Top 10 Compelling Features That Would Make You Use a JavaScript Data Grid

A page on a modern web application is more than just a static page with text; it is a dynamic entity that interacts with the user. Users today want fast, interactive, engaging, dynamic web pages that give a feeling of depth. This is even more important if you are designing a modern web application architecture such as a financial reporting tool, an internal analytics dashboard, or an e-commerce management system.

In most cases, web designers need to work with a large amount of data that must be presented clearly. They need to be neat and organized, presenting information clearly and concisely. This is where a JavaScript data grid is useful.

However, designing a grid from scratch can be very hard. Creating separate blocks of code to enable filtering, sorting, designing, pagination, infinite scrolling, and other features can be very time-consuming and tiring if not done in an organized manner.

Even with such care, these elements can still lead to performance issues and long-term maintenance problems, which can slow down the entire team. A JavaScript library for data grids solves these problems by giving a ready, optimized, and scalable solution to managing tables.

Like the Sencha Ext JS (JavaScript) Grid, one of the popular JavaScript libraries. These tools focus on responsive designs and work with very large datasets to easily connect with modern web tools and apps.

In this article, we will discuss 10 reasons every CTO (Chief Technology Officer), product team, and developer should think about using a great JavaScript library for grids.

1. Design User-Friendly Data Grids

Any application today depends on customer happiness, meaning the user must have a good experience with a grid above all else. If the grid is slow or unresponsive, the users will quickly get frustrated and stop using the product. This user behavior will harm the product and leave a bad impression.

Libraries built for these problems will address them. By utilizing virtual DOM (Document Object Model) rendering, improved data fetching, and intelligent interaction methods, it’s easier to obtain quick responses to any actions. If there is no delay while working with server-side pagination, even a few million rows can be managed easily.

These improvements have resulted in fewer complaints, higher satisfaction scores, and increased adoption rates. For developers, there is no need to spend time writing and optimizing each function manually, and time is also saved on debugging. A well-done grid library setup ensures that your application feels and works polished, professional, and responsive. This is the idea of user retention.

2. Improve Scrolling and Rendering Performance

Performance during scrolling is another key part of the user experience when datasets are large and complex. HTML (HyperText Markup Language) tables do a poor job of showing thousands of rows, and often, slow scrolling and frozen screens are the result. This endless loading can completely break the user’s workflow.

This issue is solved by many JavaScript grid library programs, which use virtual scrolling and lazy rendering. As users scroll, these programs reuse DOM (Document Object Model) elements and show only the rows that appear on the screen. This smart technique leads to high performance and memory savings.

Like many other libraries, Ext JS (JavaScript) has buffered rendering, which loads rows just above the screen in a smooth way. This is very helpful to users of complex enterprise-level applications that need to process over 10,000 rows of data. User experience and satisfaction are the two main results of these improvements in speed and reliability with complex datasets.

3. Speed Up Development Cycles

When developing a new application, building a grid from scratch is not only boring but also very time-consuming, sometimes taking weeks or months to finish. You will need to adjust data, handle data speed, and manage UI (User Interface) rendering and event listeners all at the same time. Even worse, if any requirements change during development, you will need to change a large amount of the code.

Using a JavaScript UI (User Interface) library will speed up project completion. These libraries include advanced features such as filtering, sorting, and column resizing. Completing the project won’t take long, as the time to market is greatly reduced. Developers will then have time to focus on more important parts of the project.

Many libraries also include low or no-code setup tools. For example, Ext JS (JavaScript) includes very simple drag-and-drop tools that can create complex grid layouts. These tools save a huge amount of development time. Companies wanting to stay ahead of the competition will be able to quickly launch new features faster than others.

4. Increase Developer Efficiency

Measuring productivity has a whole new meaning these days. It has a new meaning since the start of major new technologies and their wide use. A JavaScript library, for example, helps them become faster and effective. It allows them to skip repeated code for data handling and go straight to using advanced APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).

Hence, the code is easy to read and clean. It is easy to change and maintain as well. New developers are able to understand and work together faster. This is because there is less custom code and more use of ready-made JavaScript component library parts. This is a win-win situation as it lowers onboarding times while also reducing bugs because of bad coding standards.

A React JavaScript library, for instance, helps them become faster and effective. It allows them to skip repeated code for data handling and go straight to APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).

A React JavaScript library, for instance, helps them become faster and effective. It allows them to skip repeated code for data handling and go straight to advanced APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).

5. Better UI/UX Will Increase User Engagement

A well-designed grid with smooth animations, clear text, and easy controls can increase user engagement. This is more true when the interface is professionally designed and user-friendly, making users more eager to explore the data, filters, and more advanced features.

Many popular JavaScript libraries provide advanced React UI (User Interface) components with modern design features like responsive and fluid layouts, column reordering, drag and drop, and hover states. Many of them also have easy theme switching, making it easy to adjust the grid’s design to fit your branding.

Using a JavaScript UI (User Interface) library reduces the risk of design differences within your user interface. This increases usability and lowers mental load, ultimately leading to increased user retention.

