JavaScript for Line of Business Applications

In this post I’ll discuss how I built CoffeeRun as a Single-Page Application (SPA) using Node.js and Knockout.js. This was my first foray into the world of SPAs and Node, so it’s written as a guide to anyone else who is looking to dip their toes in for the first time. I’ll also cover deployment to Azure.

Isomorphic apps are almost like “normal” apps when creating them with the FRP. Because the FRP encourages you to always pass the entire state object to the rendering function, nothing prevents you to do the same in the backend as well.

If you have read other tutorials you may already know that React has a “backend-compatible” function called renderToString. It behaves exactly like render but doesn’t call componentDidMount and returns the rendered HTML as a string instead of placing it into a DOM node. Component & model in → HTML out. Couldn’t be simpler?

Well… actually, it could be. There are two gotchas you should know before trying to use renderToString:

1. Your backend must understand JSX syntax
2. Your front-end modules must be CommonJS compatible

BangJS is Bacon-flavored Angular. Program watertight web app user interface behavior with AngularJS and Bacon.js.

Enjoy everything that’s good about functional reactive programming with all the benefits of a mature and vibrant front-end framework ecosystem.

BangJS offers you the tools to take this challenge head on:

• make support for asynchronous logic the default;
• focus on your business logic instead of managing state;
• keep your code maintainable and scalable due to inherent composability.

Backbone.js equips the developer with an array of tools that are minimal but extremely flexible. This gives developers the option to design the applications the way they want, but also introduces a number of way things can go wrong.

In this article, Toptal engineer Mahmud Ridwan discusses a few common mistakes that Backbone.js developers can make, and how they may avoid them.

It’s important to note that with React with Flux, the application state lives outside of the UI-components, in the store(s). The stores populate their state according to the actions and the UI merely reflects this state. A UI defined with React can be seen as a pure function: given the same input (state), it will always produce the same output (ui).

Flux was inspired by CQRS and Event Sourcing. For those unfamiliar: think think of it as a simple version control system: each action is a commit, all consecutive commits give you the current state.

To record actions in Flux, we need to either extend the dispatcher with this functionality or create a new component which listens to the dispatcher. I’ve published a proof-of-concept on GitHub called FluxRecorder, which does the latter.

Many people that use ReactJS as their renderer are using some kind of the
Flux architecture to store data, react to actions and notify components
about changes. After a University project involving Scala and RxJava, I wanted
to use these ideas together with ReactJS views. Besides that I found two things
missing in the Flux architecture:

composing different kinds of data easily
interaction with the server

Of course there are ways to solve this, but perhaps reactive streams can help
ease these shortcomings.

Essence is a CSS framework that implements the guidelines from Google Material Design Specification using Facebook's react.js library. Use it to easily build super-fast and great looking web & mobile interfaces.

Vanilla JavaScript for writing powerful web applications without jQuery.

Writing common and rather simple JavaScript functions for a website can nowadays be easily done in plain JS. There's no real gain from jQuery, although syntax is typically slightly shorter. However, that comes with the price of downloading and parsing a huge library. Yet, when writing complex JavaScript tools, such as image editors or charting libraries, both the dependency upon and the lowerer speed of jQuery are real drawbacks. Therefore, such code is mostly written in pure JavaScript. Again, no need for jQuery.

Meteor itself does not rely on REST APIs, but it can easily access data from other services. This article is an excerpt from the book Meteor in Action and explains how you can integrate third-party data into your applications by accessing RESTful URLs from the server-side.

Many applications rely on external APIs to retrieve data. Getting information regarding your friends from Facebook, looking up the current weather in your area, or simply retrieving an avatar image from another website – there are endless uses for integrating additional data. They all share a common challenge: APIs must be called from the server, but an API usually takes longer than executing the method itself. You need to ensure that the result gets back to the client – even if it takes a couple of seconds. Let’s talk about how to integrate an external API via HTTP.

Based on the IP address of a visitor, you can tell various information about their current location, e.g., coordinates, city or timezone. There is a simple API that takes an IPv4 address and returns all these tidbits as a JSON object. The API is called Telize. 

Clojure is a Lisp-based language that compiles and executes on the JVM. WithClojureScript, Clojure can be cross-compiled to JavaScript. Developing a SPA in a language like ClojureScript allows developers to utilize Clojure’s features like static type safety and immutability when working with large or complex applications. The Om project allows a developer using ClojureScript to interface with React in a client-side application. Let’s get started using React and Om to build a SPA.

This article will give you an overview of how to build JavaScript applications with the Flux pattern. It's the minimal amount of material to get you familiar with the core Flux concepts. You should follow along with the accompanying starter kit. You'll need a basic understanding of React and preferably some experience building components. 

HTML Ember.js Template is a professional front-end template for building fast, robust, and adaptable web apps or sites using Ember.js.

• Designed for fast page loads. HTML Ember.js Template follows best practices for website optimization.
• Built using HTML5 and the latest trending web technologies.
• Built with easy customization in mind.
• Simple editing. Simply delete what you don't want.

Earlier this year CODE Magazine published an article I authored encouraging the use of MicroJS libraries instead of large frameworks. One question I attempted to answer was where to find libraries, which of course there are many possible sources. Another question I am often asked is how do I choose a library? This is important because choosing a bad library can lead to bad consequences.

How Do I Evalutate JavaScript Libraries

I have no absolute rules on choosing a library, but I do have some evaluations I make before picking a library. Today I want to review some of the criteria I use and some simple examples of how they apply to choosing the best JavaScript libraries for your application.

• Size
• Path To Success
• External Dependencies
• Memory Leaks
• Read The Code
• Reusable
• Write A Solution Yourself
• Summary

CRAFT is about software craftsmanship, which tools, methods, practices should be part of the toolbox of a modern developer and company, and it is a compass on new technologies, trends. You can learn from the best speakers and practitioners in our community.

This is the first blog post of the series “Flux in Depth”. Is this “yet the another flux tutorial”? What I have seen so far, while researching flux, were mostly “how-to” tutorials (usually with todo applications), which describe the main components of given flux application and the data flow between them. This is definitely useful for getting a high-level overview of how everything works but in reality there are plenty of other things, which should be taken under consideration. In this series of posts I will try to wire theory with practice and state my own solutions of problem I face on daily basis. Since these solutions might not be perfect, I’d really appreciate giving your opinion in the comments section below.