Sample code heavily based on the 'Professional Node JS' and the 'Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja' book

What is this?

• useful to learn NodeJS and how to write simple Create/Retrieve/Update/Delete applications
• web apps using NodeJS, Jade, Express, Async and MongoDB
• tooling uses Grunt, Grunt-cli and Grunt-init
• heavily based on the Professional Node JS book and a bit of help from the Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja book

Who are we?

• We at ALT-F1 are studying those JavaScript technologies. We thought it was a simple way to

How much time?

• We needed 5 working days to develop, understand, fine tune the code you have in front of you

Which tools have we used to code?

• in a first stage we have used Sublime Text 2
• then we moved to WebStorm IDE at the very last stage due to our inability to debug Jade scripts

Early difficulties?

• Jade scripts were very hard to understand
• the debug of Jade is painful i.e. we lose too much time correcting tabulations vs. spaces !!!!
• The syntax of JavaScript functions is quite unusual, hopefully the first chapters of Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja book are goldmine to understand them
• the code of the Professional Node JS book doesn't fit today' versions of the tools which obliged us to debug the code
• We didn't find a decent debugger (read visual) step by step of NodeJS scripts
• Understand how Grunt works, but we have deleted this part of scripts for the moment

The future?

• Use Grunt, Jasmine, Istanbul, Karma, Mocha and many others to operate the code and run a standard software-engineered' company

How to install?

Prerequisite

• install NodeJS, it should install NPM too

Check versions of your tools

• on my computer (but other versions might work too ?!?
  • npm -v - use "1.3.5"
  • node -v - use "v0.10.15"

chap_20-HTTP_Middleware

• run any node <name file>.js application
• open the web browser on the right port, read the command line. e.g. http://localhost:<port>

chap_21-Express

• npm install
• grunt
  • see the Gruntfile.js for further documentation
• node app
• open the web browser on the right port, read the command line. e.g. http://localhost:<port>

chap_25-MongoDB

• npm install
• update ```app.js``file
  • update the line accordingly : var dbURL = 'mongodb://<login>:<password>@dharma.mongohq.com:<port>/<database name>';
• node app
• open the web browser on the right port, read the command line. e.g. http://localhost:<port>

JavaScriptNinja

• based on the Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja book
• Easy way to test assertions
• standalone html pages including javascripts
• open the web pages EqualityinJS.html
• open the web pages HowFunctionsAreDeclared.html

Event-driven architecture

In event-driven programming you start by defining the code that will be executed when an event occurs, then put that code inside a function, and finally pass that function as an argument to be called later. See chapter 2 of the Professional Node JS book ... This shows that by using the closure pattern, you can have the best of both worlds: You can do event-driven programming without having to maintain the state by passing it around to functions. A JavaScript closure keeps the state for you.

Functional requirements

1. you can login, logout
2. you can delete a user from the database
3. you can create a user

Technical requirements

Web application

• Strict Model - View - Controller separation

• Programming languages

  • Javascript v1.8 (I guess)

• Frameworks

  • MongoDB
    • MongoHQ, a MongoDB as a Service
  • Express framework
  • NodeJS v0.10.2
  • NPM Node Package Manager

CHANGELOG

v2013-08-11

• add grunt to chap_21-Express

v2013-08-11

• update the name of the directories
• clean credentials
• check package.json are correct
• improve ergonomics of the application (e.g. display credentials available, improve error texts ...)
• upload v1 on github

v2013-08-10 early morning

• the code is up and running
• the search articles functionality should be called like this '''http://localhost:3000/articles/search?q=
  • todo: add a search box inside the header

v2103-08-09

• Starts Professional Node JS book chapter 25: Connecting to MongoDB Using Mongoose
• create "03.Express_app mongodb" app
  • some requirements
    • use of MongoDB, Mongoose
• add article data model and functionalities - see page 341 "Referencing Other Documents Using DB Refs"

v2013-08-08 end of Ramadan

• Successfully end the chapter 21 of the Professional Node JS book: Making a Web Application

v2013-08-07

• work on chapter 21 of the Professional Node JS book: Making a Web Application Using Express

  • many issues appear as
    • Professional Node JS book is incorrect and documentation of Jade is very poor
    • Professional Node JS book is based on Express 2x and I use Express 3x
  • some requirements
    • in-memory object like users.json
    • routes management
    • use of Jade, Express
    • functional requirements
      • user list
      • CRUD users
      • login v2013-08-06

• Complete chapter 20 of the Professional Node JS book: Building and Using HTTP Middleware Connect

• starts chapter 21 of the Professional Node JS book: Making a Web Application Using Express

• create "02.Express_app" app

• Use of Jade node template engine

v2013-08-05

• add test case using Karma
• find/learn/implement many Grunt components

v2013-08-04

• create "01.HTTP_Middleware" app
• created hello_world_app' node displaying a simple "hello world"
• Based on Professional Node JS book Part V "Building web application"
• created reply_text module
• create a middleware component that introduces a header into the response header section