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JavaScript at Scale
JavaScript at Scale

JavaScript at Scale: Build web applications that last, with scaling insights from the front-line of JavaScript development

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Profile Icon Adam Boduch
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eBook Jul 2015 266 pages 1st Edition
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Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Adam Boduch
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Can$12.99 Can$55.99
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.5 (2 Ratings)
eBook Jul 2015 266 pages 1st Edition
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JavaScript at Scale

Chapter 2. Influencers of Scale

Influencers of scale start with the users of our software. They're the number one influencer because they're the reason we've set out to build an application. As we saw in the preceding chapter, users influence features that ultimately influence the code we write and the development personnel who implement it. When we pause and think about these scaling influencers, we recognize that a sound JavaScript architecture that can handle them is a prudent cause. We can then take our findings and look at our code from different architectural perspectives. We'll dig into each of these perspectives throughout this book, starting with the next chapter.

But before we do that, let's go into more detail on these influencers of scale. We want to pay close attention to these because with every decision we make about our design, how it actually scales depends largely on the influences we've anticipated. Perhaps more importantly, we need...

Scaling users

The most important user is us—the development organization. While our mission is to keep our users happy by delivering software that scales, we need to keep ourselves happy too. And that requires a viable business model. The reason we care about this is because different models mean different approaches to acquire new users, and manage existing users. From there, the complexities of scaling our user base get deeper. We need to consider how our users are organized, how they use our software to communicate with one another, how to provide support, collect feedback, and collect user metrics.

Viable business models for JavaScript applications range from deploying a free service that's ad-supported, to a private, on-premise deployment of our software, where we collect license fees. Deciding which approach is right for the organization is likely out of our hands. However, it's our responsibility to understand the chosen business model and relate it to the current...

Scaling features

Now we'll turn our attention to scaling the features we implement in our software. The users are the ultimate influence, and now that we have a rough idea of what's required in terms of scaling them, we can put this knowledge to work with feature development. When we think about scaling users, we're thinking about the why. Why do we choose this business model over that business model? Why do we need to enable things for one user role, and disable them for others? Once we get into actually designing and implementing the feature in JavaScript, we start thinking of the how. Not only are we concerned about correctness, but also scalability. As with users, influencers are the determinant when it comes to scalable features.

Application value

We'd like to think that we're doing a good job with the features we implement, and that with each new feature we introduce, we're providing value to the user. It's worthwhile for us to think about this, because...

Scaling development

The last hurdle for us to overcome in terms of scaling influencers is that of actually developing the software. Any sufficiently complex JavaScript application isn't going to be written in isolation by just one developer. There's a team involved, even if it is only ad-hoc and self-organized in an open source context. In other institutions, teams and the roles within them are defined more concretely. Regardless of how the team is put together, scaling that team is a direct consequence of how we react to the other scaling influencers discussed so far in this chapter.

The first issue we'll address is the one we're most likely to run into first with a nascent software project—finding development resources. A team isn't a static thing; we'll have to add new resources as the software grows in code size and solution scope. Like it or not, the best resources are the most likely to leave as they're the most sought after. Ideally, we can...

Influencer checklist

We'll close out the chapter with a few checklists. These are simple questions for which there's no one correct answer. Some answers will remain the same throughout the lifetime of our software. For example, our business model will, hopefully, 'not change often. Others depend on the current state of things, and that's what these lists are for. We can come back to them again and again, anytime something changes. These could be requirements, users, new deployments, or changes to the development environment. These questions are nothing more than subtle reminders of the factors that influence scalable JavaScript applications. If reading them results in more questions than answers, then they've served their purpose.

User checklist

The user is why we build software in the first place. This checklist covers the most fundamental aspects of why we need to scale our application. These questions will be relevant throughout the lifetime of the software. And...

Summary

There are three main areas of concern when it comes to scaling influencers in JavaScript applications. Each area influences the area directly beneath it, until we ultimately hit the ground floor, where development takes place.

