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Single Page Web Applications: JavaScript end-to-end by Mikowski, Michael, Powell, Josh [Manning Publications, 2013] (Paperback) [Paperback]
Excellent Book
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First published June 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 6, 2023
After *years* of taking this off the shelf and putting it back on, I finally blasted my way through it. (Why? I've simply wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything interesting. I paid money for this book, after all.)
This cements my general dislike of books that explain things by building THE ONE HUGE THING. I *much* prefer small, stand-alone examples. Most books like this with one big example at least make small, working parts. But this book...not so much. It's basically a big-ass tour of a completed project. Pages and pages of code with little snippets of explanation.
I can't give it 1 star because that wouldn't be fair. If you read this book and implemented THE THING, you will absolutely learn how to build a SPA for the browser and server. Some of the content is surprisingly evergreen (in Web terms). I don't care what framework-of-the-week you're using, you should know how these underlying things work, and you will learn that from this book.
Nevertheless, I truly dislike this method of structuring a book. Maybe building THE THING works in a classroom, but I think it sucks in book form.
This cements my general dislike of books that explain things by building THE ONE HUGE THING. I *much* prefer small, stand-alone examples. Most books like this with one big example at least make small, working parts. But this book...not so much. It's basically a big-ass tour of a completed project. Pages and pages of code with little snippets of explanation.
I can't give it 1 star because that wouldn't be fair. If you read this book and implemented THE THING, you will absolutely learn how to build a SPA for the browser and server. Some of the content is surprisingly evergreen (in Web terms). I don't care what framework-of-the-week you're using, you should know how these underlying things work, and you will learn that from this book.
Nevertheless, I truly dislike this method of structuring a book. Maybe building THE THING works in a classroom, but I think it sucks in book form.
December 9, 2016
Not bad. Too ambiguously for me. Some very useful parts are mixed with so boring reading. I do not understand why author has included too many code examples into each chapter. He should attach a code archive better. Despite the big advantage is a detailed review of SPA application concept. SPA examples without any framework are the most powerful pages. They are really cool! I would recommend these parts to everyone who want to know deeply about the single page application.
January 7, 2017
I have read only JavaScript Essentials Part and I really thankful because it contains a strong deep explanation.
December 1, 2014
Fun JavaScript end to end book! Very good intermediate book on how to write rich web apps with a JavaScript backed (node.js + MongoDb). This book is one of those programming books that not only teaches the language but also also preaches coding "better" practices. The appendix on Javascript standards was a bit disappointing and the authors make very few mentions about security, which should be a topic of great concern for SPA developers. The chapters on Mongo, Express, Node.js were my favorite parts. Chapters flow very nicely. Most chapters start where the last one ended. The code is refactored and super well commented.
October 12, 2025
This book sounds like an absolute must-read for anyone serious about modern web development. Single-page web Applications seem to bridge that gap between traditional web design and the sleek, app-like experiences users expect today. I love how the synopsis emphasizes both the creative and technical sides using JavaScript end-to-end, mastering HTML5 and CSS3, and learning to avoid common pitfalls. It feels approachable yet comprehensive, perfect for developers ready to level up their skills without being overwhelmed by frameworks. The fact that the authors bring real-world experience from high-traffic platforms makes it even more compelling. Just from the description, this looks like a book that can genuinely help developers think smarter, work cleaner, and build web apps that truly feel modern.
June 23, 2017
This is good book that can teach you JavaScript programming, but the example that is used throughout the whole book in my opinion is too big and in moments gets confusing.
The beginning is great, the explanation of how JavaScript works and how browsers are handling JavaScript code is one of the best that I have ever read.
The part with the chat application that is used for explaining SPA is too big in my opinion, I wasn't able to follow the code, because sometimes it was spreading on 3 pages.
The end part for Node.js and MongoDB has nice explanation.
Pros:
1) Excellent JavaScript introductory. (for more advanced JavaScript developers)
2) Good advice's and reasons for using clean code JSLint
3) Nice explanation of Node.js and MongoDB
Cons:
1) Very long example that is spreading over 2/3 of the book
2) Lack of more examples, experiences and practices where SPA can be used
From this the 3 stars.
Like I said in the beginning this is a good book for intermediate/advanced JavaScript developers that want to learn SPA development with pure JavaScript and jQuery.
The beginning is great, the explanation of how JavaScript works and how browsers are handling JavaScript code is one of the best that I have ever read.
The part with the chat application that is used for explaining SPA is too big in my opinion, I wasn't able to follow the code, because sometimes it was spreading on 3 pages.
The end part for Node.js and MongoDB has nice explanation.
