JavaScript Unlocked

Dmitry Sheiko

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781785881572
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Ciencia de la computación
• Subtopic: Programación en JavaScript

Improve your code maintainability, performance, and security through practical expert insights and unlock the full potential of JavaScript

About This Book

• Improve your JavaScript code for better maintainability and performance
• Discover how to implement scalable application architecture with JavaScript
• Learn to use JavaScript behind the browser, including its command-line tools, desktop apps, and native mobile apps

Who This Book Is For

JavaScript Unlocked is for those JS developers who want to see just how far they can push their favourite language through practical insight and techniques.

What You Will Learn

• Make your code readable and expressive by using simple syntax of JavaScript
• Grasp existing JavaScript collections such as arrays and array-like objects
• Develop abstract data types in most effective way to extend JavaScript into a more flexible and powerful programming language
• Examine the pros and cons of JavaScript by implementing real-time code examples
• Flourish real-time mini-projects by using JavaScript on server side to develop desktop as well as mobile applications
• Work on parallel tasks with asynchronous JavaScript
• Improve code maintainability and readability and boost apps performance through JavaScript

In Detail

JavaScript stands bestride the world like a colossus. Having conquered web development, it now advances into new areas such as server scripting, desktop and mobile development, game scripting, and more. One of the most essential languages for any modern developer, the fully-engaged JavaScript programmer need to know the tricks, non-documented features, quirks, and best practices of this powerful, adaptive language.

This all-practical guide is stuffed with code recipes and keys to help you unlock the full potential of JavaScript. Start by diving right into the core of JavaScript, with power user techniques for getting better maintainability and performance from the basic building blocks of your code. Get to grips with modular programming to bring real power to the browser, master client-side JavaScript scripting without jQuery or other frameworks, and discover the full potential of asynchronous coding. Do great things with HTML5 APIs, including building your first web component, tackle the essential requirements of writing large-scale applications, and optimize JavaScript's performance behind the browser. Wrap up with in-depth advice and best practice for debugging and keeping your JavaScript maintainable for scaling, long-term projects. With every task demonstrated in both classic ES5 JavaScript and next generation ES6-7 versions of the language, Whether read cover-to-cover or dipped into for specific keys and recipes, JavaScript Unlocked is your essential guide for pushing JavaScript to its limits.

Style and approach

This practice-oriented cookbook is packed full of code examples put in the form: problem, classical solution, and methods to optimize webpage in both JavaScript ES5 and ES6 language editions. But this thorough guide is best-suited to those who like to "learn by doing" as the topics are covered using real-life examples and tutorials.

JavaScript Unlocked

---

Table of Contents

JavaScript Unlocked

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewer

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why subscribe?

Free access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Diving into the JavaScript Core

