Book author Azat Mardan writes about apps, startups and technology
In the previous post, we learned how to perform HTTP/2 server push in a Node server. We also covered the benefits of server push there so to avoid duplication we won’t list them here. We used spdy for server push and H2. But most of the times Node developers don’t work with core HTTP server, they use a framework like Express. So let’s see how we can implement server push in Express.
Continue reading “Learn HTTP/2 Server Push by Building Express Middleware”
HTTP/2 is the new standard of the web. It has many great features which will make the web faster and simplify the development. For example, no need to concatenate files thanks to multiplexing, or a server push which can send files before a browser knows it need them.
This post won’t cover all advantages of HTTP/2. You can read about them online. No need to go into all the details and duplicate text here. Instead, we’ll focus on server push and implement it in Node.js using Express and the spdy library.
Continue reading “Optimize Your App with HTTP/2 Server Push Using Node and Express”
The modern Internet with its TCP/IP protocol started around 1975 which is astonishing 41 years ago. For the most part of its existence, we used HTTP and it’s successor HTTP/1.1 (version 1.1) to communicate between clients and servers. It served the web well but the way developers build websites has dramatically changed. There are myriads of external resources, images, CSS files, JavaScript assets. The number of resources is only increasing.
HTTP2 is the first major upgrade to the good old HTTP protocol in over 15 years (first HTTP is circa 1991)! It is optimized for modern websites. The performance is better without complicated hacks like domain sharding (having multiple domains) or file concatenation (having one large file instead of many small ones).
Continue reading “Easy HTTP/2 Server with Node.js and Express.js”
Have you ever wanted to learn basics of Node.js and the most popular Node.js web framework Express.js? If you are experienced web developer or software engineer who wants to learn Node.js and build some servers along the way, then this self-study workshop is for you.
What is ExpressWorks? It’s an automated tool which allows to learn Express.js from the author of one of the best books on Express.js—Pro Express.js— with this workshop that will teach you basics of Express.js and building Node.js web apps (a.k.a. servers).
You will walk through adventures via command-line interface. Each adventure has a problem, hints, and the solutions.
Some of the resources before you get started:
The entire playlist: on YouTube or just watch individual solutions below. Try solving problems without looking at the solutions!
Setup:
Continue reading “ExpressWorks Walkthrough: Node.js Web Framework [VIDEOS]”
I hated Jade as many other Node.js developes do. But I changed 180 after I realized that it has tons of features.
At Storify and DocuSign we used Jade for EVERYTHING. We used Jade even in the browser. There is a little trick called jade-browser. It was developed by folks at Storify. I maintained it for a bit.
The funny thing is that DocuSign team used jade-browser long before they met me. They swear they hired me without knowing that I was involved in that library. :-)
Anyway, after covering Jade and Handlebars in previous posts, it’s time to apply them to do some real work. In this post, I’ll cover:
Continue reading “How to Use Jade and Handlebars in Express.js”
Last week, I did a live Q&A session for people who bought my new book Pro Express.js, but you can watch the recording here. Click on the apps icon (next to the ? icon), and then click on the Q&A button to see the questions. If you haven’t bought Pro Express.js, then you can do it on Amazon.com… and start mastering the framework for you Node.js web development.
PS: You can also watch the session on YouTube, but I recommend Google +.
Here is the summary of questions and answers which you can also get in a PDF —>>> Pro Express.js Q&A, or read below.
The long-anticipated Express.js manual is ready and was sent to to print at this week (December 24, 2014). To summarize the book, Pro Express.js: Master Express.js—The Node.js Framework For Your Web Development is all about understanding Express.js and building web apps with this framework and its middleware. Spend two minutes to read this post, to know how you can benefit from this valuable resource and the release.
If you an intermediate or advanced beginner Node.js developer and want to become better at this cool, new technology, then you have lots of questions about the best practices and patterns. Most likely you’ve encountered Express.js, and you wish you knew more about useful settings and options to configure Express.js and its middleware.
The reason why I know these things is that, before I became proficient with Node.js and Express.js, I was a beginner just like you. Also, I’ve been in a position when I needed to learn Express.js quickly. In those sad moments, I was flat out miserable and often had to read the source code for the lack of a good documentation and examples. I wish I had Pro Express.js with me back then to explain the mechanisms in plain English, and provide inspiring code patterns that I could re-use in my projects. That’s why I’m confident that Pro Express.js will be great for intermediate Node.js developers (and advanced-beginners).
