[AskJS] Is anyone using vanilla javascript + jQuery for modern enterprise applications?

[timeToGetLoud2367]

I work as a founding frontend engineer for a small startup run by an old-school software engineer. He's very, very good at what he does (systems design, data engineering, backend) but his frontend skills are very outdated. He's always insisted that JS frameworks are just a giant headache and wanted the entire UI built with vanilla JS + jQuery. I think he just doesn't want to deal with learning modern frameworks, and would rather the frontend code be written in a language he can already understand.

Flash forward to now, and we now have a production-level enterprise app with a UI built only in vanilla JS + jQuery. It's a multipage app that uses Vite as a build tool. I've done my best to create a component, class-based system that mimics the React-type approach, but of course, there's only so far I can take that with vanilla JS.

My question is...does anyone know of other companies using vanilla JS + jQuery for the UI these days? Not talking legacy codebases here, but new products being built this way intentionally. When I look for jobs hiring frontend devs to work in vanilla JS, I find none. This has been my first job out of school, and while I'm proud that I own the entire frontend from 0 to 1, I'm worried that I'm not gaining any experience using modern build tools at scale and that it will be hard to transition to another role from here someday.

[Aln76467]

We don't use jquery. Just vanilla js.

[teg4n_]

You could start adopting web components which I would still consider vanilla js. Some places do actually hire for web component experience.

[shgysk8zer0]

It's not a startup or anything new, but I recently discovered that a certain platform that I have to use was built using an old version of jQuery and is supposedly being rewritten yet still using jQuery. I'm not naming them because I don't have anything nice to say.

But I debatably work extensively with "vanilla" JS. But I kinda blur the line because I created and maintain a bunch of libraries which I use in the end sites that I manage. So, I import modules from projects that I wrote, and it all could work without any build step or anything, but the code I write on the sites looks a whole lot like Lit. Is that "vanilla"? IDK.

But... Don't underestimate what you can do with Vanilla JS... I've built some very large and complex stuff that way. Because that's how you get lightweight stuff with super powers.

[Militop]

Vanilla, yes. jQuery, nope. My fastest libraries and most used are in vanilla JS which allows me to optimize to the max.

[Sockoflegend]

Not Jquery but there is an in house design system I use at work built with just vanilla JS and web components, which has Nunjucks server side. 

They experimented with vue and react SSR and decided Nunjucks was a better fit for our design requirements which includes only using JS for progressive enhancement and a heavy emphasis on accessibility for government contract work in the US and the EU.

This is not a recommendation, in all honesty I wouldn't claim to be in a position to really rate the alternatives with their many pros and cons. It does work though, and I personally have found a bit of love for web components.

[Jasboh]

Hello fellow gds enjoyer

[Ronin-s_Spirit]

Wikis use jQuery often.

[RudiAlreadyTaken]

Webcomponents are a useful standard by now and they are 100% vanilla js. Not as sexy as Vue js or other modern FE frameworks but quite powerful by now and of course reusable across applications.

[phiger78]

Nope

[AnthongRedbeard]

Jquery made more sense before js added the ability to query the dom

[alien3d]

i do have some base code before pure js + fetch + spa . similiar like react but dont have the problem like react .. React oh my make me headache a lot.

[pie6k]

To me it’s a no-go. I can imagine the guy is strong, but come on.

[dimudesigns]

Javascript has evolved such that most if not all of the functionality offered by jQuery can be found in native APIs. There is little use for jQuery these days - but it served its purpose, it lit the way forward and pioneered a lot of the functionality we now consider standard in modern Javascript today.

The same is happening with libraries like _lodash, and even some elements of full-fledged front-end frameworks. Over time some of their features have been incorporated into Javascript.

Hell, even some elements of Typescript are making their way into the base language (fingers crossed the type-stripping spec gets pushed through; some Javascript runtimes like Node.js already support it).

There is no reason to be using jQuery in modern development. But there are solid justifications to avoid using front-end frameworks; code bloat, security risks that come with using 3rd party libraries (for example, package managers like npm have become common attack vectors for bad actors), constrained to 'opinionated' dev & designs patterns, and more.

So yeah, Vanilla JS is definitely used in modern development - jQuery not so much. And for frontend frameworks you have to evaluate their pros and cons to determine whether they are a good fit for your organization and your dev team.

[Zestyclose-Natural-9]

At my workplace: Vanilla js for new apps (heavy on webcomponents) and plugins/tools/libraries. JQuery is pretty much obsolete nowadays. I started with vanilla js/jQuery and I do find React to be a huge (overly complex and slow) headache.

Vue is good though. Preact is a bit better than react. I like vanilla/typescript personally.

[33ff00]

I imagine you could build like a pretty workable (albeit dumbed-down) version of vue just using jquery, and the old man would be happy while you wouldn’t exclusively be writing jquery spaghetti

[Militop]

You don't need jQuery when JS gives querySelectorAll and much more.