Programming JavaScript Applications

Preface

Introduction

There are many books on the web technologies covered in this publication. However, there are precious few on JavaScript that can be recommended to somebody who wants to learn how to build a complete JavaScript application from the ground up. Meanwhile, almost every new tech startup needs knowledgeable JavaScript application developers on staff. This book exists for one purpose: to help you gain the knowledge you need to build complete JavaScript applications that are easy to extend and maintain.

This book is not intended to teach you the basics of JavaScript. Instead, it’s designed to build on your existing knowledge and discuss JavaScript features and techniques that will make your code easier to work with over time. Normally, as an application grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to add new features and fix bugs. Your code becomes too rigid and fragile, and even a small change could necessitate a lengthy refactor. If you follow the patterns outlined in this book, your code will remain flexible and resilient. Changes to one piece of code won’t negatively impact another.

This book will focus primarily on client-side architecture, although it will also cover server-side topics, such as basic RESTful APIs and Node. The trend is that a great deal of the application logic is getting pushed to the client. It was once the case that the server environment would handle things like templating and communication with vendor services. Now, it’s common to deal with both ...