OE1-5.5 Ajax, Node.js, Bootstrap & Front-End Frameworks
You can explain Ajax and Node.js, build a responsive layout with the Bootstrap grid and components, and describe React and jQuery as web application frameworks.
Ajax is the change that made web pages behave like applications: fetch data without reloading, and update part of the page. Node.js matters because it puts JavaScript on the server, so one language spans the whole stack. The Bootstrap grid is the fastest route to a responsive layout and is worth building once by hand to see how the twelve-column system actually works; React is introduced here as the component model that dominates current front-end practice.
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Introduction to Ajax
Updating part of a page without reloading it, which is the technique that made web applications feel like applications. Everything in modern front-end work descends from it.
Node.js
Running the same language on the server, which means one language across the whole stack. Its event-driven model is what suits it to many simultaneous connections.
Introduction to Bootstrap
A library of ready-made styles and components, which gets a reasonable-looking page quickly. The trade is that sites built with it tend to look alike.
The Bootstrap grid and responsive layout
Its layout system, and the responsive behaviour that comes with it. Compare it against the grid from the first topic to see what a framework adds and what it hides.
Bootstrap components
The pre-built pieces, which are the actual reason people reach for it. Knowing what exists prevents rebuilding a component badly.
React JS and the component model
Building an interface from composable pieces with their own state. It is the model most current front-end work uses, so this item points furthest forward.
jQuery
The library that made page manipulation bearable before the standards caught up. It is here for historical literacy: you will meet it in existing code and rarely start new work with it.
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