Pro Express.js can solve your pains and problems by providing the following benefits:
TL;DR: This post is about URL parameters and routing in Express.js, and it’s an excerpt (Chapter 6) from my new book Pro Express.js: Master Express.js—The Node.js Framework For Your Web Development. The book was released this week (~December 24, 2014), but we have a great limited-time offer for you which will be announced on Sunday, December 28, 2014 on Webapplog.com. This post is the last post in the series of excerpts from Pro Express.js with other posts as follow: Error Handling and Running an Express.js App, Express.js Security Tips, LoopBack 101: Express.js on Steroids, Sails.js 101 and Secret Express.js Settings.
To review, the typical structure of an Express.js app fig(which is usually a server.js or app.js file) roughly consists of these parts, in the order shown:
Dependencies : A set of statements to import dependencies
Instantiations : A set of statements to create objects
Configurations : A set of statements to configure system and custom settings
Middleware : A set of statements that is executed for every incoming request
Routes : A set of statements that defines server routes, endpoints, and pages
Bootup : A set of statements that starts the server and makes it listen on a specific port for incoming requests
This chapter covers the fifth category, routes and the URL parameters that we define in routes. These parameters, along with the app.param() middleware, are essential because they allow the application to access information passed from the client in the URLs (e.g., books/proexpressjs). This is the most common convention for REST APIs. For example, the http://hackhall.com/api/posts/521eb002d00c970200000003 route will use the value of 521eb002d00c970200000003 as the post ID.
Parameters are values passed in a query string of a URL of the request. If we didn’t have Express.js or a similar library, and had to use just the core Node.js modules, we’d have to extract parameters from an HTTP.request object via some require('querystring').parse(url) or require('url').parse(url, true) function “trickery.”
Let’s look closer at how to define a certain rule or logic for a particular URL parameter.
TL;DR: This text is an excerpt (Chapter 9) from Pro Express.js: Master Express.js—The Node.js Framework For Your Web Development. The book will be released next week (December 24, 2014), and we’ll announce a great limited-time offer on it on Sunday, December 28, 2014. So stay tuned… and happy Holidays!!!
Good web applications must have informative error messages to notify clients exactly why their request has failed. Errors might be caused either by the client (e.g., wrong input data) or by the server (e.g., a bug in the code).
The client might be a browser, in which case the application should display an HTML page. For example, a 404 page should display when the requested resource is not found. Or the client might be another application consuming our resources via the REST API. In this case, the application should send the appropriate HTTP status code and the message in the JSON format (or XML or another format that is supported). For these reasons, it’s always the best practice to customize error-handling code when developing a serious application.
In a typical Express.js application, error handlers follow the routes. Error handling deserves its own section of the book because it’s different from other middleware. After the error handlers, we’ll cover the Express.js application methods and ways to start the Express.js app. Therefore, the major topics of this chapter are as follows:
Continue reading “Error Handling and Running an Express.js App”
TL;DR
This text is part of my new book Pro Express.js: Master Express.js—The Node.js Framework For Your Web Development [Apress, 2014]. Security is important, that’s why I decided to publish this chapter on my blog. The book will be released very soon.
The set of tips in this chapter deals with security in Express.js applications. Security is often a neglected topic that is deferred until the last minute before the release. Obviously, this approach of treating security as an afterthought is prone to leaving holes for attackers. A better approach is to consider and implement security matters from the ground up.
Continue reading “Express.js Security Tips”
LoopBack is a comprehensive Node.js web framework with a rich command-line scaffolding and a web API explorer: strongloop.com/node-js/loopback. The framework is maintained by StrongLoop which is also the gate-keeper of Express.js.
This concise tutorial will illustrate how to get started with LoopBack and the common traits between LoopBack and Express.js. This text is from my new book Pro Express.js by Apress which you can already start reading in Apress Alpha or pre-order on Amazon.com and other bookstores.
Express.js is one of the top Node.js frameworks out there. It was used in the overwhelming majority of projects that I’ve encountered since I began working with Node.js in 2011. One of the main selling points and key differentiators is the framework’s configurability. However, while writing Express.js Guide and Pro Express.js, I discovered a few secret settings never mentioned in their documentation.
JavaScript and Node FUNdamentals: A Collection of Essential Basics is a short read to brush up and refresh JavaScript and Node.js topics including frameworks like CoffeeScript, Backbone.js and Express.js. The motto of the book is “If it’s not fun, it’s not JavaScript.”
JavaScript and Node FUNdamentals has these chapters:
The book is available on Amazon.com (Kindle) and LeanPub (MOBI, PDF, EPUB).