Make your code readable and expressive

Function argument default value

Conditional invocation

Arrow functions

Method definitions

The rest operator

The spread operator

Mastering multiline strings in JavaScript

Concatenation versus array join

Template literal

Multi-line strings via transpilers

Manipulating arrays in the ES5 way

Array methods in ES5

Array methods in ES6

Traversing an object in an elegant, reliable, safe, and fast way

Iterating the key-value object safely and fast

Enumerating an array-like object

The collections of ES6

The most effective way of declaring objects

Classical approach

Approach with the private state

Inheritance with the prototype chain

Inheriting from prototype with Object.create

Inheriting from prototype with Object.assign

Approach with ExtendClass

Classes in ES6

How to – magic methods in JavaScript

Accessors in ES6 classes

Controlling access to arbitrary properties

Summary

2. Modular Programming with JavaScript

How to get out of a mess using modular JavaScript

Modules

Cleaner global scope

Packaging code into files

Reuse

Module patterns

Augmentation

Module standards

How to use asynchronous modules in the browser

Pros and cons

How to – use synchronous modules on the server

Pros and cons

UMD

JavaScript's built-in module system

Named exports

Default export

The module loader API

Conclusion

Transpiling CommonJS for in-browser use

Bundling ES6 modules for synchronous loading

Summary

3. DOM Scripting and AJAX

High-speed DOM operations

Traversing the DOM

Changing the DOM

Styling the DOM

Making use of attributes and properties

Handling DOM events

Communicating with the server

XHR

Fetch API

Summary

4. HTML5 APIs

Storing data in web-browser

Web Storage API

IndexedDB

FileSystem API

Boosting performance with JavaScript workers

Creating the first web component

Learning to use server-to-browser communication channels

Server-Sent Events

Web Sockets

Summary

5. Asynchronous JavaScript

Nonblocking JavaScript

Error-first Callback

Continuation-passing style

Handling asynchronous functions in the ES7 way

Parallel tasks and task series with the Async.js library

Event handling optimization

Debouncing

Throttling

Writing callbacks that don't impact latency-critical events

Summary

6. A Large-Scale JavaScript Application Architecture

Design patterns in JavaScript

Understanding concern separation in JavaScript

MVVM

Using JavaScript MV* frameworks

Backbone

Angular

React

Summary

7. JavaScript Beyond the Browser

Levelling up the coding of a command-line program in JavaScript

Building a web server with JavaScript

Writing a desktop HTML5 application

Setting up the project

Adding the HTML5 application

Debugging

Packaging

Using PhoneGap to make a mobile native app

Setting up the project

Building the project

Adding plugins

Debugging

Summary

8. Debugging and Profiling

Hunting bugs

Getting the best from a console API

Tuning performance

Summary

Index

JavaScript Unlocked

Copyright © 2015 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: December 2015

Production reference: 1011215

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78588-157-2

www.packtpub.com

Credits

Author

Dmitry Sheiko

Reviewer

Durgesh Priyaranjan

Commissioning Editor

Wilson Dsouza

Acquisition Editor

Meeta Rajani

Content Development Editor

Priyanka Mehta

Technical Editor

Mohita Vyas

Copy Editor

Kausambhi Majumdar

Project Coordinator

Izzat Contractor

Proofreader

Safis Editing

Indexer

Tejal Soni

Graphics

Abhinash Sahu

Production Coordinator

Aparna Bhagat

Cover Work

Aparna Bhagat

About the Author

Dmitry Sheiko is a passionate blogger and the author of Instant Testing with QUnit.

Dmitry got hooked to computer programming in the late '80s. For the last 18 years, he has been in web development. His very first open source contribution was an XSLT-based CMS in 2004. Since then, he has been contributing quite a lot to FOSS. You can find Dmitry's latest works at https://github.com/dsheiko. Currently, he is working as a web developer in the lovely city of Frankfurt am Main at Crytek GmbH.

First, I would like to thank my family for the continuous support and letting me to realize my potential. A special thank you to my father, who took me to an industrial computer center when I was 3 years old. In I decade after this, with the advance in PCs, I realized that computers mean games, and after a while, I became curious enough to understand how the games are built. This is how I started learning programming.

Thank you to my team at Crytek, who compliantly follow all the practices described in the book and adapt to the constantly evolving technologies to keep up with the pace I set.

About the Reviewer

Durgesh Priyaranjan is a senior software developer who has been working on various technologies. However, he loves JavaScript programming and interaction design the most. He is currently based in Bengaluru (India) and is working as a UI engineer for one of the Indian e-commerce giants, Flipkart.

He loves trying out different technologies without any bias. Of late, he can be found tinkering around with Raspberry Pi.

I'd like to thank my loving wife for her continuous support of my work and work-related hobbies.

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

For support files and downloads related to your book, please visit www.PacktPub.com.

Did you know that Packt offers eBook versions of every book published, with PDF and ePub files available? You can upgrade to the eBook version at www.PacktPub.com and as a print book customer, you are entitled to a discount on the eBook copy. Get in touch with us at <[email protected]> for more details.

At www.PacktPub.com, you can also read a collection of free t...