Instant KineticJS Starter

Andrey Kovalenko

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781849699433
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Programming
• Edition: 1

In Detail

Adobe Flash has been around for a number of years., but iOS was released without support for Flash on mobile devices. Flash is very expensive as a hardware resource and as an alternative HTML5 Canvas took its place. It is not very easy to develop with pure HTML5 Canvas, so KineticJS is really helpful to create applications much faster.

"Instant KineticJS Starter" is a quick start for HTML5 interactive application development. With this book in hand you can create Flash-like applications with KinectJS and 10 times faster at that. You can run your applications on Android and iOS devices without performance problems.

"Instant KineticJS Starter" takes you through the KineticJS functions available, and explains how to use of the most important among them. It will take you through a number of clear, practical steps that will help you to take advantage of the new HTML5 Canvas library, quickly and painlessly.

You will also learn how to build your own graphical editor using KineticJS. You will take a look at the basics of the library and will explore some functions in detail. You will learn how to create custom figures, change the colors, borders, and other styling options. You will also take a look at picture processing; resizing, scaling, and rotating. We will apply Instagram-like filters to the images, as well as learning how to apply an animation effect. If you want to take advantage of the new HTML5 Canvas features with KineticJS, then this is the book for you.

You will learn everything you need to know to build HTML5 Canvas applications with KineticJS, as well as how to configure them to support mobile devices.

Approach

Get to grips with a new technology, understand what it is and what it can do for you, and then get to work with the most important features and tasks.

This is a Starter guide that will quickly get you started building HTML5 Canvas applications with KineticJS.

Who this book is for

Are you a developer looking to get a quick start without going deep into HTML5 Canvas standard? Then this book is for you. It's assumed that you will have some experience in HTML and JavaScript already.

Instant KineticJS Starter

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Instant KineticJS Starter

Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: March 2013

Production Reference: 1190313

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-84969-943-3

www.packtpub.com

Credits

Author

Andrey Kovalenko

Reviewers

Eric Rowell

Slieptsov Sergei

Acquisition Editor

Mary Jasmine Nadar

Commissioning Editor

Harsha Bharwani

Technical Editor

Devdutt Kulkarni

Project Coordinator

Sneha Modi

Proofreader

Dan McMahon

Graphics

Aditi Gajjar

Production Coordinator

Melwyn D'sa

Cover Work

Melwyn D'sa

Cover Image

Aditi Gajjar

Foreword

When I first heard about HTML5 Canvas late in 2010, I was intrigued by the promise of a better future for graphics on the Web. After tinkering with the API one night, I realized that it was truly special. I wrote a few articles about canvas on my personal blog, and quickly discovered that there was a huge demand for HTML5 Canvas tutorials and walkthroughs. So, I ditched my personal blog and built www.Html5CanvasTutorials.com, which provides structured tutorials and creative labs. It was here where KineticJS was born.

After about a year of creating tutorials, I become acutely aware of some of the friction that hindered Canvas development, such as event handling, layering, optimizing animations, and the sore lacking of an object-oriented API. I began to write tutorials that covered these topics, and over time, packaged them together into a library. The community began requesting new features and reporting bugs, and eventually asked me to put the library into GitHub. I called it KineticJS, in reference to kinetic energy, because it helped me put canvas into motion. Since then, the KineticJS community has grown significantly, and the library evolved into a complete framework, a foundation for any HTML5 Canvas project, whether it's an online game, graphical application, or data visualization.

I've been very fortunate to work with Andrey, the author of this book, as he's done an excellent job presenting the fundamentals of KineticJS transparently and in a straightforward manner, such that anyone can get up and running with KineticJS in about half an hour. I hope you share my excitement as you discover the amazing things that are possible with KineticJS. Combined with ingenuity and creativity, anything is possible.

Eric Rowell

Creator of KineticJS,

Founder of Html5CanvasTutorials.com,

Senior Web Developer at LinkedIn

About the Author

Andrey Kovalenko is a software developer, team leader, and blogger. He is a member of eGo Creative Media Solutions, a web and mobile development firm in Ukraine. He has been working there right from the beginning of the company and holds the position of CTO. His work there includes overseeing and implementing projects in a wide variety of technologies, with an emphasis on .NET, MSSQL, JavaScript, HTML5, and Cordova (PhoneGap). He leads several development groups that produce products for call centers, marketing companies, real-estate agencies, telecommunication companies, healthcare, and many others. Since last few days he is focusing on learning mobile development in detail. He is a believer in the future of JavaScript as a generic development language.

When Andrey isn't coding, he likes to hang out with his family, skydive, and exercise at the local cross-fit gym. He is a healthcare enthusiast. And he is trying to put all his software development efforts towards making life healthier.

It is his first book and he has tried hard to make it really good.

I would like to express my gratitude to many people who saw me through this book. First and foremost, I would like to thank my girlfriend Lena for understanding and showing endless patience and encouragement when it was most required. I also need to thank eGo Creative Media Solutions, an amazing organization to whom I now dedicate much of my life. It is through their teachings, encouragement, and support that I have gained and grown. It is a great thing that I am working for 5 years already here and wrote my first book here. I am also grateful to Slieptsov Sergei and Andrey Schelychev for their support. They told me not to miss this opportunity of writing the book and I listened to them for it.

About the Reviewers

Eric Rowell is a professional frontend web developer and entrepreneur, who is fascinated with the web industry, business, technology, and how they fit together. He's the founder and chief editor of Html5CanvasTutorials.com, and is also the creator of KineticJS, an HTML5 canvas JavaScript framework that enables high performance animations, transitions, node nesting, layering, event handling for desktop and mobile applications, and much more. You can follow him on Twitter at @ericdrowell.

He is also the author of the book HTML5 Canvas Cookbook, Packt Publishing.

Slieptsov Sergei is an experienced .NET and web developer; in this role he oversees the development and testing of software projects using ASP.NET, MVC, Web API, WPF, Windows Phone 7, EF, C#, LINQ, WebServices, MSSQL Server, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. He has worked with eGo Creative Media Solutions. Prior to this he was the Head of the Laboratory in Information Systems in the Economics department of the Donetsk National Technical University. He also holds a Masters degree in Economic Cybernetics from Donetsk National Technical University. Now he is working on several startups to make the world be...