Teixeira - Professional node.js: building JavaScript-based scalable software

CONTENTS

Professional Node.js: Building JavaScript-Based Scalable Software

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John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Copyright 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-118-18546-9

ISBN: 978-1-118-22754-1 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-24056-4 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-26518-5 (ebk)

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This book is dedicated to my wife, Susana.

Throughout all these years she has always been an

example of strength and persistence.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PEDRO TEIXEIRA is a prolific open-source programmer and author of many Node.js modules. After graduating with a degree in Software Engineering more than 14 years ago, he has been a consultant, a programmer, and an active and internationally known Node.js community member.

He is a founding partner of The Node Firm and a Senior Programmer at Nodejitsu Inc., the leading Node.js platform-as-a-service provider. He is also the author of the popular Node Tuts screencasts.

When Pedro was 10 years old, his father taught him how to program a ZX Spectrum, and since then he has never wanted to stop. He taught himself how to program his fathers Apple IIc and then entered the PC era. In college he was introduced to the universe of UNIX and open-source, becoming seriously addicted to it. In his professional life he has developed systems and products built with Visual Basic, C, C++, Java, PHP, Ruby, and JavaScript for big telecommunications companies, banks, hotel chains, and others.

He has been a Node.js enthusiast since its initial development, having authored many applications and many well-known modules like Fugue, Alfred.js, Carrier, Nock, and more.

ABOUT THE TECHNICAL EDITOR

MANUEL KIESSLING is a software development and systems administration team lead, using and teaching agile practices in both domains. He runs several open-source projects, is an active blogger, and wrote the freely available Node Beginner Book. He currently lives near Cologne, Germany, with his wife and two children.

He is the co-author of Chapter 22, Making Universal Real-Time Web Applications Using Socket.IO, and Chapter 23, Connecting to MySQL Using node-mysql.

CREDITS

ACQUISITIONS EDITOR

Mary James

PROJECT EDITOR

Tora Estep

TECHNICAL EDITOR

Manuel Kiessling

PRODUCTION EDITOR

Daniel Scribner

COPY EDITOR

Kezia Endsley

EDITORIAL MANAGER

Mary Beth Wakefield

FREELANCER EDITORIAL MANAGER

Rosemarie Graham

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING

David Mayhew

MARKETING MANAGER

Ashley Zurcher

BUSINESS MANAGER

Amy Knies

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Tim Tate

VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE GROUP PUBLISHER

Richard Swadley

VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER

Neil Edde

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Jim Minatel

PROJECT COORDINATOR, COVER

Katie Crocker

PROOFREADER

Nicole Hirschman

INDEXER

Ron Strauss

COVER DESIGNER

Ryan Sneed

COVER IMAGE

Gregory Olsen/iStockPhoto

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

FIRST, I WANT TO THANK my wife, Susana, and my kids, Henrique and Beatriz. You have given me courage and persistence by reminding me what is really important in life.

Id also like to thank my Acquisitions Editor at Wiley, Mary E. James, for having faith in me and signing me up to write this book.

I want to thank my good friend and former colleague, programmer and photographer Pedro Mendes, who persuaded me to start writing a book about Node.js over a few beers in Lisbon.

I also want to thank my good friend Nuno Job, who has been my companion in this open-source and Node.js crusade for these last few years.

A big word of appreciation also goes out to the Node.js community in general. You are the best, most welcoming, appreciative, and fun programming community I have been a part of.

Lastly, I want to thank you, the reader, for buying this book. I hope it helps you in learning about the ins and outs of the wonderful world of programming in Node.js.

INTRODUCTION

IN 1995, WHEN I WAS IN MY SECOND YEAR IN COLLEGE, I was introduced to UNIX network programming. In C, you could create sockets to open TCP connections to servers and code the servers that accepted these connections. I remember the excitement I felt the first time I created a TCP server: I could accept connections and receive and send messages on them.