6. Support for Custom Themes and Branding

The built-in themes are good for fast setups, but most enterprise applications need custom branding. A JavaScript data grid helps you create JavaScript library themes that are fully customized and matched with your product style guide.

For instance, teams using Sencha themes can create and change CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)-based themes, thus avoiding the trouble of starting from scratch. You can change the colors, borders, and spacing of the grid and its elements to make sure they match the rest of your application’s interface. This becomes a must for white-label solutions and contractor dashboards that require a separate brand look.

Consistent branding with all interface elements increases the user’s trust in the application and helps create a professional image, in addition to helping the application interface feel polished and ready. This helps ease the overall product adoption in B2B (Business-to-Business) and SaaS (Software as a Service) scenarios.

7. Enable Data Visualization

Data visualization can be done using charts and graphs instead of showing raw data, which definitely improves the user experience. Multiple top JavaScript libraries work with different charting libraries, which allows easy addition of bar graphs, pie charts, and even line graphs into grid cells or underneath the grid as summaries.

This comes in handy when building a modern web application that allows users not only to view data but to analyze it quickly. For example, you can show users monthly sales data in a grid and, for each row, add a sparkline, so that they can get instant feedback visually.

The more you integrate data, the more confidently and quickly they can make a decision. This is especially important for executives, analysts, and managers who want to make fast, smart decisions.

8. Provide Valuable Analytics and Insights

Enterprise users need more than raw data. They need systems to analyze it. For example, a manager can group sales data by region and calculate the totals, only to see that he had missed trends. This data can be directly inserted into the real-time JavaScript data grid.

By grouping and summarizing the data in real-time, the user saves time, and decision-making speed is improved.

Some top JavaScript libraries even allow you to add widgets and charts in grid cells, which turn a simple data table into an interactive analytics dashboard. The application now goes from being a passive data display to an active decision support system. This is a big benefit for enterprise customers.

9. Add More Features with the Use of Plugins

Every application is unique, and sometimes you need more than what is offered by the JavaScript data grid. This is why supporting plugins is important. For popular JavaScript libraries, there is usually a large number of additional plugins, from advanced filtering and grouping to custom toolbars and exports.

Take Ext JS (JavaScript), for instance. It has plugins such as Ext.grid.feature.Grouping, which allows users to group rows, Ext.grid.feature.Summary, which allows users to summarize the data, and paging toolbars for large datasets.

With these plugins, users are able to add advanced features to their systems without changing the main functions of the system.

The example mentioned above is one of the many benefits that modular systems provide. The codebase is kept slim with only the essential functions to guarantee it works. The application can then offer more features as it develops. In the future, all these features will guarantee the application’s ability to stay flexible and grow over time.

10. Meet Compliance and Accessibility Standards

JavaScript data grids contain features with essential ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles, keyboard support, and screen reader and owner-access services, enabling them to be usable by visually impaired and limited-mobility users.

Building access features into your application from the outset enhances usability and greatly reduces exposure to legal action. More importantly, the application demonstrates its responsiveness to the users’ needs.

Conclusion

JavaScript grid libraries are not only meant for modern use and for the usability of websites; their help is also needed to make the creation of user-friendly apps easier. This, in turn, reduces the time of developers and improves the quality of the product being launched, as the user experience will be better.

If your concern is performance, responsiveness, scrolling, or advanced analytics, you will have a great JavaScript library that covers your needs. You will get a better return on investment if you are a CTO or product manager, as the time of delivery will be cut.

To the developer, this means that there will be more creativity as there will be a reduction in the repeated code needed. The final user of the product will have better experience as the speed and interactivity while handling data will be improved.

To those who have not used the best JavaScript libraries, it is time to give it a try as your engineering team and users will appreciate it.

FAQs

How To Create A JavaScript Library?

Start with designing your JavaScript library using simple and reusable code then write the library in ES modules or CommonJS and share it with bundlers like Webpack or Rollup.

How To Create Dynamic Grid In JavaScript?

A dynamic JavaScript data grid can be built by adding rows and columns to the DOM with the use of loops and also with React grid library tools that build and update grids from your data.

How To Add Row In Grid Using JavaScript?

For simple HTML tables, use the DOM methods insertRow() and insertCell() or use the JavaScript data grid API method grid.store.add() to add a row.

How To Create a 16×16 Grid in JavaScript?

Make a container element and add each cell using two loops to make 16 rows and 16 columns. Style it using CSS grid or flexbox to turn it into a grid.

How To Create a JavaScript Library?

Start with designing your JavaScript library using simple and reusable code then write the library in ES modules or CommonJS and share it with bundlers like Webpack or Rollup.

What Are Third Party Libraries Used in React JS?

Some of them are React Router for routing, Redux for state management, and React JS UI Components Library like Material UI or Ant Design for UI components.

How To Use JS Library in TypeScript

To use a JavaScript library in TypeScript, you have to install @types/ first. Then, you can import and use it in your TypeScript file as a normal module.

Can You Use TypeScript With a JS Library

Yes. You have to install the type definitions for the JavaScript library (if available) and then use the module in your TypeScript file as you would any other module. If there are no available type definitions, you can create your own or use declare module as a last resort.

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