Continue reading “JavaScript and Node FUNdamentals is Finished”
Note: This text is a part of the Express.js Guide: The Comprehensive Book on Express.js.
The HackHall project was written using Backbone.js and Underscore for the front-end app, and Express.js, MongoDB via Mongoose for the back-end REST API server.
Continue reading “Express.js and Mongoose Example: Building HackHall”
Note: This text is a part of upcoming ebook JavaScript and Node FUNdamentals: A Collection of Essential Basics.
Express.js is an amazing framework for Node.js projects and used in the majority of such web apps. Unfortunately, there’s a lack of tutorials and examples on how to write good production-ready code. To mitigate this need, we released Express.js Guide: The Comprehesive Book on Express.js. However, all things start from basics, and for that reason we’ll give you a taste of the framework in this post, so you can decide if you want to continue the learning further.
Continue reading “Express.js FUNdamentals: An Essential Overview of Express.js”
Dear reader, you are holding a book which will open you to understanding and fluent usage of the Express.js framework – standard de facto in web application programming on Node.js. And I would especially recommend this book because it was written by a practicing engineer, one who has a comprehensive knowledge about the full stack of web application development and Express.js in particular…
Dear reader, you are holding a book which will open you to understanding and fluent usage of the Express.js framework – standard de facto in web application programming on Node.js. And I would especially recommend this book because it was written by a practicing engineer, one who has a comprehensive knowledge about the full stack of web application development and Express.js in particular.
Continue reading “Foreword to Express.js Guide: The Comprehensive Book on Expresss.js”
ExpressWorks is an automated Express.js/Node.js workshop.
TL;DR: ExpressWorks is an automated Express.js/Node.js workshop.
Continue reading “ExpressWorks: an Automated Express.js/Node.js Workshop and Tutorial”
I recently received a question from Joanne Daudier. She is a up and coming web developer, middle term student at a JS/Node.js bootcamp called RefactorU and a reader of Express.js Guide. This is what she wrote:
Hi Azat:
I skimmed over your book today. I feel like it is a bit advanced for me since I’m just learning Express. I do have a few questions for you though.
I recently received a question from Joanne Daudier. She is an up and coming web developer, middle term student at a JS/Node.js bootcamp called RefactorU and a reader of Express.js Guide. This is what she wrote:
Continue reading “Q&A: Thank You Web App, Express.js and Emails”
After weeks of writing and editing, Azat and his team are happy to announce the release of Express.js Guide: The Most Popular Node.js Framework Manual! The book is very approachable and suitable for beginners. If someone wants to save time searching the web and learn the best practices from the trenches, Express.js Guide is the book that has everything: Express.js API reference, quick start guides, 20+ meticulously explained examples and tutorials on over 270 pages with more than 60 illustrations.
Express.js is a de facto standard of Node.js development and the most popular NPM library as of today! However, as with any framework, sometimes the learning curve is steep. At HackReactor, I often asked the same questions about code organization, authentication, database connections and deployment.
Continue reading “The Release of Express.js Guide: The Comprehensive Book on Express.js”
Tutorial: building a JSON REST API server with Node.js and MongoDB using Mongoskin and Express.js utilizing Mocha and Super Agent for BDD/TDD.
Update3: Expess 4 version of this tutorial is available at Express.js 4, Node.js and MongoDB REST API Tutorial, and github.com/azat-co/rest-api-express (master branch). This tutorial will work with Express 3.x.
Update2: “Mongoskin removed ‘db.collection.id’ and added some actionById methods” from this pull request with this code changes. To use the code in this post, just install an older version of Mongoskin (0.5.0?). The code in the GitHub will work with Mongoskin 1.3.20.
Update2: “Mongoskin removed ‘db.collection.id’ and added some actionById methods” from this pull request with this code changes. To use the code in this post, just install an older version of Mongoskin (0.5.0?)
Update: use the enhanced code from this repository github.com/azat-co/rest-api-express (express3 branch).
Note: This text is a part of Express.js Guide: The Comprehensive Book on Express.js.
This tutorial will walk you through writing test using the Mocha and Super Agent libraries and then use them in a test-driven development manner to build a Node.js free JSON REST API server utilizing Express.js framework and Mongoskin library for MongoDB. In this REST API server, we’ll perform create, read, update and delete (CRUD) operations and harness Express.js middleware concept with app.param() and app.use() methods.
Continue reading “Tutorial: Node.js and MongoDB JSON REST API server with Mongoskin and Express.js”
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