Michael Mikowski - Single page web applications: JavaScript end-to-end

For online information and ordering of this and other Manning books, please visit www.manning.com. The publisher offers discounts on this book when ordered in quantity. For more information, please contact

2014 by Manning Publications Co. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher.

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in the book, and Manning Publications was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial caps or all caps.

Recognizing the importance of preserving what has been written, it is Mannings policy to have the books we publish printed on acid-free paper, and we exert our best efforts to that end. Recognizing also our responsibility to conserve the resources of our planet, Manning books are printed on paper that is at least 15 percent recycled and processed without the use of elemental chlorine.

Manning Publications Co. 20 Baldwin Road Shelter Island, NY 11964

ISBN 9781617290756

Printed in the United States of America

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 MAL 18 17 16 15 14 13

To my parents, wife, and children.

You have taught me so much, and I love you all.

M.S.M.

To my wife, Marianne. Thank you for your extraordinary patience with all the time I took writing the book. I love you.

J.C.P.

I wrote my first JavaScript single page web application (SPA) in 2006, although we didnt call it that at the time. This was quite a change for me. Earlier in my career I had focused on low-level Linux kernel hacking and parallel and distributed computing, and the user interface was always a simple command line. After receiving tenure at the University of San Francisco in 2006, I started an ambitious distributed computing project called River (http://river.cs.usfca.edu) that required an interactive graphical interface to facilitate distributed machine management and debugging.

Alex Russell had just coined the term comet and we were inspired and determined to use this technology and the web browser for the interface. We had quite a challenge trying to wrangle JavaScript to enable real-time interaction. Though we were able to get something working, it wasnt as effective as we had hoped. The challenge was that we had to develop just about everything ourselves, as the libraries and techniques available today simply didnt exist. The first version of jQuery, for example, wasnt released until later that year.

In July 2011, I was Director of Research at SnapLogic, Inc. (http://snaplogic.com) when Mike Mikowski joined the company as UI Architect. We worked together on the team that designed the next generation data integration product. Mike and I spent countless hours discussing core issues in software engineering and language design. We learned a lot from each other. Mike also shared drafts of the book youre now reading and that is when I learned about his and Joshs method of building SPAs. It was clear that they had developed several generations of commercial SPAs and had used this experience to refine techniques and architectures that are comprehensive, clear, and comparatively simple.

Since my time with Project River in 2006, the ingredients to develop browser-native SPAs have matured to the point where they are generally superior to third-party plug-ins like Java or Flash. There are many fine books that focus on these ingredients, like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, NodeJS, and HTTP. Unfortunately, few books do a good job of showing how to bring these ingredients together.

This book is the exception. It shows in detail the well-tested recipes needed to build compelling SPAs using JavaScript end-to-end. It shares insights gained over many generations of SPA refinement. One could say Mike and Josh have made many mistakes so that you dont have to. With this book, you can focus on the purpose of the application instead of its implementation.

The solutions in this book use modern web standards, and should be long-lived and work across many browsers and devices. I really wish todays technologies and this book existed when we worked on Project River in 2006. We would have certainly used them both!

G REGORY D. B ENSON

P ROFESSOR , D EPARTMENT OF C OMPUTER S CIENCE

U NIVERSITY OF S AN F RANCISCO

Josh and I met when I was job hunting and he offered me a web architect position in the summer of 2011. Though I ultimately decided to take another offer, we got along really well and had some interesting discussions about single page web applications (SPAs) and the future of the internet. One day, Josh naively suggested we write a book together. I foolishly agreed, and we sealed our collective fates for hundreds of weekends to come. We expected this would be a rather slim book, under 300 pages. The idea was to provide an over-the-shoulder view of an experienced developer creating a production-ready SPA using JavaScript end-to-end. We would use only best-in-class tools and techniques to provide a world-class user experience. The concepts would apply to anyone developing a JavaScript SPA, whether they developed it as we do in the book, or decided to use one of the framework libraries that are available.

When first published in the Manning Early Access Program, nearly a thousand people purchased the book in the first month. We listenened to their feedback and also spoke to thousands of developers and influencers at meetups, universities, and industry conferences to learn why SPAs fascinate people. What we heard was a thirst for knowledge about this topic. We found that developers are yearning to learn a better way to build their web applications. So we added coverage of more topics. For example, the chapter-length was added to show in detail how to set up headless SPA testing because many felt the coverage of testing in the manuscript wasnt enough.

We still have an over-the-shoulder view of development of a production-ready SPA, and we also cover quite a few additional topics that our readers really wanted. And our little book grew to around double our original estimate. We hope you enjoy it.

M ICHAEL S. M IKOWSKI

The authors would like to thank

• Joey Brooks, the recruiter responsible for introducing the two of us. Its all your fault, Joey.
• John Resig and all the jQuery developers, for creating a fantastically focused, extensible, and capable library. jQuery makes SPA development faster, more reliable, and a lot more fun.