Node.js in Action + EBook

I am a dinosaur from the days of batch processing with Cobol programs on IBM mainframes. I wanted to build a new modern website for the small manufacturing company I now work for. HTML5 and client-side Javascript were fairly easy to pick up, but I had little experience with the server side of things, especially when it comes to interactive versus batch. I was relieved to discover Node.js, which allows server-side programming in Javascript. (I wasn't sure I could handle learning ANOTHER language (like PHP) at this point.) The online documentation for Node.js and its extensions is not (at the time, at least) geared to beginners, so thank goodness for "Node.js in Action." The book is clear and each chapter builds upon the previous one, gradually introducing new abstractions and program sophistication. This book is pretty much a "must have" for programmers new to Node.js, but make sure you have a good grounding in Javascript before you pick it up.

If you're looking for a great intro book for Node.js then you have found it.Pros:Walks you through starting from the ground all the way to creating a "real" app.Provides rationales for choices.Easy read (especially for experienced developers).Great for recommending to new node developers to get their feet wet.Cons:The first chapters in which you build a chatroom may seem like you're over your head.Geared towards those who are developers already.Express 4 is here and changes quite a bit of how things are done vs Express 3.x in this book.Tries to use a different database driver for what seems like every other section. Would be best to just stick with one or two at most. The author is the "expert" compared to most readers, so be the expert and show the reader the way.

Node.js starts at the beginning. The book consists of projects that illustrate different parts of the node platform. The first project seems a little out of place in the context of the book in that it just leapt right into code without to much explanation of what was happening. I think it was just meant to give an example of an instance where node really stood out from other development methods (socket.io integration).After that the book starts with some very basic node applications and then progresses to middleware, connect, express, and beyond. There is no way of covering all of express, node, or npm, but the book ensures that the reader knows what is available and where to find it.After reading this book I have been able to use node without a problem. I have not found come across any problems that weren't explained in this book or very easy to solve with google.

This has to be the worst instructional book that I can recall in all of my 40+ years. I normally don't take the time to give my opinion like this, but I just had to (1.) vent and (2.) help prevent some other poor souls from wasting their money, too. I'm not sure what the folks who gave this book a high rating were smoking/snorting/drinking, but I now see why you can only preview only a few pages from this book... Because if you could see even a little bit of what's in this excuse of a book, you'd never buy it. It's as though the authors went out of their way to confuse the reader. They come across as snooty professors who love to hear themselves talk and could care less if you understand a word they're saying.And, I know there are Polly Annas out there who may give the excuse that this book isn't for beginners... Well, I've been programming in IT for a long time and I don't care if you are the most advanced JS programmer on the planet - you would still likely not reference this book, unless you're looking to self-induce a headache for some reason. I am beyond disappointed in this book from Manning, as well as their other crappy book "Single Page Web Applications." Man, I hope it's not too late for me to get some of my money back...

This is a very thorough and clear introduction into Node.js, leading the reader through the basics with concise yet complete examples before moving through the really significant and essential middleware components available in the Node community, for example mongoose, connect, and express. The text does not go through every detail and API, but instead provides just enough in the way of background, context, typical usage examples, and resource pointers so that it is clear why and how the components would be employed and then charts the path to get the remaining details.I highly recommend this book for those getting started learning and working with Node.js.

I wanted to get into back-end programming last year, and picked up this book because I saw a lot of benefit in being able to focus on just javascript for front-end and back-end work. I found the introduction of this book a bit confusing, jumping into material like socket.io, but as I studied node.js on my own through various sources, I found this book to be a good asset. I particularly learned a lot of hands on material from the API and Express.js sections. I'd recommend getting the second version of this book, as it looks like it's changed a lot. Also check out Node.js in Practice.

Comprehensive but outdated, covers most aspects of Node but is very scattered. Not really designed for beginners. The subject in chapter 2, for instance, shows you how to design a chat room but should have been introduced later in the book. I have been a teacher for six years and I'm studying coding as my next professional step, and throughout my learning I've discovered one consistent theme in programming tutorials and texts: they are unable to dumb it down, explain it step-by-step actually teach. As I said, this is not designed for beginners but even intermediate learners or experts can find better material online.

This book was hard to follow as someone that is just starting Node and doesn't have much background in programming. I ended up using a lot of tutorials online for Node and got to what I wanted. I could not keep pace with the book. I believe there is good information in it though for the more advanced.

helped me a lot!

Heartily recommend this book for anyone that's looking to get into Node JS. It's shame that you can't buy the Kindle version and you have to purchase the book to get a code to download the PDF version.

Libro completo in tutti i suoi aspetti, utile per iniziare a lavorare con nodejs e per capire alcune tematiche ostiche. Assolutamente consigliato.

... completely, what's the reason for the omega plus first web server language / framework system.But let's start from the begin:The book is a very comprehensive, excellent and thorough introduction into Node, Connect and Express. Node is essentially based on the javascript language (but with parts written in C which have to be compiled and installed on the target machine). The author covers- Node and Node libraries basics (incl. the npm Node module network)- DB stuff (not restricted to relational databases but also discussing MongoDB, Mongoose and their concepts, e.g.)- the configurable middleware concept named Connect relying on javascript closure usage providing means to dispatch and chain task execution in a web server- Express web framework with (the usual) concepts for security, templating, skeleton generation, auxiliary functionality, MVC pattern etc.- testing (pointing to different frameworks)- deployment / hosting aspects (whereas Node in itself provides already the / a web server)- furthergoing aspects as provision of TCP/IP servers, cross browser communication via web sockets, CLI tool programming and OS APIs- the Node ecosystem and community support.The examples are formidable and educating.Of some special interest for me were- certain javascript programming techniques- (very elegant) web socket concepts (relying on javascript techniques).Nevertheless, I do not understand completely, why - besides plenty of existing web programming stuff in most different flavours - this additional technique has been introduced. As far as I understood it, the outstanding characteristics are expected to be- event loop programming rather than threading (although parallel work (more or less behind the curtain) is possible, e.g., for parallel file processing in background) with related events resp. callbacks- thereby, a performance gain in comparison with multithreading based systems (comparable to the difference btw. nginx and apache)- unification of client and server programming due to the common javascript basis.Personally, I do prefer rather classical server techniques as Spring or other Java based stuff, even C programming or PHP. There exist plenty of scripting languages as well as web frameworks providing essentially all the introduced features (closures, event handling, MVC, skeleton generation, etc. etc. etc.) as well. Javascript remains for me even for browser programming rather questionable and only famous due to its browser landscape penetration. Why extend it, now, to server programming, too? And even there, as the umpteenth scripting language.

It gradually pace through the complex topic and gives you a complete picture of nodejs. This is the book for anyone who is beginners /intermediate /expert