First and foremost are the users of our software. There are a number of user-related factors that influence the need for our software to scale. For instance, the business model our organization chooses subtly affects later decisions about our architecture. License-based deployments are likely to be deployed on-premise somewhere, and therefore more likely to require customizations. The combinations of complexities are endless, and they all stem from the users of our software.

The next major area we looked at were the features themselves. We have to take much of the insight gained from thinking about our users and their influence on scale, and provide this as input to our feature design. For example, a lot may happen in a short period of time, once people start...

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Description

Have you ever come up against an application that felt like it was built on sand? Maybe you've been tasked with creating an application that needs to last longer than a year before a complete re-write? If so, JavaScript at Scale is your missing documentation for maintaining scalable architectures. There's no prerequisite framework knowledge required for this book, however, most concepts presented throughout are adaptations of components found in frameworks such as Backbone, AngularJS, or Ember. All code examples are presented using ECMAScript 6 syntax, to make sure your applications are ready for next generation browsers.

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Publication date : Jul 31, 2015
Length: 266 pages
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Table of Contents

11 Chapters
1. Scale from a JavaScript Perspective Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Influencers of Scale Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Component Composition Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Component Communication and Responsibilities Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Addressability and Navigation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. User Preferences and Defaults Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Load Time and Responsiveness Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Portability and Testing Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Scaling Down Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Coping with Failure Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

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SuJo Oct 26, 2015
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JavaScript at Scale was very enlightening, especially the portion on "Influencers of Scale" as it addresses one of the many problems developers face, how to scale properly. The aspect of having a model in place was nothing more than a design pattern in my mind, until I read this book. There are a lot of considerations to be made when writing an application, this book offers clear direction.
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Dustin Marx Aug 29, 2015
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"JavaScript at Scale" is a different type of book than many JavaScript-oriented books. "JavaScript at Scale" features some code listings to illustrate the points it makes, but the majority of the book is in discussion format and discusses various issues a JavaScript developer may encounter during different portions of the lifecycle of development of a large-scale JavaScript application. The book presents checklists of things to consider when architecting and designing JavaScript applications and provides conversational discussion regarding trade-offs that need to be made to address different scalability issues.The objective of "JavaScript at Scale" seems to me to be to get JavaScript architects and developers to proactively consider how to architect and design their applications with scalability in mind and how to redesign these applications as necessary. While different scalability issues are presented along with high-level discussion of ways to address these issues, much of the book's value is simply in articulating what developers and architects should consider and various approaches they might consider to address issues they identify.The author of "JavaScript at Scale" mentions a few JavaScript tools and frameworks, but intentionally keeps the discussion focused on generic JavaScript rather than on any specific library, tool, or framework. The author points out that these frameworks and libraries bring their own assumptions to the software and so their assumptions and design issues need to be considered along with consideration of custom portions of a given JavaScript application. There are multiple places in the book where it is shown that assumptions and expectations of frameworks, libraries, and popular design patterns can actually go from being helpful to being a hindrance in terms of scalability.The reader of "JavaScript at Scale" is likely to leave the book with as many or even more questions than he or she had when he or she started the book. This seems to be the author's point and the idea is that these questions will help the reader contemplate the appropriate actions to make a JavaScript application (more) scalable in several different ways.I reviewed a PDF version of "JavaScript at Scale" provided to me for review by Packt Publishing and did not receive any other compensation for my review. The code listings even in the PDF are black text on white background with no color syntax and no line numbers. There are a few basic typos and grammar errors in the book, but most of it is highly readable. Some experience with JavaScript is preferable for readers of this book because it assumes familiarity with the language. There is far more discussion text than code in this book, which fits the idea of thinking about architecture and design issues for scalability rather than focusing on code-level implementation details. That stated, there are some code listings that demonstrate scalability issues presented in code and how to re-write that same functionality to be more scalable.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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