You're reading from Learning Node.js for Mobile Application Development Make use of Node.js to learn the development of a simple yet scalable cross-platform mobile application

Product type Paperback

Published in Oct 2015

Publisher

ISBN-13 9781785280498

Length 248 pages

Edition 1st Edition

Languages

JavaScript

Tools

Node.js

Concepts

Cross Platform Mobile Development

Table of Contents (16) Chapters

Preface

1. Setting Up Your Workspace FREE CHAPTER

2. Configuring Persistence with MongoDB

3. Creating an API

4. Securing Your Backend

5. Real-Time Data and WebSockets

6. Introducing Ionic

7. Building User Interfaces

8. Making Our App Interactive

9. Accessing Native Phone Features

10. Working with APIs

11. Working with Security

12. Working with Real-Time Data

13. Building an Advanced Chat App

14. Creating an E-Commerce Application Using the Ionic Framework

Index

The Node.js backend

Modern apps have several requirements, which cannot be provided by the app itself, such as central data storage, communication routing, and user management. In order to provide such services, apps rely on an external software component known as the backend. The backend will be executed on one or more remote servers, listen to network requests from the devices that run the app, and provide them with the services that requests require.

The backend that we will use in this book is Node.js, a powerful but strange beast in its category. Node.js, at the time of writing this book, is the only major backend that is written almost entirely in JavaScript, which in reality is a frontend scripting language. The creators of Node.js wanted a backend that could be integrated with the apps written in JavaScript as seamlessly as possible, and you cannot get much closer to that than Node.js. Beyond this, Node.js is known for being both reliable and high-performing.

In terms of architecture, Node.js is highly modularized and designed from the ground up to be extendable through plugins or packages. Node.js comes with its own package management system, Node Package Manager (NPM), through which you can easily install, remove, and manage packages for your project. You will see how to use NPM in order to install other necessary components later in this chapter.