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Node.js the Right Way: Practical Server-Side JavaScript That Scales

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By Jim R. Wilson
ISBN-13: 978-1937785734

Node.js the Right Way is a fantastic little book. It’s a small book (but then it’s Pragmatic exPress) and it doesn’t go into anything in much detail, but then that’s what makes it fantastic. It gives a useful and practical overview of writing Node.js server side applications and explains many of the tools and JavaScript patterns which will be useful to Node.js programmers.

It starts off with examples of manipulating the local file system using Node.js. This struck me a little odd as the only thing I tend to use the local file system for is reading configuration files. If I need to write a file I tend to put it in Amazon S3. However, this is genius and looking at how to manipulate the filesystem gives some useful insights into Node.js programming.

The book then goes on to look at networking with sockets, something which is often neglected in a world where we expect everything to be RESTful. There’s then a tour through scalable messaging, including clustering, how to access databases and how to write web services, including JavaScript promises and generators!

The final chapter covers writing a web application with a single page front end and authentication. This is the only place the book falls down. Too much is covered in two short a chapter. It’s still quite useful though.

This is not a book for a novice JavaScript or even a novice Node.js developer, but for once a little knowledge is not a dangerous thing and Node.js the Right Way will help increase that knowledge. It even led me to believe JavaScript might actually be the future.

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