A JavaScript Library Database?

Has JavaScript really gotten to the point that we need some central repository to keep track of the plethora of libraries and tools that are available out there?

Yes.
Yes it has :)

I still find it amazing how widespread the JavaScript boom has been, with many new and useful utilities coming out all the time. It can all be a bit overwhelming, and the large number of options can make it difficult to find the right library for your specific needs. A very useful site has surfaced recently, offering a "one-stop-shop" of sorts for tracking down those JS libraries that are right for you and your project. This new site is called JSDB.IO, and describes itself as "The Database of JavaScript Libraries."

The JSDB.IO Homepage

Categories & Submission

 Directly from the homepage, you're given a number of useful options for perusing the different libraries in the database, from searching and sorting, browsing by category, to submitting a missing library for consideration into the database.

Searching and Sorting

Follow on Twitter Link

 If you're interested in getting more involved with JSDB.IO, you can help out by tweeting about it on Twitter, or liking it on Facebook. There's even a follow link right there if you'd like to see what the team is talking about and keep an eye on any new additions that are being announced on Twitter. Pretty good so far, right?

Tweet & Like Buttons

Let's say you need to get a hold of a JavaScript template library for a project you're working on, but you have no idea which one to choose. You know there's more than one option, but you're not sure where to start to find the right one. Let's see what the experience would be like using JSDB.IO: navigate to the homepage and search for "template":

Hey! That's a pretty good selection of potential libraries to choose from. See those numbers off to the far right side of each of the results? That's a useful little calculation provided by JSDB.IO that tells you what the overall rating is for that specific library. It's also used as the default sort value, so you can assume the more commonly used, more popular libraries will be the first ones in the list. Let's use that as the basis for the next step: we need more information about this Handlebars.js library that's currently ranking #1 on the site. Click on it and see what happens.

Here's some very useful information. We get a rating, the number of GitHub watchers, the average length of time between commits, number of forks, and how many contributors there are for the project. This is excellent! And it gets better. JSDB.IO takes full advantage of its use of the GitHub API, so you can even click the "Readme" tab to view the readme file in the repository. If you select the "Repository" tab, it takes you straight to the project's repository listing, giving you access to the full set of source code that you would find if you were actually on the GutHub project's page. The "Similar" tab isn't currently active yet, but once it becomes available, you will be able to track down other libraries that are closely related or perform the same function as the one you are looking at.

I can't stress enough how useful I've found this site to be. JSDB.IO is my first stop when I need to find a specific type of JavaScript library. If you've found that it can be difficult to find the right libraries for the right project lately, do yourself a favor and stop off at JSDB.IO before you start entering keywords into your favorite search engine. You just might discover that this new database is exactly what you need to save time searching, so you can use that time doing what you really enjoy: actually writing the code to use them.

Happy coding!