Development of an evaluation model for client-side JavaScript Frameworks

Sammanfattning: There are many alternatives to choose from when deciding what client-side JavaScript framework to use, and these are growing by the day, which leaves developers with the difficult task of deciding the most suitable tool. Little research has been done on what drives the selection of a client-side JavaScript framework. Web developers at Exsitec AB are at times put in the position to choose which framework to use in a project, and as of today no specific basis for this choice exists. The purpose of this master’s thesis was to facilitate the process of choosing a client-side JavaScript framework for web developers, with the target group being web developers at Exsitec. The purpose was divided into two research questions. The first question was intended to find out important evaluation criteria in the choice of a client-side JavaScript framework and the second question was about developing a model for evaluating frameworks based on these important evaluation criteria. A pre-study was conducted by first researching literature about important evaluation criteria in the choice of a client-side JavaScript framework and then conducting interviews with and sending out a survey to web developers at Exsitec. Results from this was then used as a basis for developing an evaluation model that web developers can use in the choice of a client-side JavaScript framework. Firstly, a first draft of the evaluation model was made. Secondly, this model was tested by evaluating three JavaScript front-end frameworks React, Angular and Vue. Thirdly, the evaluation model was refined based on insights during testing. The conclusions drawn in this master’s thesis are a list of important evaluation criteria and an evaluation model based on these criteria that aid in understanding whether a client-side JavaScript framework is a good fit in a specific situation.