Book Image

Professional JavaScript

By : Hugo Di Francesco, Siyuan Gao, Vinicius Isola, Philip Kirkbride
Book Image

Professional JavaScript

By: Hugo Di Francesco, Siyuan Gao, Vinicius Isola, Philip Kirkbride

Overview of this book

In depth knowledge of JavaScript makes it easier to learn a variety of other frameworks, including React, Angular, and related tools and libraries. This book is designed to help you cover the core JavaScript concepts you need to build modern applications. You'll start by learning how to represent an HTML document in the Document Object Model (DOM). Then, you'll combine your knowledge of the DOM and Node.js to create a web scraper for practical situations. As you read through further lessons, you'll create a Node.js-based RESTful API using the Express library for Node.js. You'll also understand how modular designs can be used for better reusability and collaboration with multiple developers on a single project. Later lessons will guide you through building unit tests, which ensure that the core functionality of your program is not affected over time. The book will also demonstrate how constructors, async/await, and events can load your applications quickly and efficiently. Finally, you'll gain useful insights into functional programming concepts such as immutability, pure functions, and higher-order functions. By the end of this book, you'll have the skills you need to tackle any real-world JavaScript development problem using a modern JavaScript approach, both for the client and server sides.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)

What is an API?

An API is a standardized way of interacting with a software application. APIs allow different software applications to interact with each other without having to understand the inner workings of the underlying functions.

APIs have become popular in modern software engineering as they allow organizations to be more effective by reusing code. Take the use of maps as an example: before the popularization of APIs, organizations needing map functionality would have to maintain map widgets internally. Often, these map widgets would perform poorly, as they were only a secondary concern of their business and engineering teams.

Now it's rare for a website or application that uses a map to maintain it internally. Many applications for the web and mobile phones are utilizing map APIs from either Google or alternatives such as OpenStreetMap. This allows each company to focus on its core competency by not having to create and maintain their own map widgets.

There are...