I am developing an rich Javascript application, using jQuery and some plugins. The application I am developing is becoming rather large and unwieldy. My main problem is managing views: I need to switch between views, some of which share the same components (like embedded views or partials). Currently my “screens” are all contained in various divs, and I am switching between them by hiding one and showing another. This makes navigation quite complex.
My question is: Is there a lightweight Javascript library that can help?
Following requirements:
- No generation; I want to change the code on the deployment server, so frameworks requiring some special compilation are out of the question (like Sproutcore or GWT)
- Model binding is not a necessity; I am getting the values from various forms and submitting them via Ajax requests
- Want everything loaded upfront (i.e. not fetching screens with AJAX)
- Must work with IE7
It turns out that what I was looking for all along was Dojo.
Dojo provides as part of its library the dijit subset library, which covers all the needed UI metaphors, including containers.
Also, as required, it does not involve any compilation as do many of the other Javascript (MVC) frameworks, and it supports IE from version 6.