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Instant Handlebars.Js
Handlebars is one of the leading JavaScript templating engines and is quickly gaining widespread adoption by developers, as well as with frameworks like Ember.js and Meteor. "Instant Handlebars.js" is a complete guide to the Handlebars library filled with internal concepts and practical examples that will help illustrate what’s going on and take you from a complete beginner to a Handlebars expert. "Instant Handlebars.js" begins with the very basics, requiring no previous knowledge about templating engines. Throughout the course of this book, you get a thorough tour of all the features available in Handlebars.js and you will learn how to organize your websites for both development and production. In this book, we will cover how to create templates with both placeholders and helpers. We will then go into organizing your projects for rapid -development using Require.js and how to optimize and compile your projects for production. To finish off, you will learn how to annotate your code and leave debug points so that you can easily maintain and troubleshoot your code in the future. Handlebars is a small library;, it is meant to fill a specific need and it does this well. "Instant Handlebars.js" takes a very methodical approach to cover every aspect of this amazing library with practical examples provided every step of the way. 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 step-by-step guide to installing and creating your own JavaScript templates using Handlebars.js. This book is aimed at people who have a general knowledge of JavaScript and HTML. No knowledge of templating engines is required.
62 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
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9 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 4, 2017
It really gives you the information you need to know to start using Handlebars in the shortest time possible, so no complains about the offering.
Given that is an "Instant" book, it is a light and fast read, covering the basics, and even some deep topics, enough to give a clear understanding.
If you want to learn Handlebars.js, and do not feel confident to tackle the official documentation site, go ahead and give this book a read.
Given that is an "Instant" book, it is a light and fast read, covering the basics, and even some deep topics, enough to give a clear understanding.
If you want to learn Handlebars.js, and do not feel confident to tackle the official documentation site, go ahead and give this book a read.
November 28, 2013
This is my review of the book “Instant Handlebars.js” which is written by “Gabriel Manricks” and published by “Packt Publishing”. Before reviewing any book I like to wear my newbie hat, the hat that says that the reader does not know anything besides frontend technologies. But I like to analyze the book from the eyes of an expert as well.
As we are just talking about Handlebars.js, let me tell you that it’s a templating engine and I already knew that it was going to be a small book. So I started reading it and this is what I found.
The first chapter explains templating engine briefly and compares it with Mustache, which is another templating engine, forgetting that user may or may not know what that is (Remember my newbie hat?). I don’t know what Mustache is. So even if I dropped my newbie hat, I still dont know what that is. Secondly, the book explains placeholders with the help of PHP code. Nope, not a good idea. (Disappointed!!!)
Installation.. umm.. easy and I did love the idea of using node.js to provide pre-compiled Handlebar templates for performance which are shown with examples in Chapter 10.
The next few chapters deals with other features of Handlebars. Like how to use and create your own Helpers. Use of Block Helpers. Shows SafeString function. Shows the use of Helpers as fn and inverse functions. (with pretty cool examples). And also explains the concept of Paritals.
The next chapter not only explains how to structure the app but also shows how to use require.js library for loading files. This is what I consider to be one of the best things about this book. Not just thinking of Handlebar.js as a library but also thinking that the reader might be building a product.
So, in all, this book requires some basic knowledge of templates and templating engine. I would like to give it 4 out of 5 because of good examples and the depth of topics covered, but deducting one point because of disappointment with first chapter. Never piss off a reader in the first chapter.
As we are just talking about Handlebars.js, let me tell you that it’s a templating engine and I already knew that it was going to be a small book. So I started reading it and this is what I found.
The first chapter explains templating engine briefly and compares it with Mustache, which is another templating engine, forgetting that user may or may not know what that is (Remember my newbie hat?). I don’t know what Mustache is. So even if I dropped my newbie hat, I still dont know what that is. Secondly, the book explains placeholders with the help of PHP code. Nope, not a good idea. (Disappointed!!!)
Installation.. umm.. easy and I did love the idea of using node.js to provide pre-compiled Handlebar templates for performance which are shown with examples in Chapter 10.
The next few chapters deals with other features of Handlebars. Like how to use and create your own Helpers. Use of Block Helpers. Shows SafeString function. Shows the use of Helpers as fn and inverse functions. (with pretty cool examples). And also explains the concept of Paritals.
The next chapter not only explains how to structure the app but also shows how to use require.js library for loading files. This is what I consider to be one of the best things about this book. Not just thinking of Handlebar.js as a library but also thinking that the reader might be building a product.
So, in all, this book requires some basic knowledge of templates and templating engine. I would like to give it 4 out of 5 because of good examples and the depth of topics covered, but deducting one point because of disappointment with first chapter. Never piss off a reader in the first chapter.
November 20, 2013
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Up until I read this book, using Handlebars in emberJS was all magical, I never really knew what goes behind the scenes. Also I never clear understood how rake-pipeline magically picked up all the handlebars files & pre compiled them to a js file before serving it to the browser because what we learn from the official websites is different from the practices that we use during development.
This book explains behind the scenes perfectly(not exactly how rake pineline precompiles or how emberjs integrated handlebars), but it walks you through the basic concepts which we can use to have a better understanding of more advanced concepts/practices followed by frameworks. And the best part is that it is only a 62 page book(48 to be precise excluding the cover pages & stuff), there is also a bonus feature where the author walks you through AMD(Asynchronous Module Definition) for structuring you app as per your needs.
Up until I read this book, using Handlebars in emberJS was all magical, I never really knew what goes behind the scenes. Also I never clear understood how rake-pipeline magically picked up all the handlebars files & pre compiled them to a js file before serving it to the browser because what we learn from the official websites is different from the practices that we use during development.
This book explains behind the scenes perfectly(not exactly how rake pineline precompiles or how emberjs integrated handlebars), but it walks you through the basic concepts which we can use to have a better understanding of more advanced concepts/practices followed by frameworks. And the best part is that it is only a 62 page book(48 to be precise excluding the cover pages & stuff), there is also a bonus feature where the author walks you through AMD(Asynchronous Module Definition) for structuring you app as per your needs.
November 8, 2013
The book Instant Handlebars.js" is a small reference book of how to use Handlebars.js library.
Author of the book tried to cover all questions - from installing Handlebars.js to code pre-compilation to use it on production. The main feature of Handlebars.js - helpers - covered good in the book. The part about helpers I liked best, it has the most useful information. Part about application structuring is looks odd and little correspond to reality. Handlebars.js almost always used as part of larger framework each of them has their very own view how to structure application code. The same can be said about next part - code pre-compilation. Each framework which use Handlebars.js as templating library has own tools for performing this task.
In general book looks like extended documentation, according to its structure and style the book is aimed at novice developers, whom it will be most useful.
Author of the book tried to cover all questions - from installing Handlebars.js to code pre-compilation to use it on production. The main feature of Handlebars.js - helpers - covered good in the book. The part about helpers I liked best, it has the most useful information. Part about application structuring is looks odd and little correspond to reality. Handlebars.js almost always used as part of larger framework each of them has their very own view how to structure application code. The same can be said about next part - code pre-compilation. Each framework which use Handlebars.js as templating library has own tools for performing this task.
In general book looks like extended documentation, according to its structure and style the book is aimed at novice developers, whom it will be most useful.
September 6, 2014
Not clear, lots of useless examples. The author should have used a basic example (let's build a site!) to show how to use Handlebars. Not recommended. Better read HB documentation online.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews