This book is aimed at JavaScript developers who may have some experience with React, but no previous experience with full-stack development involving Node, Express, and MongoDB, and who want practical guidelines to start building different types of web applications with this stack.

Chapter 1, Unleashing React Applications with MERN, introduces the MERN stack technologies and the applications developed in this book. We will discuss the context and relevance of developing web applications with React, Node, Express, and MongoDB.

Chapter 2, Preparing the Development Environment, helps set up the MERN stack technologies for development. We will explore essential development tools, install Node, MongoDB, Express, React, and other required libraries, and then run code to check the setup.

Chapter 3, Building a Backend with MongoDB, Express, and Node, implements the backend of a skeleton MERN application. We will build a standalone server-side application with MongoDB, Express, and Node, which stores user details and has APIs for user authentication and CRUD operations.

Chapter 4, Adding a React Frontend to Complete MERN, completes the MERN skeleton application by integrating a React frontend. We will implement a working frontend with React views for interacting with the user CRUD and auth APIs on the server.

Chapter 5, Starting with a Simple Social Media Application, builds a social media application by extending the skeleton application. We will explore the capabilities of the MERN stack by implementing social media features, such as post sharing, liking, and commenting; following friends; and an aggregated newsfeed.

Chapter 6, Exercising New MERN Skills with an Online Marketplace, implements basic features in an online marketplace application. We will implement buying- and selling- related features with support for seller accounts, product listings, and product search by category.

Chapter 7, Extending the Marketplace for Orders and Payments, builds the marketplace application further with a shopping cart, order management, and payments processing. We will add a shopping cart feature and allow users to place orders with the items in their carts. We will also integrate Stripe to collect and process payments.

Chapter 8, Building a Media Streaming Application, implements media uploading and streaming using MongoDB GridFS. We will start building a basic media streaming application, allowing registered users to upload video files that will be stored on MongoDB and streamed back so that viewers can play each video in a simple React media player.

Chapter 9, Customizing the Media Player and Improving SEO, upgrades the media viewing capabilities with a custom media player and autoplay media list. We will implement customized controls on the default React media player, add a playlist that can be autoplayed, and improve SEO for the media details by adding selective server-side rendering with data for just the media detail view.

Chapter 10,Developing a Web-Based VR Game, uses React 360 to develop a 3D virtual reality infused game for the web. We will explore the 3D and VR capabilities of React 360 and build a simple web-based VR game.

Chapter 11,Making the VR Game Dynamic using MERN, builds a dynamic VR game application by extending the MERN skeleton application and integrating React 360. We will implement a game data model that allows users to create their own VR games and incorporate the dynamic game data with the game developed using React 360.

Chapter 12,Following Best Practices and Developing MERN Further, reflects on the lessons learned in previous chapters and suggests improvements for further MERN-based application development. We will expand on some of the best practices already applied, such as modularity in the app structure, other practices that should be applied, such as writing test code, and possible improvements, such as optimizing bundle size.

The content in this book is organized with the assumption that you have familiarity with basic web-based technologies, a working knowledge of programming constructs in JavaScript, and a general idea of how React applications work. As you go through the book, you will uncover how these concepts come together when building full-fledged web applications with React, Node, Express, and MongoDB.

In order to maximize your learning experience while reading through the chapters, it is recommended that you run the associated version of the application code in parallel, using the relevant instructions provided in each chapter.

import path from 'path'
const CURRENT_WORKING_DIR = process.cwd()
app.use('/dist', express.static(path.join(CURRENT_WORKING_DIR, 'dist')))

{
    "presets": [
      "env",
      "stage-2",
"react"
    ],
"plugins": [
      "react-hot-loader/babel"
    ]
}

npm install babel-preset-react --save-dev

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