Book Image

Hands-on JavaScript for Python Developers

By : Sonyl Nagale
Book Image

Hands-on JavaScript for Python Developers

By: Sonyl Nagale

Overview of this book

Knowledge of Python is a great foundation for learning other languages. This book will help you advance in your software engineering career by leveraging your Python programming skills to learn JavaScript and apply its unique features not only for frontend web development but also for streamlining work on the backend. Starting with the basics of JavaScript, you’ll cover its syntax, its use in the browser, and its frameworks and libraries. From working with user interactions and ingesting data from APIs through to creating APIs with Node.js, this book will help you get up and running with JavaScript using hands-on exercises, code snippets, and detailed descriptions of JavaScript implementation and benefits. To understand the use of JavaScript in the backend, you’ll explore Node.js and discover how it communicates with databases. As you advance, you’ll get to grips with creating your own RESTful APIs and connecting the frontend and backend for holistic full-stack development knowledge. By the end of this Python JavaScript book, you’ll have the knowledge you need to write full-fledged web applications from start to finish. You’ll have also gained hands-on experience of working through several projects, which will help you advance in your career as a JavaScript developer.
Table of Contents (26 chapters)
1
Section 1 - What is JavaScript? What is it not?
6
Section 2 - Using JavaScript on the Front-End
13
Section 3 - The Back-End: Node.js vs. Python
20
Section 4 - Communicating with Databases
Using Express

As we've discussed, JavaScript in the backend is incredibly useful for creating web applications and harnessing the power of JavaScript on both the front- and back-end. One of the most fundamental tools for a server-side application that interacts with the frontend is a basic web server. In order to provide APIs, database access, and other functionality that is not designed to be handled by the browser, we first need to set up a piece of software to handle these interactions.

Express.js (or just Express) is a web application framework, considered the de facto web server of Node.js. It enjoys both high popularity and ease of use. Let's use it to build a full-blown web app.

The following topics will be covered in this chapter:

  • The scaffold: Using express-generator
  • Routes and views
  • Controllers and data: Using APIs in Express
  • Creating an API with Express
...