Mastering MeteorJS Application Development

Jebin B V

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781785282379
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Informatica
• Subtopic: Programmazione in JavaScript

MeteorJS makes full-stack JavaScript Application Development simple – Learn how to build better modern web apps with MeteorJS, and become an expert in the innovative JavaScript framework

About This Book

• Get your dream project up and running by building exceptional MeteorJS applications in a matter of days
• Learn how to integrate other JavaScript frameworks into your MeteorJS project and become an expert in full-stack development
• Go beyond coding and learn how to make modern design decisions – from mobile design to SEO – that drive great user experiences

Who This Book Is For

If you've already had some experience with MeteorJS but want to learn how to build even better modern web application, this book has been created for you. It provides you with a comprehensive look at one of those most important frameworks being used for the modern web today.

What You Will Learn

• Get to grips with the basics and learn how to build a complete real-time application with MeteorJS
• Find out how Meteor makes full-stack development simple – become a better developer, fast.
• Use some of the most effective testing tools in modern web development to troubleshoot, debug and optimize your app
• Find out how to write custom packages for applications – so you can build your project exactly how you want
• Integrate React and Angular into your project
• Design and develop high quality animations that will give your UI the edge
• Build MeteorJS to serve as REST-based application and reactive system
• Learn how to host a MeteorJS application and then scale it for data
• Find out how MeteorJS can help you build for mobile
• Learn how to make sure you implement an effective SEO strategy in your MeteorJS application

In Detail

The web is dead – applications now rule our online experiences. But how are you going to build them? Well, if you've been paying attention, you might already have tried your hand with MeteorJS, the JavaScript framework that helps you build complete full-stack web applications that are responsive and fast with ease.

Mastering MeteorJS Application Development shows you how to do even more with MeteorJS – if you're ready to try a comprehensive course through one of the most exciting frameworks in web development today, this is the book you need. Designed to take you through the entire process of building an advanced multipage application with Meteor, you'll be able to bring your web development ideas with surprising ease.

You'll not only learn how Meteor makes web development easier, but also how you can make using Meteor easier, by automating and simplifying tasks so you can be confident you have full control of everything in your workflow – especially everything that could go wrong. From automated testing to integrating other useful frameworks such as Angular and D3, each chapter covers a crucial element in the Meteor development process.

Discover how to integrate animations using Meteor's Blaze, to give your UI designs the edge, and explore reactive programming to effectively harness RESTful systems in your projects. You will also learn how to deploy and scale your application, two crucial aspects of modern development and vital in a changing digital environment with users expecting a product and experience that delivers. With further insights on developing for mobile – and how Meteor can help you tackle the challenges of the trend – and details on incorporating SEO strategies into your application, this book isn't just a code tutorial – it's about creating a product that users love.

Style and approach

This book is a practical guide that teaches you different ways to create custom packages, efficient client and server code, and more using Meteor. This book is packed with perfect examples and explanations to help you understand the concepts. With the perfect mix of theory and practical experience, it will equip you to become a professional MeteorJS developer.

Mastering MeteorJS Application Development

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Table of Contents

Mastering MeteorJS Application Development

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. Building a MeteorJS Web Application

