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D3.js vs jQuery: What are the differences?

  1. 1. Purpose and Focus: D3.js is primarily a data visualization library that focuses on the binding of data to the Document Object Model (DOM). It provides a way to create interactive and dynamic visualizations using web standards like HTML, CSS, and SVG. On the other hand, jQuery is a general-purpose JavaScript library that simplifies the manipulation and traversal of HTML documents, event handling, and AJAX interactions.

  2. 2. Learning Curve: D3.js has a steeper learning curve as it requires a good understanding of web technologies and concepts like SVG, HTML, and CSS. It provides a low-level, direct approach to manipulating the DOM and requires more code to achieve specific tasks. In contrast, jQuery has a shallower learning curve as it abstracts away many of the complexities of web development and provides a simpler, more intuitive syntax.

  3. 3. Modularity and Extensibility: D3.js is highly modular and allows for fine-grained control over individual elements of a visualization. It provides a wide range of reusable components and plugins that can be customized and extended to meet specific requirements. jQuery, on the other hand, is less modular and more monolithic in nature, offering a set of predefined methods and functions that cover common use cases.

  4. 4. Supported Browsers: D3.js is designed to work on modern browsers that support SVG, HTML5, and CSS3. Older browsers may have limited or no support for D3.js features. jQuery, on the other hand, has a broader browser compatibility and can work on older browsers as well.

  5. 5. Performance and Efficiency: D3.js is known for its superior performance and efficiency in handling large datasets and complex visualizations. It leverages the power of web standards like SVG and CSS transitions to optimize rendering and provide smooth animations. jQuery, while capable of handling smaller datasets, may struggle with complex visualizations and may not offer the same level of performance as D3.js.

  6. 6. Community and Ecosystem: D3.js has a strong and active community with a wide range of resources, documentation, and examples available. It is widely used in the data visualization community and has a vibrant ecosystem of plugins and extensions. jQuery, being a more general-purpose library, has an even larger community and ecosystem with a plethora of plugins and resources covering various aspects of web development.

In Summary, D3.js is a powerful data visualization library with a steeper learning curve, modular and extendable architecture, browser-specific requirements, superior performance, and a vibrant community. jQuery, on the other hand, is a general-purpose library with a shallower learning curve, broader browser compatibility, and a larger ecosystem of plugins and resources covering different aspects of web development.

Decisions about D3.js and jQuery
Peter Schmalfeldt
Senior Software Engineer · | 9 upvotes · 67.4K views

I have made an extended effort to drop frameworks completely if they are not actually needed. While I still use JS Frameworks like Vue, Angular and React ( if I have too ), I see far too often devs / teams deciding to build a single page site entirely in a framework, rather than just using HTML, CSS and a little JS.

I personally feel it's important to know when a framework is a good solution, and maybe when it's overkill.

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Malek Boubakri
Web developer at Quicktext · | 4 upvotes · 228.1K views

The project is a web gadget previously made using vanilla script and JQuery, It is a part of the "Quicktext" platform and offers an in-app live & customizable messaging widget. We made that remake with React eco-system and Typescript and we're so far happy with results. We gained tons of TS features, React scaling & re-usabilities capabilities and much more!

What do you think?

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kazi shahin
CTO at Blubird Interactive Ltd. · | 3 upvotes · 108.5K views

I've an eCommerce platform building using Laravel, MySQL and jQuery. It's working good and if anyone become interested, I just deploy the entire source cod e in environment / Hosting. This is not a good model of course. Because everyone ask for small or large amount of change and I had to do this. Imagine when there will be 100 separate deploy and I had to manage 100 separate source. So How do I make my system architecture so that I'll have a core / base source code. To make any any change / update on specific deployment, it will be theme / plugin / extension based . Also if I introduce an API layer then I could handle the Web, Mobile App and POS as well ? Is the API should be part of source code or a individual single API and all the deployment will use that API ?