Pros:
1) Excellent JavaScript introductory. (for more advanced JavaScript developers)
2) Good advice's and reasons for using clean code JSLint
3) Nice explanation of Node.js and MongoDB
Cons:
1) Very long example that is spreading over 2/3 of the book
2) Lack of more examples, experiences and practices where SPA can be used
From this the 3 stars.
Like I said in the beginning this is a good book for intermediate/advanced JavaScript developers that want to learn SPA development with pure JavaScript and jQuery.
January 22, 2015
Single page applications are all the rage these days. I figured this book could help me make sense of it all. I'm particularly interested in AngularJS, but it never came up in the book.
The book walks you through all the steps to build a fully functional chat application. It shows client-side interactions, abstracting a data layer, communicating with a server to exchange messages, and storing user profiles in a database on the server. The example is just complex enough to showcase all the steps with drawing too much attention to itself.
Overall, it's a decent walkthrough of DIY single page apps. If you want to build a professional app, you might be better off with Dojo or some of the frameworks out there. This will not become a reference that I would get back to very often.
Pros
Throughout, the authors show you step-by-step how to write the code for all of the components. They do a great job of starting with a bare bone template and fill in the functionality gradually. They use bold text judiciously to show the differences between each successive iteration of the development.
They use the URL itself to store the state of the app. This lets the app lean on the browser's history mechanism to handle the back button and other navigation.
The authors mention "fractal MVC" as a means to structure the parts of the application. The idea is great in principle, if the lower layers are completely encapsulated in their enclosing component. A container shouldn't have to dig into the details of its components. But they messed it up by having the top-level shell control everything in the lower layers.
There is a great introduction of Node.js and why it is well suited for use with Socket.IO for client-server communication. Without getting bogged down in technical details, they make a case for resource management and how it is more lightweight than regular TCP connections.
There is also a good introduction to MongoDB and how to connect it to Node.js. Again, it is just enough to wet the appetite and start playing with the database.
Cons
Much of the writing is really juvenile. The lead ins are repetitive and often condescending. There are a few attempts at humor but they feel forced and fell flat. The whole just felt unprofessional and reduced their credibility.
They write their own custom frontend framework instead of relying on more widespread technology. They complain that current frameworks all have tradeoffs that they were not comfortable with and that they wanted to show the inner workings of a web framework. They end up having to build a lot of infrastructure and deploy patterns that are not trivial to understand. And because they build their framework incrementally, it is not clear where they are going.
The flows of control get so complicated that they could really have used some sequence and/or collaboration diagrams. I got lost in all the inter-module communication.
Throughout, the authors rely exclusively on manual testing. They build a piece of functionality and then try it out in a browser or make calls to the server using curl. There is an appendix that delves into automated testing, but it feels like a bolted on late addition.
The book walks you through all the steps to build a fully functional chat application. It shows client-side interactions, abstracting a data layer, communicating with a server to exchange messages, and storing user profiles in a database on the server. The example is just complex enough to showcase all the steps with drawing too much attention to itself.
Overall, it's a decent walkthrough of DIY single page apps. If you want to build a professional app, you might be better off with Dojo or some of the frameworks out there. This will not become a reference that I would get back to very often.
Pros
Throughout, the authors show you step-by-step how to write the code for all of the components. They do a great job of starting with a bare bone template and fill in the functionality gradually. They use bold text judiciously to show the differences between each successive iteration of the development.
They use the URL itself to store the state of the app. This lets the app lean on the browser's history mechanism to handle the back button and other navigation.
The authors mention "fractal MVC" as a means to structure the parts of the application. The idea is great in principle, if the lower layers are completely encapsulated in their enclosing component. A container shouldn't have to dig into the details of its components. But they messed it up by having the top-level shell control everything in the lower layers.
There is a great introduction of Node.js and why it is well suited for use with Socket.IO for client-server communication. Without getting bogged down in technical details, they make a case for resource management and how it is more lightweight than regular TCP connections.
There is also a good introduction to MongoDB and how to connect it to Node.js. Again, it is just enough to wet the appetite and start playing with the database.
Cons
Much of the writing is really juvenile. The lead ins are repetitive and often condescending. There are a few attempts at humor but they feel forced and fell flat. The whole just felt unprofessional and reduced their credibility.
They write their own custom frontend framework instead of relying on more widespread technology. They complain that current frameworks all have tradeoffs that they were not comfortable with and that they wanted to show the inner workings of a web framework. They end up having to build a lot of infrastructure and deploy patterns that are not trivial to understand. And because they build their framework incrementally, it is not clear where they are going.
The flows of control get so complicated that they could really have used some sequence and/or collaboration diagrams. I got lost in all the inter-module communication.
Throughout, the authors rely exclusively on manual testing. They build a piece of functionality and then try it out in a browser or make calls to the server using curl. There is an appendix that delves into automated testing, but it feels like a bolted on late addition.
December 29, 2013
There are some glitches in this book, but you may learn some interesting things with it (although I suggest borrowing it instead of buying, definetely not that good).
First, a disclaimer: not a book for beginners, you'd better keep away if you don't already know some HTML+CSS+JS. Just saying it...
The goodies: lots of code to browse; some good software engineering in the way things are put together; a nice primer on node.js.
On the flip side:
Waaay too much code, I'd tell the authors to put the bulk of the code up on github (or wherever), leave the important comments on the text and let the readers browser the source there (besides, it's probably a better experience, one can view diffs easily online, for instance).
There are all sorts of lame excuses to justify things like "we don't include the js files at the end of the HTML, like everybody else" or "we don't like two-way binding" (they'd be better off merely stating one has the right to prefer one thing over the other instead of making up excuses).
And there's one thing I just can't agree to: they write HTML into JS strings. That's just not right. At all. Ever.
First, a disclaimer: not a book for beginners, you'd better keep away if you don't already know some HTML+CSS+JS. Just saying it...
The goodies: lots of code to browse; some good software engineering in the way things are put together; a nice primer on node.js.
On the flip side:
Waaay too much code, I'd tell the authors to put the bulk of the code up on github (or wherever), leave the important comments on the text and let the readers browser the source there (besides, it's probably a better experience, one can view diffs easily online, for instance).
There are all sorts of lame excuses to justify things like "we don't include the js files at the end of the HTML, like everybody else" or "we don't like two-way binding" (they'd be better off merely stating one has the right to prefer one thing over the other instead of making up excuses).
And there's one thing I just can't agree to: they write HTML into JS strings. That's just not right. At all. Ever.
June 21, 2014
A decent introduction to SPA architecture, with a heavy focus on JavaScript and JavaScript-centric technologies. The code is mostly solid, albeit a bit verbose at times (more could easily have been offshored to downloads, or to force the user to recall previous code snippets), but the verbosity was put to good use in many places to explain the how and way of certain choices.
There are a few places that struck me as odd: the authors don't explain why a jQuery plugin is needed when bind and trigger will do all or most of the work of the plugin competently. Despite previous verbosity, the section on caching is extremely thin. I would have appreciate more there.
But the book is solid and recommendable.
There are a few places that struck me as odd: the authors don't explain why a jQuery plugin is needed when bind and trigger will do all or most of the work of the plugin competently. Despite previous verbosity, the section on caching is extremely thin. I would have appreciate more there.
But the book is solid and recommendable.
August 26, 2016
Liked the hands on style of the book - the author takes us on a ride building (yet another) chat application. Loved the way of breaking down the development into discrete testable pieces and then tying them all up together.
I guess this is the book for SPAs at the moment. SPA differs from the usual web page by moving the entire client application over to the browser using JS + only relying on the server for initial load + data updates
However the content isn't sticky.. maybe I speed-read it. This book stopped just short of greatness...
I guess this is the book for SPAs at the moment. SPA differs from the usual web page by moving the entire client application over to the browser using JS + only relying on the server for initial load + data updates
However the content isn't sticky.. maybe I speed-read it. This book stopped just short of greatness...
November 24, 2014
A great book, I really appreciated the rout the author takes in writing the framework from scratch rather than relying on a pre-built framework such as angular or react.
This in-depth planning for the architecture of the application rather than being a bunch of web page templates/fragments with some JavaScript glue is focusing on the best thing that has happened to front end or client-side development in a long time - we are now building applications, not just web pages.
This in-depth planning for the architecture of the application rather than being a bunch of web page templates/fragments with some JavaScript glue is focusing on the best thing that has happened to front end or client-side development in a long time - we are now building applications, not just web pages.
December 6, 2013
maybe this book is not that bad technically, but i just become bored. too lengthy and not much new for me.
Read
January 17, 2014005.2762 M6369 2013
recommended
September 21, 2015rec by DDJ:
http://www.drdobbs.com/joltawards/jol...
use jQuery and TaffyDB instead of Angular (not MEAN)
http://www.drdobbs.com/joltawards/jol...
use jQuery and TaffyDB instead of Angular (not MEAN)
January 2, 2015
Probably the best all around text I have read with JavaScript as the subject. This will make you write. Enter code.
Want to read
December 14, 2013005.434 MIK- [COM]
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews