Backbone.Marionette.js: A Gentle Introduction

eBook Details:

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: WOW! eBook (November 30, 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193778553X
• ISBN-13: 978-1937785536

eBook Description:

Backbone.Marionette.js: A Gentle Introduction

Leverage Backbone.js while increasing your productivity! This is a great resource for learning Marionette the “right” way, even for total beginners. In this book, you’ll develop a complete Marionette.js application, and you’ll become comfortable with the library. You’ll learn how to structure and refactor your code so it stays manageable even for large applications. Whether you’re new to web apps, or an experienced developer looking to quickly master yet another framework, you’ll get there in no time. All you need is a basic understanding of JavaScript and the DOM.

Backbone.js has become a popular library for developing modern web applications as their complexity and size increase. With Marionette.js, boilerplate code is handled by the library, letting you focus on your application’s specifics. You’ll discover Marionette components, along with when and why to use them. After you’ve made it through the book, you’ll be comfortable writing a Marionette application on your own.

You already have a few Backbone apps under your belt, and want to efficiently learn how Marionette will make you more productive when building Backbone apps. In addition, it’s written in an easy-to-follow style (with code listings, screenshots, etc.) so you won’t need to be next to a computer if you’re familiar with building plain Backbone apps. This book is also a great choice if you’re comparing javascript frameworks for a new project: you can just read along to understand how a Marionette application is developed, and decide if the framework fits your needs.

Exercises covering the basic concepts are included (with solutions), so you can check for yourself if you’ve properly understood the functionality that was covered in a given chapter.

You’ll learn how to build the application at davidsulc step by step, including:

• Structuring your large apps with modules to manage complexity
• Using regions and layouts to segment your displays and make them manageable
• Managing forms, along with error display
• Handling data latency and displaying loading views
• Filtering collections and updating views, matching URL fragments to filtering criteria
• Extending the Marionette framework to clean up your code and make your life easier
• Using mixins to add common functionality to objects
• Defining your own view classes to extend from, sharing common behavior
• Implementing Backbone routing properly
• Swapping sub-applications
• Managing menu entries with non-persisted models

And much more! All of this is covered step by step so you fully understand how and why code is being added, removed, or refactored.

What You Need

A recent browser to run the web application. All development will be local, so you won’t be required to have a running server. Code excerpts are in JavaScript, and assume a working knowledge of the language, as well as DOM manipulation. Code commits are available in a Git repository, but can also be perused on the web, or downloaded (without requiring Git).

What You’ll Learn

How to build this application step by step, including:

• Structuring your large apps with modules to manage complexity
• Using regions and layouts to segment your displays and make them manageable
• Managing forms, along with error display
• Handling data latency and displaying loading views
• Filtering collections and updating views, matching URL fragments to filtering criteria
• Extending the Marionette framework to clean up your code and make your life easier
• Using mixins to add common functionality to objects
• Defining your own view classes to extend from, sharing common behavior
• Implementing Backbone routing properly
• Swapping sub-applications
• Managing menu entries with non-persisted models

And much more! All of this will be covered step by step so you fully understand how and why code is being added, removed, or refactored.

Who This Book is For

This book is for web developers who want to learn how to be able to build highly interactive javascript applications. It will cover using Backbone.Marionette.js to achieve that goal, and will empower you to build your own applications by understanding how Marionette apps are built.

Beginners

All you’ll need to follow along is a basic understanding of javascript and the DOM (Document Object Model), such as being able to manipulate elements on the page using a jQuery selector. In other words, if you’ve used a few jQuery libraries here and there, you should be able to follow along just fine. You can also take a look at thebook sampleto see if the instructional style works for you.

Advanced readers

You already have a few Backbone apps under your belt, and want to efficiently learn how Marionette will make you more productive when building Backbone apps. In addition, it’s written in an easy-to-follow style (with code listings, screenshots, etc.) so you won’t need to be next to a computer if you’re familiar with building plain Backbone apps. This book is also a great choice if you’re comparing javascript frameworks for a new project: you can just read along to understand how a Marionette application is developed, and decide if the framework fits your needs.

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