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Manatsawin Hanmongkolchai
Chose
jQueryjQuery
over
ReactReact
in

When I started TipMe, I thought about using React frontend. At the end, plain, simple jQuery won.

I had to build this iteration of the site fast and by using jQuery I could keep using Django as a full stack development tool. One important point is Django form (combined with Django Bootstrap3) means that I don't have to reinvent form rendering again, which will be the case with React.

Over time, more interactivity seeped into the site and React components start making its way into the codebase.

I now wish the site is built using React so that I could add more user friendly interfaces easier (no more fuddling with server states) but I would still say jQuery helped me get past those early days.

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Pros of D3.js
Pros of jQuery
  • 195
    Beautiful visualizations
  • 103
    Svg
  • 92
    Data-driven
  • 81
    Large set of examples
  • 61
    Data-driven documents
  • 24
    Visualization components
  • 20
    Transitions
  • 18
    Dynamic properties
  • 16
    Plugins
  • 11
    Transformation
  • 7
    Makes data interactive
  • 4
    Open Source
  • 4
    Enter and Exit
  • 4
    Components
  • 3
    Exhaustive
  • 3
    Backed by the new york times
  • 2
    Easy and beautiful
  • 1
    Highly customizable
  • 1
    Awesome Community Support
  • 1
    Simple elegance
  • 1
    Templates, force template
  • 1
    Angular 4
  • 1.3K
    Cross-browser
  • 957
    Dom manipulation
  • 809
    Power
  • 660
    Open source
  • 610
    Plugins
  • 459
    Easy
  • 395
    Popular
  • 350
    Feature-rich
  • 281
    Html5
  • 227
    Light weight
  • 93
    Simple
  • 84
    Great community
  • 79
    CSS3 Compliant
  • 69
    Mobile friendly
  • 67
    Fast
  • 43
    Intuitive
  • 42
    Swiss Army knife for webdev
  • 35
    Huge Community
  • 11
    Easy to learn
  • 4
    Clean code
  • 3
    Because of Ajax request :)
  • 2
    Powerful
  • 2
    Nice
  • 2
    Just awesome
  • 2
    Used everywhere
  • 1
    Improves productivity
  • 1
    Javascript
  • 1
    Easy Setup
  • 1
    Open Source, Simple, Easy Setup
  • 1
    It Just Works
  • 1
    Industry acceptance
  • 1
    Allows great manipulation of HTML and CSS
  • 1
    Widely Used
  • 1
    I love jQuery

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Cons of D3.js
Cons of jQuery
  • 11
    Beginners cant understand at all
  • 6
    Complex syntax
  • 6
    Large size
  • 5
    Sometimes inconsistent API
  • 5
    Encourages DOM as primary data source
  • 2
    Live events is overly complex feature

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What is D3.js?

It is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. Emphasises on web standards gives you the full capabilities of modern browsers without tying yourself to a proprietary framework.

What is jQuery?

jQuery is a cross-platform JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML.

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Blog Posts

Sep 8 2017 at 2:54PM

Eventbrite-0

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What are some alternatives to D3.js and jQuery?
three.js
It is a cross-browser JavaScript library and Application Programming Interface used to create and display animated 3D computer graphics in a web browser.
Plotly.js
It is a standalone Javascript data visualization library, and it also powers the Python and R modules named plotly in those respective ecosystems (referred to as Plotly.py and Plotly.R). It can be used to produce dozens of chart types and visualizations, including statistical charts, 3D graphs, scientific charts, SVG and tile maps, financial charts and more.
Highcharts
Highcharts currently supports line, spline, area, areaspline, column, bar, pie, scatter, angular gauges, arearange, areasplinerange, columnrange, bubble, box plot, error bars, funnel, waterfall and polar chart types.
Python
Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.
Tableau
Tableau can help anyone see and understand their data. Connect to almost any database, drag and drop to create visualizations, and share with a click.
See all alternatives