When the company I work for decided to standardize Fastify as the framework to use moving forward when creating new services, I started looking for resources to learn about Fastify, what it is, how it worked, and its development paradigm. After reading the official Docs and guides provided, and with previous experience in NodeJS Back-End development with other frameworks (Mainly Express.JS and some Nest.JS) I realized the creators wrote a book on Fastify and decided to acquire it to learn more in-depth how development in Fastify works. THE BOOK’S CONTENT The book is structured in three sections: Fastify Basics, Build a Real-World Project, and Advanced Topics. The first section is mostly about the theoretical framework on how Fastify works, its encapsulation paradigm, lifecycle hooks, routing, plugins, validation and serialization, etc. The second section is where you apply the knowledge learned on the first part to build a real application from scratch, add functionality, authentication, tests, and finally deploy it to the cloud for it to be accessible, and configure logs and monitoring tools to keep an eye on the health of your application. The last sections focuses on advanced topics, like architecture decisions, how to migrate from a monolith to a microservice architecture, how to optimize your application by identifying bottlenecks and other performance-reducing problems and bugs, how to incorporate a GraphQL API to your project, and using TypeScript to develop Type-Safe apps. THE GOOD I really enjoyed and learned plenty from the first section of the book, as it explains in a practical way the decisions that were taken when developing Fastify, some general Back-End development good practices, and how you can follow that mindset when building your application to achieve greater performance, easier scalability, and make refactoring down the line more enjoyable as the needs of your application change. As someone that thrives when understanding the way things work internally and the reasoning behind design choices when developing software, I reached the end of the first part better prepared and with a greater understanding of what I could achieve with Fastify. Applying the previous knowledge on a real life project helped to further cement the concepts, and introduced me to tools I hadn’t heard of that are quite useful (And also open source!) for monitoring software. The ‘Performance Assessment and Improvement’ chapter was probably one of my favorites, as it includes a framework to follow to enhance and test your application periodically, together with excellent tools that help you gather data and make an informed decision (That are also open source, BTW). WHAT COULD BE BETTER As I believe is normal with first editions, there were a number of typos throughout the book (Good thing they are open to feedback and have a dedicated site to submit them). Also, for better or worse, software evolves constantly, and some of the code examples in the book have since changed because of evolutions in Fastify itself. Fortunately, there’s an up to date GitHub repository that is constantly being updated to fix typos, bugs, and outdated dependencies, so I would recommend when in doubt or if a certain piece of code from the book doesn’t quite work (specially if you are working side by side implementing everything instead of just browsing the book) to cross check with the official repository and see if there’s a fix already (Happened to me and in the end it helped). On a different topic, I consider the last section, ‘Advanced topics’ could be enhanced on a later version. They don’t build on top of the project we did on part 2. Instead, they are different smaller projects. To include these functionalities on the project of part 2 would make the book, in my opinion, an even greater guide.

CONCLUSION

If you are a Back-End developer with previous experience with other Frameworks looking to enhance your skills or your app’s performance with Fastify, or even have a little experience with Fastify, this book is a great read, that will give you the tools to become a better Back-End developer, and learn how to make great Fastify apps. Because of the nature of the book, complete beginners or Back-End developers with little experience may face some frustration when trying to follow the book and understand the topics it touches. Congratulations to the authors on a great book, and hopefully they can continue to improve on a 2nd version.

I’ve learned a lot of concepts about backend development. Concrete principles to feed your brain and thorough about the framework. It definitely convinced me to use Fastify or at least give a try.

The book "Accelerating Server-Side Development with Fastify" is highly recommended for developers who want a unique learning experience and a deeper understanding of Fastify. It combines practical development techniques, insights into the framework's internals, and industry best practices, enabling developers to confidently build high-performing applications and explore advanced features.The book's structure, real-world project development, personal insights from the authors, and detailed guide on testing make it a valuable resource for both beginners and seasoned developers. It offers an in-depth exploration of Fastify's concepts, provides a practical context for learning, and shares valuable tips and tricks not found in official documentation.Highly recommend anyone interested in Node.js development read this book it would be an invaluable resource for their professional experience.

This is a groundbreaking book that provides a unique learning experience for developers. As a developer, I enjoyed diving into Fastify's inner workings and gaining a deeper understanding of its operations. The book combines practical development techniques with valuable insights into the framework's internals, offering a solid foundation for building applications.What sets this book apart is its exploration of Fastify's architectural choices, design patterns, and performance optimizations that make it a standout backend framework for Node. Understanding the inner workings empowered me to make informed decisions and optimize my code for performance and scalability. The book's emphasis on industry best practices expanded my overall understanding of backend development.Overall, "Accelerating Server-Side Development with Fastify" is an invaluable resource that equips developers with practical skills and a deeper understanding of the framework's architecture and design principles. It has enabled me to confidently develop high-performing applications and explore Fastify's advanced features.

If Node is what you're using, then Fastify is a fantastic choice for your web server and this book sums up why very well. It goes over all the configuration needed to make the server work for you and even covers how to customize lessor thought of items, like the structured logger, which was always a pain point for me personally.Having used Fastify for years, you can build amazingly performant APIs in Node. This book will help you get there and will be a valuable resource as you build out functionality.