Chapter 1, What is Node?, introduces you to the Node platform. We cover its uses, the technological architectural choices in Node, its history, and the history of server-side JavaScript, and why JavaScript should remain trapped in browsers.

Chapter 2, Setting up Node, goes over setting up a Node developer environment, including several scenarios of compiling and installing from source code. We briefly touch on Node deployment to production servers.

Chapter 3, Node Modules, explains that modules are the unit of modularity in developing Node applications. We take a dive into understanding and developing Node modules. We then take a close look at npm, the Node Package Manager, and several scenarios using npm to manage installed packages, or to develop npm packages and distribute them for others.

Chapter 4, Variations on a Simple Application, explains that with the fundamentals in hand we begin exploring application development in Node. Specifically we develop a simple application using Node itself, the Connect middleware framework, and the Express application framework. While the application is simple, it gives us a chance to explore the Node event loop, accommodating long running calculations, asynchronous and synchronous algorithms, and pushing heavy calculations to a backend server.

Chapter 5, A Simple Web Server, EventEmitters, and HTTP Clients, explains that in Node the HTTP client and server objects are front and center. We take a close look at both ends of the HTTP conversation by developing both HTTP client and server applications.

Chapter 6, Data Storage and Retrieval, explains that most applications need some sort of long-term reliable data storage. We look at implementing an application with both SQL and MongoDB database engines. Along the way we cover user authentication and presenting a better error page, using the Express framework.

Today, we normally install Node from source, and it works best on Unix- or POSIX-like systems. The requirements to begin using Node are modest, and your most important tool is the one between your ears.

Installing from source requires a Unix-/POSIX-like system (Linux, Mac, FreeBSD, OpenSolaris, and so on), modern C/C++ compiler, the OpenSSL libraries, and Python version 2.4 or later.

Node programs can be edited with any text editor, but one that can handle JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and so on will be useful.

While the book is about developing web applications, it does not require you to have a web server. Node provides its own web server stack.

This book was written for any software engineer who wants the adventure that comes with a new software platform embodying a new programming paradigm.

Server-side engineers may find the concepts refreshing, giving you a different perspective on web application development. JavaScript is a powerful language and Node's asynchronous nature plays to JavaScript's strengths.

Developers experienced with JavaScript in the browser may find it fun to bring that knowledge to a new territory, and to write in JavaScript without accessing the DOM. (There's no browser, hence no DOM, unless you install JSDom.)

While the chapters build on each other, how you read this book is up to you.

We assume you already know how to write software, and have an understanding of modern programming languages such as JavaScript.

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text are shown as follows: "The http object encapsulates the HTTP protocol and its http.createServer method creates a whole web server, listening on the port specified in the .listen method."

A block of code is set as follows:

var http = require('http');
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
  res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
  res.end('Hello World\n');
}).listen(8124, "127.0.0.1");
console.log('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8124/');

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

var util = require('util');
var A = "a different value A";
var B = "a different value B";
var m1 = require('./module1');
util.log('A='+A+' B='+B+' values='+util.inspect(m1.values()));

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

$ sudo /usr/sbin/update-rc.d node defaults

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "A real security system would have fields for at least a username and password. Instead we'll skip this and just ask the user to click the Login button."

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