How good is Backbone.js for Mobile App Development?

Many enterprises nowadays build cross-platform mobile apps to overcome mobile device and operating system diversity. Unlike native mobile apps, the cross-platform applications are developed with commonly used web technologies like HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. Also, the developers can make the app available on multiple mobile platforms with a single code base. But the developers need robust tools to accelerate cross-platform mobile application development. The features provided by Backbone.js help developers to simplify and speed up development of HTML5-based mobile applications.

Despite being a lightweight JavaScript library, Backbone.js supports model-view-controller (MVC) concept. The MVC design paradigm simplifies development and maintenance of mobile apps by keeping their user interfaces and business logic separate. The developer can use Backbone.js to build HTML-based mobile apps without additional performance overheads. Also, they can represent data as models, and create, validate, save, or destroy the models to the server. The developers can further take advantage of the features provided by Backbone.js to build cross-platform mobile apps rapidly.

Why Backbone.js is Useful for Cross-Platform Mobile App Developers?

Keep User Interface and Business Logic Separate

The single and unified code base makes it easier for developers to build and maintain HTML5-based mobile apps. But the developers have to make changes to the code base frequently to enhance the app’s functionality and performance. The MVC framework provided by Backbone.js enables programmers to divide an app into multiple modules and keep its user interface and business logic separated. The separation makes it easier for developers to maintain and update cross-platform mobile apps without putting extra time and effort.

Avail Several Building Blocks

In addition to providing a MVC framework, Backbone.js also provides various building blocks – model, collection, events, and router. The users have option to represent data as models. They can even create, save, modify and destroy models to the server. The model will further trigger a change event each time its attributes change due to user action. It further changes the changes to the views displaying its state. Based on the notification sent by the model, the views render themselves afresh. Hence, the mobile app keeps users engaged by providing updated information.

Implement Event-Driven Communication

Backbone.js simplifies cross-platform mobile app development by keeping the app’s user interface and business logic separated. But it enables programmers to facilitate event-driven communication between the model and view. They can easily control the changes made to the view by adding event listeners to various attributes of a model. The programmers also have option to link the models to the back-end. Hence, they can easily facilitate event-driven communication to render the view afresh each time the model changes.

Use JavaScript Functions

While developing a cross-platform mobile app developers have to explore ways to make it look good on each device and platform. Backbone.js developers can build robust mobile apps by availing more than 100 extensions and plug-ins – Backbone Forms, Backbone.Validators, Backbone.localStorage, Backbone.Offline, Backbone.safe and Backbone-orm. Also, it enables programmers to developer mobile app front-ends with JavaScript functions. Hence, the developers can easily add functionality to the mobile user interface by using both predefined and custom JavaScript functions.

Use Underscore.js Methods

Backbone.js is a compact JavaScript library. But it has a hard-dependency on another JavaScript library - Underscore.js. The utility functions provided by Underscore.js help users to accomplish a variety of programming tasks. Also, the functional programming helpers provided by Underscore.js enable programmers to accomplish specific tasks without extending the built-in objects. While developing mobile apps with Backbone.js, the developers can take advantage of the functions provided by Underscore.js to accomplish common tasks without writing longer lines of code. Also, these functions will help the programmers to keep the mobile app code clean and maintainable.

Synchronize User Data

The mobile app developers can use Backbone.js to keep the code base structured and organized. Also, they can use the JavaScript library to manage data model efficiently. Backbone.js enables developers to make the app deliver data to clients without making any modification or conversion. They can display the data on the server side without changing the format used on the client side. The feature makes it easier for programmers to manage data model and synchronize the client-side and server-side data.

Avail Robust Debugging Tools

While developing mobile apps with Backbone.js, the developers can assess its components and evaluate its behaviour by using specific extensions. They can use Backbone Debugger to debug the mobile applications based on real-time information on models, views, collections and routers. Likewise, they can use Backbone Eye to monitor the behaviour of the mobile app when it runs on browsers without accessing the JavaScript code. The extensions help users to identify and repair all issues affecting the app’s functionality and performance.

However, the mobile app developers must remember that Backbone.js is a compact and lightweight JavaScript library. It lacks several features provided by other cross-platform mobile app development tools. For instance, Backbone.js does not provide a user interface (UI) framework despite supporting MVC paradigm. The programmers have render user interface of the mobile app by using additional UI frameworks. Also, they have to use libraries and plug-ins compatible with the JavaScript MVC library to build cross-platform mobile apps efficiently and rapidly.