Learning Web App Development

Book excerpt: Grasp the fundamentals of web application development by building a simple database-backed app from scratch, using HTML, JavaScript, and other open source tools. Through hands-on tutorials, this practical guide shows inexperienced web app developers how to create a user interface, write a server, build client-server communication, and use a cloud-based service to deploy the application. Each chapter includes practice problems, full examples, and mental models of the development workflow. Ideal for a college-level course, this book helps you get started with web app development by providing you with a solid grounding in the process. Set up a basic workflow with a text editor, version control system, and web browser Structure a user interface with HTML, and include styles with CSS Use JQuery and JavaScript to add interactivity to your application Link the client to the server with AJAX, JavaScript objects, and JSON Learn the basics of server-side programming with Node.js Store data outside your application with Redis and MongoDB Share your application by uploading it to the cloud with CloudFoundry Get basic tips for writing maintainable code on both client and server