JavaScript at Scale by Adam Boduch

by Adam Boduch

Build web applications that last, with scaling insights from the front-line of JavaScript development Have you ever come up against an application that felt like it was built on sand? Maybe you've been tasked with creating an application that needs to last longer than a year before a complete re-write? If so, JavaScript at Scale is your missing documentation for maintaining scalable architectures. There's no prerequisite framework knowledge required for this book, however, most concepts presented throughout are adaptations of components found in frameworks such as Backbone, AngularJS, or Ember. All code examples are presented using ECMAScript 6 syntax, to make sure your applications are ready for next generation browsers. JavaScript applications of today look a lot different from their predecessors of just five years ago. Because of this rapid growth in sophistication and capabilities, we've seen an explosion in JavaScript frameworks; the JavaScript development landscape is a fragmented one. To build large-scale JavaScript applications, we need more than just tools – we need scalable architectures. We create scalable JavaScript architectures by looking at what aspects of our application need to scale and why. Only then can we apply the best patterns and components to our architecture, scaling it into the future. JavaScript at Scale will show you how to deal with scalability from a number of perspectives; addressability, testability and component composition. The book begins by defining ‘scale' from a JavaScript point of view, and dives into the influencers of scale, as well as scalable component composition and communication. We will also look at how large-scale architectures need the ability to scale down, and recover from failing components, as well as scale up and manage new features or a large user base. Filled with real-world JavaScript scaling scenarios, and code-first examples, JavaScript at Scale is your guide to building out applications that last. Each topic is covered in a way that it can be applied to your own unique scenarios; by understanding the fundamentals of a scaling issue, you'll be able to use that knowledge to tackle even the most difficult of situations. The code examples follow the same approach, using ECMAScript 6 syntax that can be translated to the framework of choice.

Unknown Binding

First published July 31, 2015

Reviews

[Sebastian Gebski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings regarding this book.

Author has a very broad perspective on various aspects of scalability & he tries to cover it within this book. Not just the scalability of application itself (feature-wise & performance-wise), but also scalability of development process, etc. These make all the considerations much more interesting as many of this topics are not covered anywhere else & the usual way to learn them is the hard way.

Another interesting idea was to make the book as approachable as possible by staying framework/library-agnostic. Intention was truly great, but ... as a result book frequently stays too high level when getting down into details seems very beneficial. Don't get me wrong, there are code samples (in clean ECMA 2015) & they are clear & well-written, but due to obvious reasons - very limited & simple.

Final verdict? This book is OK in terms of defining the issue(s) with JavaScript applications scalability, but is not there yet in terms of giving proper & complete-enough answer to these problems. Keeping in mind Packt's books' average level recently, it's definitely top 25% for that editor.

[Marc Udoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an ok read about how to scale JavaScript. Pretty elementary and way too much text and time for the value it provided. Maybe worth skimming, but highly supplement it with real technological discussion threads.