Foreword

I was fortunate enough to be among a crowd of about 250 folks who gathered at the first JSConf.EU conference in Berlin in late 2009, when a relatively unknown-at-the-time speaker stood up and introduced himself as Ryan Dahl. Over the next hour, he proceeded to deliver a simple, no-frills talk with dry humor and little affect—not exactly the kind of talk you’d expect to receive a rousing audience response.

But we all jumped to our feet and gave him a standing ovation, for multiple minutes. Why? Dahl had just changed the game for all JavaScript developers, and we knew it. He officially launched Node.js to the world. Nothing in JS would ever be the same again.

In the eight or so years since, Node.js has skyrocketed to practical ubiquity, not only within the JavaScript world, but also far beyond. Node.js represents a powerful, respected, first-class, enterprise server-side platform for global-scale web applications. It sparked an explosion of interest in embedding JS in practically any computing or electronic device you can imagine, from robots to television sets to light bulbs.

The Node.js ecosystem is built around hundreds of thousands of published module packages in npm—the largest code repository ever for any programming language by more than 6 times. That statistic doesn’t include the countless privately installed packages comprising billions of lines of JavaScript.

With the enormous momentum around and attention to Node.js, it can be painfully daunting for someone who wants to learn this ecosystem to figure out where to start.

I think that’s why I appreciate this book so much. From the first page, it lays out a refreshingly down-to-earth, pragmatic, clear path that shows you how to navigate your way into Node.js. You won’t find unnecessary historical or philosophical fluff here; the book jumps right into showing you how to install and configure Node.js so that you can get to the code as quickly as possible.

The book is divided into short, digestible lessons. Each section is clearly organized, ensuring that you won’t get lost in the weeds and lose sight of the bigger picture.

Reading this book is like having Jonathan sit next to you patiently while you dig into Node.js, prompting you with enough challenges to get you to the next section review.

When you’re about 50 pages into the book, you’ll look up and realize that you’ve already written a web server that responds to web requests. The feeling of having total control of your application, with no off-limits black boxes, is so empowering that you may want to give yourself a standing ovation, too!

As you progress through the book’s lessons (almost 40 in total), you methodically expand the scope of your Node.js programming capabilities into API handling, databases, authentication, and more. This book lays out a solid checklist of what you need to learn and master to solidify Node.js as a vital tool in your programming toolbox.

That’s what Node.js always has been to me, from the moment I first heard Ryan talk about it to the present. Node.js is a powerful tool that gives me, a JavaScript developer, the capability to own my entire application. I think that you’ll find this book to be the guide you’ve been looking for as you cross over from knowing about Node.js to knowing how to wield it effectively as your favorite web application tool.

Jonathan’s ready for you to begin this journey with him in Lesson 0, so what are you waiting for? Get programming with Node.js!

KYLE SIMPSON, GETIFY

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