Enterprise Web Development

Appendix B. Running Code Samples and IDE

The code samples used in this book are available on GitHub—they are grouped by chapters. If a chapter has code samples, look for the directory with the respective name.

Technically, you don’t have to use any integrated development environment (IDE) to run code examples (except the CDB example from Chapter 5). Just open the main file in a web browser, and off you go. But using an IDE will make you more productive.

Choosing an IDE

Selecting an IDE that supports JavaScript is a matter of personal preference. Because there is no compilation stage and most of your debugging will be done by using the web browser tools, picking a text editor that supports syntax highlighting is all that most developers need. For example, there is an excellent text editor called Sublime Text 2. Among many programming languages, this editor understands the keywords of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and it offers not only syntax highlighting, but also context-sensitive help, and autocomplete.

If you are coming from a Java background, the chances are that you are familiar and comfortable with the Eclipse IDE. In this case, install the Eclipse plug-in VJET for JavaScript support.

Oracle’s IDE NetBeans 7.3 and above support HTML5 and JavaScript development. NetBeans includes a JavaScript debugger that allows your code to connect to the web browser while debugging inside the IDE.

If you prefer Microsoft technologies, they offer excellent JavaScript support in Visual Studio 2012. ...