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Node Web Development

Starting

David Herron
August 2011

A practical introduction to Node, the exciting new server-side JavaScript web development stack

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Book Details

ISBN 139781849515146

Paperback172 pages

About This Book

Go from nothing to a database-backed web application in no time at all
Get started quickly with Node and discover that JavaScript is not just for browsers anymore
An introduction to server-side JavaScript with Node, the Connect and Express frameworks, and using SQL or MongoDB database back-end

Who This Book Is For

If you are a developer who wants to use JavaScript on the server side in order to build quicker, higher performing web applications, then this book is for you. It is recommended that you should have at least a rudimentary understanding of JavaScript and web application development.

Chapter 1: What is Node?

What can you do with Node?

Why should you use Node?

Spelling: Node, Node.js, or Node.JS?

Summary

Chapter 2: Setting up Node

System requirements

Installation on POSIX-like systems (Linux, Solaris, Mac, and so on)

Installing developer tools on Mac OS X

Run a few commands; test your installation

Installing npm—the Node package manager

Starting Node servers at system startup

Summary

Chapter 3: Node Modules

What's a module?

Node package Manager (npm)

Summary

Chapter 4: Variations on a Simple Application

Creating a Math Wizard

Implementing the Math Wizard with Node (no frameworks)

Using Express to implement the Math Wizard

Summary

Chapter 5: A Simple Web Server, EventEmitters, and HTTP Clients

Sending and receiving events with EventEmitters

HTTP Sniffer—listening to the HTTP conversation

Implementing a basic web server

MIME types and the MIME npm package

Cookie handling

Virtual hosts and request routing

Making HTTP Client requests

Summary

Chapter 6: Data Storage and Retrieval

Data storage engines for Node

SQLite3—Lightweight in-process SQL engine

Mongoose—Node interface to MongoDB

A quick look at authenticating your users

Summary

What You Will Learn

Discover the role of server-side JavaScript in web application development
Make informed architecture choices in Node for performance and throughput
Install and use Node for both the development and deployment of server-side web applications
Use the Connect and Express application frameworks
Set up either SQL or MongoDB database systems in your application
Learn the difference between synchronous and asynchronous algorithms and why they are important

In Detail

Node is an exciting new technology stack that brings JavaScript to the server-side of web applications for the first time. Node means that JavaScript is no longer just for browsers. It's for web application development, it's for developing any internet protocol, it's for the real-time web, it's for command line scripts, and much more.

Node Web Development gives you an excellent starting point straight into the heart of developing server side web applications with node. You will learn, through practical examples, how to use the HTTP Server and Client objects, the Connect and Express application frameworks, the algorithms for asynchronous execution, and use both SQL and MongoDB databases.

This book is the ideal companion for getting started with Node. Starting with practical advice on installing Node for both development and application deployment, you will learn how to develop both HTTP Server and Client applications. Many different ways of working with Node are shown, including using database storage engines in applications and developing websites both with and without the Connect/Express web application framework. You will also get an introduction to Node’s CommonJS module system allowing you to implement an important subset of object-oriented design.

Authors

David Herron

David Herron has worked as a software engineer and software quality engineer in Silicon Valley for over 20 years. Recently he worked for Yahoo! as an architect of the Quality Engineering team for their new Node.js based web app platform (Manhattan and Mojito). While a staff engineer at Sun Microsystems, David worked as an architect of the Java SE Quality Engineering team where he focused on test automation tools, including the AWT Robot class that's now widely used in GUI test automation software. He was involved with launching the OpenJDK project, and other open source activities related to Java. Before Sun he worked for VXtreme on the video streaming stack which eventually became Windows Media Player when Microsoft bought that company. At The Wollongong Group he worked on both the e-mail client and server software and was part of several IETF working groups improving e-mail-related protocols. David is interested in electric vehicles, world energy supplies, climate change, and environmental issues, and is a co-founder of Transition Silicon Valley. As an online journalist, he writes about electric cars and other green technology for PlugInCars.com, TorqueNews.com, Examiner.com, LongTailPipe.com, and ElectricRaceNews.com. He runs a large electric vehicle discussion website on VisForVoltage.org, and blogs about other topics including Node.js, Drupal, and Doctor Who on DavidHerron.com. Using Node.js, he has developed a Content Management System called AkashaCMS (akashacms.com) that produces static HTML websites.