JavaScript ES6+

I have written this post while I was preparing for my talk at ME.IO JS meetup, and I thought its good to share it as it cloud help or guide someone searching for or reading it.

JavaScript History:

1995: JavaScript is born as LiveScript
1997: ECMAScript standard is established
1999: ES3 comes out and IE5 is all the rage
2000–2005: XMLHttpRequest, a.k.a. AJAX, gains popularity in app such as Outlook Web Access (2000) and Oddpost (2002), Gmail (2004) and Google Maps (2005).
2009: ES5 comes out (this is what most of us use now) with forEach, Object.keys, Object.create and standard JSON
2015: ES6/ECMAScript2015 comes out; it has mostly syntactic sugar, because people weren’t able to agree on anything more ground breaking
2016: ES7, 2017: ES8, 2018: ES9… ES.Next

Gist links to the code:

10 ES6 Features:

I won't be covering all JS ES6+ features in this post, i will cover top 10 features IMO :) - please feel free to comment, discusses, suggest more.

1. Default Parameters in ES6

// ES5
var link = function (height, color, url) {
    var height = height || 50
    var color = color || 'red'
    var url = url || 'http://google.com'
    ...
}

// ES6
var link = function(height = 50, color = 'red', url = 'http://google.com') {
  ...
}

2. Template Literals in ES6

// ES5
var name = 'Your name is ' + first + ' ' + last + '.'
var url = 'http://localhost:3000/api/messages/' + id

// ES6
var name = `Your name is ${first} ${last}.`
var url = `http://localhost:3000/api/messages/${id}`

3. Multi-line Strings in ES6

// ES5
var roadPoem = 'Then took the other, as just as fair,\n\t'
    + 'And having perhaps the better claim\n\t'
    + 'Because it was grassy and wanted wear,\n\t'
    + 'Though as for that the passing there\n\t'
    + 'Had worn them really about the same,\n\t'

var fourAgreements = 'You have the right to be you.\n\
    You can only be you when you do your best.'

// ES6
var roadPoem = `Then took the other, as just as fair,
    And having perhaps the better claim
    Because it was grassy and wanted wear`

var fourAgreements = `You have the right to be you.
    You can only be you when you do your best.`

4. Destructuring Assignment in ES6

// ES5
var data = $('body').data() // data has properties house and mouse
var house = data.house
var mouse = data.mouse

// ES6
var {house, mouse} = $('body').data() // we'll get house and mouse variables

// ES5
var jsonMiddleware = require('body-parser').json
var body = req.body, // body has username and password
  username = body.username,
  password = body.password

// ES6
var {json: jsonMiddleware} = require('body-parser')
var {username, password} = req.body

// ES6
var [col1, col2]  = $('.column'),
  [line1, line2, line3, , line5] = file.split('\n')

// ES6
const myObject = {
  one:   'a',
  two:   'b',
  three: 'c'
};
const { one, two, three } = myObject;
// one = 'a', two = 'b', three = 'c'

// ES6
const myObject = {
  one:   'a',
  two:   'b',
  three: 'c'
};
const { one: first, two: second, three: third } = myObject;
// first = 'a', second = 'b', third = 'c'

5. Enhanced Object Literals in ES6

// ES5
function getLaptop(make, model, year) {
    return { make: make, model: model, year: year }
}
getLaptop("Apple", "MacBook", "2015");// {make: "Apple", model: "MacBook", year: "2015"}

// ES6 
function getLaptop(make, model, year) {
    return { make, model, year }
}
getLaptop("Apple", "MacBook", "2015"); // {make: "Apple", model: "MacBook", year: "2015"}

// ES5
function getLaptop(make, model, year) {
    return {
       sayModel : function() {
            return model;
        }
    }
}
getLaptop("Apple", "MacBook", "2015").sayModel(); //"MacBook"

// ES6
function getLaptop(make, model, year) {
    return{
        sayModel() {
            return model;
        }
    }
}
getLaptop("Apple", "MacBook", "2015").sayModel(); //"MacBook"

// ES5 
var key1 = 'one',
  obj = {
    two: 2,
    three: 3
  };
obj[key1] = 1;
// obj.one = 1, obj.two = 2, obj.three = 3

// ES6
const key1 = 'one',
  obj = {
    [key1]: 1,
    two: 2,
    three: 3
  };
// obj.one = 1, obj.two = 2, obj.three = 3

// ES6
const i = 1,
  obj = {
    ['i' + i]: i
  };
console.log(obj.i1); // 1

// ES6
const i = 2,
  obj = {
    ['mult' + i]: x => x * i
  };

console.log( obj.mult2(5) ); // 10

ES2018 (ES9) Rest/Spread Properties

const myObject = { a: 1, b: 2, c: 3 };
const { a, ...x } = myObject;
// a = 1, x = { b: 2, c: 3 }

restParam({ a: 1, b: 2, c: 3 });
function restParam({ a, ...x }) {
  // a = 1
  // x = { b: 2, c: 3 }
}

const obj1 = { a: 1, b: 2, c: 3 },
  obj2 = { ...obj1, z: 26 };
// obj2 is { a: 1, b: 2, c: 3, z: 26 }

ES2018 (ES9) rest/spread property support is patchy, but it’s available in Chrome, Firefox and Node.js 8.6+.