An overview of MeteorJS

Server

MongoDB

Publish/Subscribe

Communication channel

Client

MiniMongo

Tracker

Blaze

Additional information

Developing a bus reservation application

Accounts

Signup

Signin

Creating a bus service

List and search

Reservation

Summary

2. Developing and Testing an Advanced Application

Scaffolding in MeteorJS

Recreating the travel booking application

The app directory

Client

lib

Private and public packages

Server

Generators for the application

Creating travel

Listing and search

Reservation

Debugging

Meteor shell

Testing MeteorJS application

Velocity

Testing BookMyTravel2

Summary

3. Developing Reusable Packages

Introduction to packages

An installed package

Creating a package

Package.describe

Package.onUse

Package.onTest

The bucket package

Collection

Templates

Using the package

Testing the package

Distributing a package

Summary

4. Integrating Your Favorite Frameworks

The server-side setup – FoodMenu

Collection

Publish

Access rules

Methods

The client-side setup – FoodMenu

Client packages

Application styles

The Angular.js application

The header section

The application container section

Angular.js routes

The CreateItem controller

Uploading images

The CollectionFS collection

Access rules

Publish images

The AddItem Angular.js template

Demystifying the logic

Listing food items

Route

Controller

Template

Editing food items

Route

The EditItem controller

Demystifying controller logic

React.js with MeteorJS

ReactFoodMenu

Setup

Server

Client

Client packages

The first React.js component

The header section

The React.js component in Blaze

The container section

The application route

Route – AddItem

The AddEditItem component

The initial state

Component handlers

React.js markups

The listing section

The listing route

The list component

The edit items route

Edit patch

d3.js with MeteorJS

DataViz

HTML

Server

Client – d3.js code

Integrating any frontend framework with MeteorJS

Summary

5. Captivating Your Users with Animation

Animation in Blaze templates

Animation using MeteorJS packages with Velocity.js

Animation using Snap.svg

Animation using d3.js

Animation using the Famo.us engine

Summary

6. Reactive Systems and REST-Based Systems

An overview of MeteorJS' reactivity

MeteorJS' reactivity

Tracker

Optimizations in autoruns

REST-based systems

REST with iron-router

API guidelines

REST with restivus

Handling volumes of data

Summary

7. Deploying and Scaling MeteorJS Applications

Understanding MeteorJS application deployment

Build tools for MeteorJS applications

Isobuild

Demeteorizer

Deploying a MeteorJS application

Meteor Up

Meteor deployment manager

Scaling a MeteorJS application

Scaling with Nginx

Scaling with Meteor cluster

Balancers

The multicore support

The SSL support

Mup and Cluster

The oplog tailing setup

Creating a replica set

Accessing the oplog from an application

Third-party MeteorJS hosting solutions

Meteor Galaxy

Modulus.io

Digital Ocean

Database solutions

Summary

8. Mobile Application Development

Getting started

Developing a simple mobile application

The login interface

The profile interface

The contacts interface

The messages interface

Builds and deploying

Hot code push

More about the mobile app development

Accessing plugin methods

Debugging

Debugging Android

Debugging iOS

Testing

Packages

The package development

Summary

9. Best Practices, Patterns, and SEO

Summarizing the concepts

Publishing/subscribing

DDP

MergeBox

MiniMongo

Data retrieval from Mongo

Session

Sticky session

Fibers

Trackers

Blaze

Packages

Build tools

Best practices

Securing database operations

Database indexing

oplog tailing

Error handling

Testing

Managing subscriptions

Publish/subscribe only the necessary data

Application directory structure

Serving static assets

Application namespacing

Transformation classes

Latency compensation

Identifying performance and scalability issues

Application patterns

The package pattern

Problems with the usual way of writing MeteorJS code

What we must know about packages

DigiNotes

MVC

SEO

Spiderable

ES2015 and MeteorJS

Meet the community

Summary

Index

Mastering MeteorJS Application Development

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: 1181215

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78528-237-9

www.packtpub.com

Credits

Author

Jebin B V

Reviewer

Ethan Escareño Rosano

Commissioning Editor

Veena Pagare

Acquisition Editor

Indrajit Das

Content Development Editor

Preeti Singh

Technical Editor

Saurabh Malhotra

Copy Editor

Trishya Hajare

Project Coordinator

Shweta H Birwatkar

Proofreader

Safis Editing

Indexer

Hemangini Bari

Production Coordinator

Shantanu N. Zagade

Cover Work

Shantanu N. Zagade

About the Author

Jebin B V is fond of JavaScript and anything related to JavaScript excites him. He is a front-end developer who has experience of full-stack development and also with stacks such as LAMP. Right from the beginning of his career, he has worked as a founding engineer for various startups.

Initially, he started his career as a PHP developer where he developed Web applications using PHP and its frameworks such as YII, Zend, Symphony, and WordPress. Later, he saw the growing potential of JavaScript and decided to be a JavaScript developer. He self-taught JavaScript and its concepts, with which he moved to work as a full-time JavaScript developer for a revolutionary big data product called DataRPM. When he was a part of DataRPM, he developed a significant part of the product that helped the product to grow rapidly.

At DataRPM, he nourished himself to be a challengeable JavaScript developer who can build a whole product all alone. In a short period, he learned and mastered JavaScript's quirks and solved many problems to scale the product. With JavaScript, he also learned how to design modules using proper design patterns, structuring the codebase, and maintaining the code discipline.

Along with development, he loves to teach. He always strives to share knowledge. Whenever he finds a solution to a peculiar problem, he calls up the team to let them know how he solved it. Not a single day of his life goes by without reading, and the major part of his reading is about JavaScript and its ecosystem. The routine of his professional life is reading about code, writing code, and teaching to code better.

Carrying all these experiences, he moved to another startup where he built, all alone, the web version of the instant messaging application, Avaamo. The web version was developed and launched in less than three months, which is now consumed by all premium users, and there are also quite a few firms who run their businesses in Avaamo Web.

Other than JavaScript, the only other thing he is very passionate about is bodybuilding. He does weight training and calisthenics on his preferable schedules. He is very concerned about pollution and thus he commutes by bicycle to work every day. He has a very good sense of innovati...