworks such as React, Angular, and Vue.js. Another popular JavaScript grid is the Jquery Grid. This enabled jQuery plugin uses Ajax callbacks to load data dynamically integrated with any server-side technology like PHP, ASP, JSP/Java Servlets, ColdFusion, Perl, etc.

What should you look for when choosing a javascript grid library?

Grid Performance

Many JavaScript grids fail because of slow data loading experience creates user frustration. Therefore, when choosing a grid library for your needs, it is very important to check its performance. If the grid is agh-performing, its initial data load time will be smaller. In addition, check the grid’s scrolling performance because users often need to scroll through many records. A good scrolling speed indicates that users can quickly scroll through the table without experiencing larger delays. 

Grid components, features, and customizations

For a better user experience, the grid library must support multiple components and features. For example, some tables require users to pick a date or time for a certain field. If the library provides a date picker component, it is easier for you not to build it from scratch. Also, supporting only a basic set of features means extending your grid functionalities for more advanced functionalities will be hard. Therefore, always look for a feature-rich grid library that provides advanced data manipulation capabilities so that you can integrate powerful tables into your applications. In addition, the grid library needs to support customizations so that you can adjust your table experience according to your requirements.

Support for different frameworks, browsers, platforms

Webpages can be composed of components written in multiple languages such as React, Vue Js, and Angular. For such websites, you must select a grid library that supports multiple frameworks so that you do not have to find separate libraries for each of them. Also, today, companies develop web applications aiming to deploy them on all platforms and browsers. Therefore, the grid must be compatible across all browsers, including Firefox, Chrome, and Edge, and support web, mobile, and desktop platforms. It also means that the grid should be adaptable for different screen sizes without significantly impacting its functionalities. 

Flexibility in data binding

Modern websites receive data from different sources located in both local and remote environments. When binding data to the grid, it is crucial that the grid library supports efficient data-binding from local and remote data sources using different methods, including Ajax requests, HTTP requests, and JSON. This flexibility in data binding allows web developers to connect data from multiple sources for analytics and insights and bind data efficiently using minimal development efforts.

Ready to get started with the Ext Js Grid Library?

Grid libraries are powerful ways to display and manipulate many records on websites. Ext Js Grid is one of the best grid libraries which offers basic to advanced grid manipulation features. Many open-source grid libraries are compatible with different front-end frameworks. As discussed in this article, Grid performance, features, customizations are the top-most considerations when choosing an appropriate library for your applications. In addition, you should check if the library supports the frameworks, browsers, and platforms you use and its support for data binding. Ext JS consists of all the must-have features any web developer will require to develop powerful web, mobile, and desktop applications.

Leverage the power of Ext Js Grid for building high-performing JavaScript Grids!