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

What this book covers

Chapter 1, The Entrance of JavaScript into Mainstream Programming, is where we will learn about the importance of JavaScript.

Chapter 2, Can We Use JavaScript Server-Side? Sure!, delves into server-side JavaScript. JavaScript's use is more than browser-side and can be used for rich, complex, server-based applications.

Chapter 3, Nitty-Gritty Grammar, is where you will learn the details of how to write JavaScript and how its grammar differs from Python.

Chapter 4, Data and Your Friend, JSON, covers data. Every computer program must work with some sort of data. You will be learning how to interact with data within JavaScript.

Chapter 5, Hello World! and Beyond: Your First Application, sees you write your first JavaScript programs!

Chapter 6, The Document Object Model (DOM), teaches you about the basics of how to work with a web page in order to connect JavaScript with user interactions.

Chapter 7, Events, Event-Driven Design, and APIs, takes you beyond basic interactions and shows you how to incorporate dynamic data into your programs.

Chapter 8, Working with Frameworks and Libraries, introduces some of the modern scaffolds for JavaScript programs in order to expand your knowledge of industry-standard applications.

Chapter 9, Deciphering Error Messages and Performance Leaks, covers errors. Errors happen! We should know a bit about how to work with them and debug our programs.

Chapter 10, JavaScript, Ruler of the Frontend, takes a closer look at how JavaScript brings the frontend together.

Chapter 11, What is Node.js?, goes into Node.js. Since the use of JavaScript on the frontend has been examined, this chapter dives into its role in the "JavaScript everywhere" paradigm using Node.js.

Chapter 12, Node.js versus Python, asks, Why would a developer choose Node.js over Python? Can they work together? And how do we install packages that we need to create and run our programs?

Chapter 13, Using Express, looks at Express.js (or just Express), which is a web application framework, considered the de facto web server of Node.js.

Chapter 14, React with Django, explores Django. You may have Django as a Python framework, so let's see how it differs from JavaScript frameworks on both the frontend and the backend.

Chapter 15, Combining Node.js with the Frontend, wires together both the frontend and the backend. We'll build two small applications for (almost) full-stack functionality.

Chapter 16, Enter Webpack, concerns tooling for deployment, which is vital for efficient JavaScript.

Chapter 17, Security and Keys, dives into security. JavaScript needs knowledge of secure resources, so how do we deal with them?

Chapter 18, Node.js and MongoDB, moves on to MongoDB. MongoDB is a great example of how to work with a database from JavaScript. We'll be using it as our example NoSQL database, as it works well with JSON data.

Chapter 19, Putting It All Together, has you create a final project using a full, modern JavaScript stack.