Jon Raasch - JavaScript Programming: Pushing the Limits

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-118-52456-5 (paperback); ISBN 978-1-118-52455-8 (ebook); 978-1-118-52440-4 (ebook) Set in 9.5/12 Myriad Pro Regular by Indianapolis Composition Services Printed in The United States by Bind Rite Robbinsville Publisher's Acknowledgements Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Editorial and Production VP Consumer and Technology Publishing Director: Michelle Leete Associate DirectorBook Content Management: Martin Tribe Associate Publisher: Chris Webb Associate Commissioning Editor: Ellie Scott Project Editor: Sydney Argenta Copy Editor: Melba Hopper Technical Editor: Rick Waldron Editorial Manager: Jodi Jensen Senior Project Editor: Sara Shlaer Editorial Assistant: Annie Sullivan Marketing Associate Marketing Director: Louise Breinholt Marketing Manager: Lorna Mein Marketing Assistant: Polly Thomas Composition Services Compositor: Jennifer Mayberry Proofreader: Wordsmith Editorial Indexer: Infodex Indexing Services, Inc. About the Author Jon Raasch is a freelance web developer specializing in modern web apps for desktop and mobile devices. A user experience junkie, he builds JavaScript apps that focus on serving the user, whether through improved performance, increased usability or enhanced functionality. He believes that once users' demands are met, business goals will follow. Jon is the author of Smashing WebKit and the co-author of Smashing Mobile Web Development.

He has written numerous articles for Smashing Magazine and his personal blog. A perfectionist when it comes to best practices, you can find him building sites and apps in his pajamas. He's currently based in Portland, OR. Follow Jon on Twitter @jonraasch and check out his website jonraasch.com. Dedication "Push it to the limit" Rick Ro$$ About the Contributor Kevin Bradwick has over ten years experience working in the web development industry. He's committed to building and sharing knowledge with the aim of producing high quality code.

He currently works for the BBC where he builds and maintains applications that are used across the domestic and international website. Acknowledgments I'd like to offer a big thank you to everyone who has ever given back to the development community. That means anyone who has contributed to an open-source project, written a tutorial, answered a question, or even filed a bug report. We're all standing on the shoulders of giants, and these numerous contributions have brought web development to a wonderful place over the past few years. It's an amazing time to be a web developer, and that's all thanks to our excellent community. Introduction Writing JavaScript is more fun today than it's ever been before.

In recent years, HTML5 introduced a wide variety of JavaScript APIs that push the boundaries of what developers can achieve in the browser. These new APIs allow you to create impressive features such as 3D graphics, geolocated data, and high performance animation. But HTML5's advancements are much more than flashy components to stun your audience. They also include a number of APIs to streamline the development process and allow you to create the next generation of web apps. If the browser-level advancements aren't enough to get you excited, there's also server-side JavaScript with Node.js. Node isn't just some academic exercise about making a server with JavaScript.

It's a production-ready server solution that caters to modern web app models, which need to relay messages to and from the user in real time. This book teaches you how to create a next generation JavaScript app. You'll not only learn how to build the app, but I also explain the theory behind the way you should build it. By the end of the book, you'll be armed with techniques for building rich, interactive apps. But more importantly, you'll have a deeper understanding of engineering best practices. You'll be a more responsible developer whether you're writing JavaScript, or using another language to build the apps of the future.

The book is divided into four parts: Part I: A Firm Foundation Part I starts by covering some general best practices and drives home the book's central messages: loose coupling and the separation of concerns. It then discusses a number of development tools and teaches you how to establish a test driven development (TDD) approach using Grunt.js. Last, it compares a number of different libraries and frameworks you can use to jumpstart your development, and teaches you how to pick the best one for your individual project. Part II: Building The Front-End In Part II, you dive in to building a foundation for an app using Backbone.js, which lets you you set up an MVC for your front-end, separating the data from the interface. You also learn to establish an Ajax-based navigation system using pushState. Next, Part II extends what you learned about Backbone, teaching you how to render views using a JavaScript templating engine.

Templates allow you to further separate your app's data from its presentational layer. Finally, the section covers some best practices for form handling and validation to help you complete your app's foundation. You use a progressive enhancement approach, starting with a solid HTML5 base state, upon which you add JavaScript widgets, as well as polyfills to support older browsers. You then create a form in Backbone that automatically syncs with your app's backend. Part III: Working with Serverside JavaScript In Part III, you learn how to write JavaScript on the server using Node.js. You start by learning the basics of Node, including how it works and when to use it.