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)

Summary

In this chapter, we've explored the use of Node.js for creating RESTful APIs. We've considered various uses of APIs and some techniques for designing them. Looking at aspects such as HTTP codes and input validation, we've considered common problems that are dealt with when creating and maintaining APIs. Despite this, there are still many areas of API design and development that haven't been considered.

The best way to continue improving your knowledge about API design and creation is to start making your own, whether at work or through personal projects. The code we've created throughout the exercises in this chapter can be used as a jumping-off point. Try expanding on what we've done here to create your own endpoints and eventually your own APIs.

In the next chapter, we'll talk about code quality. This will include techniques for writing readable code as well as techniques that can be used to test our code. Those techniques can be used...