6. Arrow Functions in ES6

Main benefit: No binding of ‘this’

// ES5 Callback functions with dynamic context
var _this = this
$('.btn').click(function(event){
  _this.sendData()
})

// ES6 Callback functions with dynamic context
$('.btn').click((event) =>{
  this.sendData()
})

var cat = {  
  lives: 9,  
  jumps: () => {  
    this.lives--;  
  }  
}

// implicit return
() => 42
// In fact, you don’t even need the parentheses!
_ => 42
x => 42  || (x) => 42
// explict return
var addValues = (x, y) => {  
  return x + y  
}
// wrap in parentheses to return object literal 
x =>({ y: x })

var ids = ['5632953c4e345e145fdf2df8','563295464e345e145fdf2df9']
var messages = ids.map(function (value) {
  return "ID is " + value // explicit return
})

var ids = ['5632953c4e345e145fdf2df8','563295464e345e145fdf2df9']
var messages = ids.map(value => `ID is ${value}`) // implicit return

7. Promises in ES6

A promise represents the eventual result of an asynchronous operation.
There were a lot of promise implementations with slightly different syntax. q, bluebird, deferred.js, vow, avow, jquery deferred etc..., ES6 has a standard Promise implementation

setTimeout(function(){
  console.log('Yay!')
}, 1000)

var wait1000 =  new Promise((resolve, reject)=> {
  setTimeout(resolve, 1000)
}).then(()=> {
  console.log('Yay!')
})

setTimeout(function(){
  console.log('Yay!')
  setTimeout(function(){
    console.log('Wheeyee!')
  }, 1000)
}, 1000)

var wait1000 =  ()=> new Promise((resolve, reject)=> {setTimeout(resolve, 1000)})

wait1000()
  .then(function() {
    console.log('Yay!')
    return wait1000()
  })
  .then(function() {
    console.log('Wheeyee!')
  })

8. Block-Scoped Constructs Let and Const

let to restrict the scope to the blocks. Vars are function scoped, const it an immutable, and it’s also block-scoped like let

function calculateTotalAmount (vip) {
  var amount = 0
  if (vip) {
    var amount = 1
  }
  { // more crazy blocks!
    var amount = 100
    {
      var amount = 1000
      }
  }  
  return amount
}
console.log(calculateTotalAmount(true))
// The result will be 1000

function calculateTotalAmount (vip) {
  var amount = 0 // probably should also be let, but you can mix var and let
  if (vip) {
    let amount = 1 // first amount is still 0
  } 
  { // more crazy blocks!
    let amount = 100 // first amount is still 0
    {
      let amount = 1000 // first amount is still 0
      }
  }  
  return amount
}
console.log(calculateTotalAmount(true))
// The result will be 0

function calculateTotalAmount (vip) {
  const amount = 0  
  if (vip) {
    const amount = 1 
  } 
  { // more crazy blocks!
    const amount = 100 
    {
      const amount = 1000
      }
  }  
  return amount
}
console.log(calculateTotalAmount(true))
// The result will be 0

9. Classes in ES6

class baseModel {
  // default params
  constructor(options = {}, data = []) { // class constructor
    this.name = 'Base'
    this.url = 'http://azat.co/api'
    this.data = data
    this.options = options
  }
  // no need function keyword and ":"
  getName() { // class method
    console.log(`Class name: ${this.name}`)
  }
}

class AccountModel extends baseModel {
  constructor(options, data) {
    super({private: true}, ['32113123123', '524214691']) //call the parent method with super
     this.name = 'Account Model'
     this.url +='/accounts/'
   }

  get accountsData() { //calculated attribute getter
    // ... make XHR
    return this.data
  }
}

let accounts = new AccountModel(5)
accounts.getName()
console.log('Data is %s', accounts.accountsData)

Class name: Account Model
Data is %s 32113123123,524214691

10. Modules in ES6

There were no native modules support in JavaScript before ES6. People came up with AMD, RequireJS, CommonJS and other workarounds. Now there are modules with import and export operands

// ES5 `module.js`
module.exports = {
  port: 3000,
  getAccounts: function() {
    ...
  }
}

// ES5 `main.js`
var service = require('module.js')
console.log(service.port) // 3000

// ES6 `module.js`
export var port = 3000
export function getAccounts(url) {
  ...
}

// ES6 file `main.js`
import {port, getAccounts} from 'module'
console.log(port) // 3000
// OR
import * as service from 'module'
console.log(service.port) // 3000

If you have any other useful ideas or suggestion to enhance productivity or keep your system up to date, I would love to hear it and share it, please feel free to leave it in the comment or @meabed

Happy coding 🤞