Instant Backbone.Js Application Development

by Thomas Hunter II

In Detail

It’s easy to let a project get out of hand and become completely unmaintainable. However, this can be avoided by building a nicely-structured Backbone.js application. When working on a web application involving a lot of JavaScript, applications may end up as tangled piles of jQuery selectors and callbacks, all trying frantically to sync between the HTML UI, JavaScript logic, and the database on your server. With Backbone.js, you represent your data as models that can be created, validated, destroyed, and saved to the server.

Instant Backbone.js Application Development is a beginner-friendly book that will guide you through a step-by-step process to go from an empty project directory to a fully-functioning web application. The book also includes code samples that are easy to use and will guide you through the major features that Backbone.js has to offer.

Instant Backbone.js Application Development looks at the main types of objects that Backbone.js offers and has you instantiate specialized versions of each. These objects are stored in their own individual files and work together to build well-structured applications.

Your data will be stored using Collections and Models and presented to the user through Views and Templates. URLs will remain pretty and your browsing history will still work thanks to the Routing functionality. You will also learn how to build a JavaScript Single Page Application that communicates smoothly with your backend server using AJAX.

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 book is a practical, step-by-step tutorial that will teach you to build Backbone.js applications quickly and efficiently.

Who this book is for

This book is targeted towards developers. It is assumed that you have at least a basic understanding of JavaScript and jQuery selectors. If you are interested in building dynamic Single Page Applications that interact heavily with a backend server, then this is the book for you.

Genres: Technology

64 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2013

About the author

Thomas is the author of Advanced Microservices and is a prolific public speaker with a passion for reducing complex problems into simple language and diagrams. His career includes working at Fortune 50's in the Midwest, co-founding a successful startup, and everything in between.

Reviews

[Carlos Ramos · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book on Backbone if you know nothing about it, with a simple example you can follow through just with your browser and a text editor, no backend server (until the last part).

I have a better understanding of Backbone now, and what it can do, thanks to this instant guide!

Short to read, to the point, and delivers.

[Julio Biason · Rating 1 out of 5]

Got this in a promotion, expecting to understand why I should learn backbone.

And the problem is, although the book goes into building a SPA and tells every single step, it severely lacks the "why" you should do such things. Why you should create a "Routes" property on your app; why you have collections AND models, why Backbone can't infer the collections by the models and so on.

In the end, I think I learnt more about LoDash than Backbone.