We have been quite busy recently, therefore you haven’t heard from us about the latest DHTMLX and JavaScript news for some time. But we are back and ready to make up for this delay with new JavaScript stuff. We collected the most interesting news for the previous and current months.

Today, you will get acquainted with a huge release of DHTMLX Diagram 6.0, new Angular 18, release candidates of Svelte 5 and React 19, new Svelte UI components, and key insights from the “State of HTML” report. In addition, you’ll also find a pack of useful materials to enhance your JavaScript knowledge.

New Releases and Updates

DHTMLX Diagram 6.0 with Enhanced Diagram Editor

If you want to implement complex functionalities such as data visualization in web apps in the desired way, it is often the case that you have to do it yourself. We took into account this important aspect when delivering DHTMLX Diagram 6.0.

This major update allows you to adjust the killer feature of our JavaScript diagramming library, namely the Diagram editor, to the needs of any project.

In version 6.0, we overhauled the Diagram editor and enriched its control elements with numerous novelties. First of all, now you can fully customize the Editbar responsible for modifying diagram shapes in real time. The default Toobar of the editor became much more functional and flexible to configure it as needed. The process of adding new sections with shapes has never been easier thanks to numerous enhancements in the Shapebar API.

The updated editor is also notable for the modified API for item selection, simplified management line titles, updated move events, copy manager, and many other useful novelties.

We also want to mention that the Diagram component and the Diagram editor now also support new customizable themes. Check out the release article to learn more interesting insights about DHTMLX Diagram 6.0.

Angular 18 is Here

Angular has a reputation as a very complex tool, and there is some truth in that. However, the development team of this framework certainly deserves some credit for regularly updating their product with new features and improvements. So it is time to highlight the recently released Angular 18.

Some features that gained popularity among Angular devs such as Material 3, deferrable views, and built-in control flow changed their status from experimental to stable. Now you can evaluate a new experimental feature — zoneless change detection.

Also, there are several server-side rendering improvements such as i18n hydration support, better debugging, event replay, etc. Want to learn more about this major update? Read the release article on the Angular blog.

Svelte 5 is Coming

Svelte has been around for only 8 years but many dev teams already prefer this option over other time-proven and mature frameworks. Web developers love Svelte for its efficiency and simplicity in achieving various coding goals. If you are one of those Svelte admirers, you’ll be happy to know that the framework will be soon updated to version 5.

Currently, it is in the Release Candidate phase, thus the design of the framework is largely settled and you already can get acquainted with the biggest changes included in v5. The development team of the project decided to rewrite Svelte to make it faster and more robust.

The key feature of the new Svelte is a signal-powered reactivity API (called runes) that promises a new level of reactivity. The update will also include overhauled event handling, improved component composition via snippets, and native TypeScript support.

At the same time, there still may be some changes before the stable release of Svelte 5. Watch this video, where Rich Harris, the creator of Svelte, goes through the main features of v5.

Brand New Svelte UI Components from SVAR

There is one more good news for those developers who have Svelte in their technology stacks. The SVAR team has recently introduced a set of advanced UI components for the Svelte framework, including feature-rich DataGrid, Gantt Chart, and File Manager. It also offers an open-source SVAR Svelte Core library, a collection of commonly used UI elements (buttons, tabs, popups, date picker, and more).

Leveraging Svelte’s lightweight and high-performance nature, SVAR components are blazingly fast and promise ease of use and customization. Visit the SVAR Svelte website for more information and a free trial.

What to Expect from React 19

Today, we also have reasons to mention another extremely popular JavaScript framework — React. Just like Svelte, the new React 19 reached the release candidate status. This major update promises a range of new features and improvements.

First of all, this release is notable for the React compiler designed for managing component’s re-rendering on the UI state change, thereby ensuring performance optimization. Developers will also benefit from new React actions that facilitate the management of data and interactions on web pages. Apart from that, the list of novelties includes support for document metadata, server components, new hooks, and much more.

You can learn more about React by visiting this page, and if you get the urge to upgrade your app to React 19, check out this step-by-step guide. You should also take a look at the recap of React Conf 2024 packed with exciting announcements and updates from the React & React Native team and community.

Key Takeaways from State of HTML 2023 Survey

Although this article is mainly dedicated to the JavaScript world, we simply could not ignore the release of the State of HTML report. HTML remains indispensable for structuring and presenting web content effectively, so it is great to know about the latest trends in this area.

Created by a talented team known for similar informative surveys for JavaScript and CSS, it provides plenty of curious insights based on 20,904 responses from participants across the world.

In this survey, you can find interesting visual data on the experience and sentiment of respondents related to HTML features and other browser APIs. The “Usage” section of this survey deserves special attention since it provides better visibility into developer needs. For instance, if you take a look at the list of missing elements (including data table, tabs, switch/toggle, etc.), it is safe to assume that developers want more interactive HTML elements.

Developers also complain about insufficient customizability, especially around styling. This issue directly concerns form input elements, which frequently have to be recreated. For more information, check out the complete survey.

Useful Learning Resources

Customizing Top DHTMLX JavaScript Libraries

Many development teams trust DHTMLX products when it comes to delivering complex functionalities for business apps, especially project management. Knowing that the development of a modern web app very often requires nontrivial solutions, we try to help our customers with tutorials that help adjust our JS libraries to various use-case scenarios.

This month, our team prepared two tutorials that vividly demonstrate the high customizability of our JavaScript libraries for project management — Gantt and Scheduler.

In the first tutorial, you will learn how to complement a JavaScript Gantt chart with a custom context menu that enables end-users to manage tasks in the project workflow more efficiently.

The second tutorial explains how to implement a custom toolbar into a JavaScript scheduling calendar based on DHTMLX Scheduler. This toolbar offers powerful features that enhance user interaction and accessibility.

Deeper Insight into React Compiler and Its Impact on Your Code

We already mentioned the React compiler in the news dedicated to the upcoming release of React 19. But since this feature is expected to become a game-changer in terms of performance, it is nice for web developers to learn more about this feature. This video provides interesting insights about React Compiler and its practical application.

Listing of AI Tools to Boost Developer’s Productivity

AI technologies still raise some reasonable concerns in the dev community, but it has become common for many developers to use various AI tools in their jobs. Such AI aids help automate recurring tasks, implement enhanced features, and improve the overall code quality. In this article, you will find the selection of popular AI code generators and development tools for programmers.

5 Modern JavaScript Techniques

JavaScript is constantly evolving, so JS developers should broaden their knowledge of the language to keep up with the advancements. By expanding their coding practices with new techniques, developers enhance their skills, deliver better products, and stay competitive in the job market. This article offers 5 cutting-edge JavaScript techniques aimed at helping developers create powerful but concise code for their apps.

23 Must-Know CSS Features

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) plays a crucial role in modern web development by providing a means to style and layout web pages. Thus, it is useful for web developers to follow CSS trends and learn its features. Proficiency in CSS enables developers to create visually appealing and user-friendly apps as well as optimize their performance. In this video, you will get acquainted with the list of popular CSS features that developers should know.

Thanks for reading and see you next time.

This article was originally published on Medium.