About this ebook
The in-depth, detailed, hand-on manual on Express.js, the most popular Node.js framework. Will get you up and running fast and save you time. Understand the concepts, learn the best practices. Become an Express.js expert today.
Express.js API reference, quick start guides, 20+ meticulously explained examples and tutorials -- over 270 pages with more than 60 illustrations.
- Quick Start
- The Interface
- TIps and Tricks
- Tutorials and Examples
Why
Express.js is the most popular Node.js web framework yet. As of this writing (September of 2013), there are no books that are solely dedicated to it. Its official website has bits of insights for advanced Node.js programmers. However, I found that many people -- including those who go through HackReactor7 program and come to my Node.js classes at General Assembly and pariSOMA -- are interested in a comprehensive resource. The one that would cover all the different components of Express.js work together in a real production-like application. The goal of Express.js Guide is to become such resource.
What This Book is
Express.js Guide is a concise book on one particular library. This book contains Express.js API 3.3.58 description, the best practices on code organization and patterns, real-world examples of web apps. The topics include but not limited to middleware, command-line interface and scaffolding, ren- dering templates, extracting params from dynamic URLs, parsing payloads and cookies, managing authentication with sessions, error handling and prepping apps for production.
For more details and for what exactly the book covers, please refer to the Table of Contents.
What This Book is Not
This book is not an introduction to Node.js, nor is it a book that covers all aspects of building a modern day web application, e.g., websockets, databases and (of course) front-end development.
Keep in mind that readers also won't find in Express.js Guide a resource for learning programming and/or JavaScript fundamentals.
You might want to take a look at Rapid Prototyping with JS9 for the introduction to Node.js, MongoDB and front-end development with Backbone.js.
In the real-world and especially in Node.js development, due to its modularized philosophy, we seldom use just a single framework. In the book, we have tried to stick only to Express.js and leave everything else out as much as possible, without compromising the usefulness of examples. Therefore, we intentionally left out some important chunks of web developments, for example databases, authentication and testing. Although these elements are present in tutorials and examples, they're not explained in detail. For those materials, you could check books in the Related Reading and Resources section at the end of the book.
Who This Book is For
This book is for people fluent in programming and front-end JavaScript. In addition, to get the most benefits, readers must be familiar with basic Node.js concepts like process and global, and know core modules, including streams, clusters and buffer type.
If you're thinking of starting a Node.js app, or of rewriting an existing one, and your weapon of choice is Express.js -- this guide is for you! It will answer most of your "how" and "why" questions.
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About the author
Azat Mardan has over 12 years of experience in web, mobile and software development. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Informatics and a Master of Science in Information Systems Technology degree, Azat possesses deep academic knowledge as well as extensive practical experience. Currently, Azat works as a Team Lead / Senior Software Engineer at DocuSign, where his team rebuilds 50 million user product (DocuSign web app) using the tech stack of Node.js, Express.js, Backbone.js, CoffeeScript, Jade, Stylus and Redis. Recently, he worked as an engineer at the curated social media news aggregator website, Storify.com (acquired by LiveFyre) which is used by BBC, NBC, CNN, The White House and others. Storify runs everything on Node.js unlike other companies. It’s the maintainer of the open-source library jade-browser. Before that, Azat worked as a CTO/co-founder at Gizmo — an enterprise cloud platform for mobile marketing campaigns, and has undertaken the prestigious 500 Startups business accelerator program. Prior to this, Azat was developing he developed mission-critical applications for government agencies in Washington, DC, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Center for Biotechnology Information, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, as well as Lockheed Martin. Azat is a frequent attendee at Bay Area tech meet-ups and hackathons (AngelHack hackathon ’12 finalist with team FashionMetric.com). In addition, Azat teaches technical classes at General Assembly, Hack Reactor, pariSOMA and Marakana (acquired by Twitter) to much acclaim. In his spare time, he writes about technology on his blog: webAppLog.com which is number one in “express.js tutorial” Google search results. Azat is also the author of Express.js Guide, Rapid Prototyping with JS and Oh My JS; and the creator of open-source Node.js projects, including ExpressWorks, mongoui and HackHall. Personal web page: azat.co Facebook: facebook.com/azat.mardanov Twitter: @azat_co Hacker News: azat_co GitHub: azat-co
