Book Image

Mastering JavaScript Single Page Application Development

Book Image

Mastering JavaScript Single Page Application Development

Overview of this book

Single-page web applications—or SPAs, as they are commonly referred to—are quickly becoming the de facto standard for web app development. The fact that a major part of the app runs inside a single web page makes it very interesting and appealing. Also, the accelerated growth of browser capabilities is pushing us closer to the day when all apps will run entirely in the browser. This book will take your JavaScript development skills to the next level by teaching you to create a single-page application within a full-stack JavaScript environment. Using only JavaScript, you can go from being a front-end developer to a full-stack application developer with relative ease. You will learn to cross the boundary from front-end development to server-side development through the use of JavaScript on both ends. Use your existing knowledge of JavaScript by learning to manage a JSON document data store with MongoDB, writing a JavaScript powered REST API with Node.js and Express, and designing a front-end powered by AngularJS. This book will teach you to leverage the MEAN stack to do everything from document database design, routing REST web API requests, data-binding within views, and adding authentication and security to building a full-fledged, complex, single-page web application. In addition to building a full-stack JavaScript app, you will learn to test it with JavaScript-powered testing tools such as Mocha, Karma, and Jasmine. Finally, you will learn about deployment and scaling so that you can launch your own apps into the real world.

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Mastering JavaScript Single Page Application Development
Oct, 2016 | 452 pages
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Table of Contents (20 chapters)
Mastering JavaScript Single Page Application Development
Mastering JavaScript Single Page Application Development
Credits
Credits
About the Authors
About the Authors
About the Reviewer
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Getting Organized with NPM, Bower, and Grunt
Getting Organized with NPM, Bower, and Grunt
What is Node Package Manager?
Bower
Grunt
Summary
2
Model-View-Whatever
Model-View-Whatever
The original MVC pattern
MVP and MVVM
VIPER and other variations of MVW
AngularJS and MVW
Using the MVW pattern in an SPA
Summary
3
SPA Essentials – Creating the Ideal Application Environment
SPA Essentials – Creating the Ideal Application Environment
The JSON data format
The differences between SQL and NoSQL databases
When to use SQL versus NoSQL databases
Methods of presenting an SPA container
Managing layouts
Summary
4
REST is Best – Interacting with the Server Side of Your App
REST is Best – Interacting with the Server Side of Your App
Understanding the fundamentals of REST
Benefits of REST
RESTful web services
Writing basic REST API endpoints
Alternatives to REST
Summary
5
Its All About the View
Its All About the View
JavaScript templating engines
Underscore.js
Mustache.js
Handlebars.js
Other differences in Handlebars from Mustache templates
Pure.js
Pug
Embedded JavaScript (EJS)
Optimizing your application layout
Summary
6
Data Binding, and Why You Should Embrace It
Data Binding, and Why You Should Embrace It
What is data binding?
Data binding with modern JavaScript frameworks
Implementing data binding with native JavaScript
Why use data binding?
Summary
7
Leveraging the MEAN Stack
Leveraging the MEAN Stack
The Node.js environment
Getting started with Express
Exploring MongoDB
Starting with AngularJS
Summary
8
Managing Data Using MongoDB
Managing Data Using MongoDB
Exploring the NoSQL database model
Commanding MongoDB
Incorporating MongoDB into the SPA
MongoDB database performance
Summary
9
Handling Web Requests with Express
Handling Web Requests with Express
Examining Express in detail
Developing a RESTful API
Summary
10
Displaying Views
Displaying Views
Setting up our dashboard
Implementing AngularJS
Talking to the backend
Summary
11
Adding Security and Authentication
Adding Security and Authentication
Adding authentication with Passport
Authenticating requests
Securing Express
Summary
12
Connecting the App to Social Media
Connecting the App to Social Media
Connecting to Facebook
Connecting to Twitter
Sharing giftlists
Summary
13
Testing with Mocha, Karma, and More
Testing with Mocha, Karma, and More
Types of testing
Summary
14
Deploying and Scaling the SPA
Deploying and Scaling the SPA
Packaging for deployment
Setting up a cloud database
Deploying the application to Heroku
Scaling the SPA
Summary

Setting up a cloud database

Our SPA will soon live in the cloud, and it needs to be connected to a database. Moving our application to the cloud requires our database also to be accessible from the Web. Having a database running on your local machine isn't going to cut it.

There are a number of cloud-based database services, but I have found that MongoLab is one of the easiest to set up, use, and maintain. They offer a free sandbox database, which is perfect for development and experimentation. For production-level applications, you'd want to look into a higher subscription rate.

The PaaS we will use to deploy our application, Heroku, plays really well with MongoLab, and even offers Mongolab as a one-click add-on. We will set things up manually for now so you can learn how things work a little better.

Creating a MongoLab account

The first thing you need to do is to set up your account on MongoLab. This couldn't be simpler. Go to https://mongolab.com/signup/ and fill in the form. After you've...

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