from mean to the mern stack

MEAN to MERNWeWork 7 Feb 2017

Troy Miles• Troy Miles aka the RocknCoder

• Over 37 years of programming experience

• Speaker and author

• bit.ly/rc-jquerybook

• rockncoder@gmail.com

• @therockncoder

• Now a lynda.com Author!

Build Mobile Apps!

• Develop mobile apps with Ionic and AngularJS

• Learn the Ionic CLI

• Fetch data via ajax

• Deploy your app to Android & iOS

• bit.ly/ionicvideo

Tonight’s Agenda• The MEAN Stack

• Heroku

• MongoDB

• NodeJS + Express

• Angular 2

• The MERN Stack

• MERN.io

• MERN CLI

• Redux + React Router

• Electrode

• Summary

Get Git

• Get is a mandatory tool for using all open source tools

• lots of free tutorials on how to use it

• https://www.codeschool.com/learn/git

• https://git-scm.com/

The MEAN Stack

• MEAN is a free and open-source JavaScript software stack for building dynamic web sites and web applications.

• Term coined by Valeri Karpov

MongoDB

• MongoDB is an open-source, document database designed for ease of development and scaling.

• v3.2

• Initial release - 2009

• https://www.mongodb.org/

Express

• Fast, unopinionated, minimalist web framework for Node.js

• v4.14

• http://expressjs.com/

Angular

• HTML enhanced for web apps!

• v2.2.3

• https://angular.io/

NodeJS

• Node.js® is a platform built on Chrome's V8 JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications.

• v7.2.0

• https://nodejs.org/

Benefits of the MEAN Stack

• Isomorphic JavaScript

• Open Source / Community Driven

• Performance

• Low Cost

Isomorphic JavaScript• One language all the way thru

• Client/Server JavaScript

• JSON as the data transport format

• BSON as the data storage format

• JavaScript to control Mongo DB

Why is JavaScript Beautiful?

• It is a Functional Language - Closer to Lisp and Scheme than Java or C

• First Class Functions

• Dynamic Objects

• Loose Typing

• and more...

ECMAScript VersionsVersion Date

ES1 June 1997

ES2 June 1998

ES3 December 1999

ES4 DOA 2006

ES5 December 2009

ES6/ES2015 June 2015

ES2016 2016

How to use ES6 today?

• Use only the latest browsers

• Use a transpiler: Babel, Traceur, Closure, TypeScript

• Use Node.js

• https://kangax.github.io/compat-table/es6/

Heroku

Installation• Create a free heroku account at:

• https://www.heroku.com

• Download + install heroku toolbelt at:

• https://toolbelt.heroku.com/

• (the account is free, no credit card necessary)

Deploy to Heroku• heroku login

• heroku create <app-name>

• (must be unique)

• git push heroku master

• heroku open

MongoDB

Top DB Engines1. Oracle

2. MySQL

3. MS SQL Server

4. MongoDB

5. PostgreSQL

6. DB2

7. MS Access

8. Cassandra

9. Redis

10.SQLite

Who Uses It?• Craigslist

• eBay

• Foursquare

• SourceForge

• Viacom

• Expedia

• LinkedIn

• Medtronic

• eHarmony

• CERN

• and more

When to Use Mongo?• Document Database

• High Performance

• High Availability

• Easy Scalability

• Geospatial Data

What is a Document?• An ordered set of keys and values

• Like JavaScript objects

• No duplicate keys allowed

• Type and case sensitive

• Field order is not important nor guaranteed

Node.js

Node v7• Merged with the io.js project, which was at 3.x

• New version of Chrome V8

• Supports ES6

• Faster

• node -v

Node Package Manager

• Or npm for short

• version: npm -v

• upgrade npm: npm install npm -g

• (officially, npm doesn’t stand for anything, anymore)

package.json• required properties (error if missing)

• name & version

• optional properties (warning if missing)

• description, repository, & license

• other properties

• scripts, dependencies, config, etc.

Use Environment Vars

• process.env object holds all environment vars

• Reading: var connect = process.env.connect;

• Writing: process.env.mode = ‘test’;

• NEVER PUT SECRET STUFF IN SOURCE CODE!

Express

Installation

• npm install express-generator -g

• npm install express —save

Angular

Angular 2 main concepts• Component

• Data binding

• Service

• Directive

• Dependency injection

• Module

Metadata

• Metadata is extra information which gives angular more info

• @Component tells angular the class is a component

• @Directive tells angular the class is a directive

Component• A class with component metadata

• Responsible for a piece of the screen referred to as view.

• Template is a form HTML that tells angular how to render the component.

• Metadata tells Angular how to process a class

Componentimport {Component, OnInit} from 'angular2/core'import {QuizService} from './quiz-service'@Component({ selector: 'quiz', templateUrl: './templates/quiz.html', providers: [QuizService]}) export class QuizComponent implements OnInit { quizList: IQuizList[]; constructor(private _quizService:QuizService) { } ngOnInit() { this.getQuiz(); } getQuiz() { this.quizList = this._quizService.getQuizzes(); } }

Template/View

• Is a way to describe a view using HTML

• Templates can be included with the component

• Or as a URL link to an HTML file

• Best practice is to use an HTML file

Data Binding

C/D Attribute Binding type

—> {{ value }} one-way

—> [property] = “value” property

<— (event) = “handler” event

<—> [(ng-model)] = “property” two-way

Service

• “Substitutable objects that are wired together using dependency injection (DI)”

• Used to share code across an app

• Lazily instantiated

• Angular has no “Service” defined type

Directive• A class with directive metadata

• Two kinds: attribute & structural

• Attribute directives alter the look or behavior of an existing element

• Structural directives alter the layout by adding, removing, and replacing elements in the DOM

• A component is a directive with a view

Directiveimport {Directive, ElementRef, Renderer, Input, OnInit} from 'angular2/core'; @Directive({ selector: '[sizer]'}) export class Sizer implements OnInit { @Input() sizer:string; element:ELementRef; renderer:Renderer; constructor(element:ElementRef, renderer:Renderer) { this.element = element; this.renderer = renderer; } ngOnInit() { this.renderer.setElementStyle(this.element.nativeElement, 'fontSize', this.sizer + '%'); } }

Component + Directiveimport {Directive, Component, ElementRef, Renderer} from ‘@angular/core'; import {Sizer} from './sizer'@Component({ selector: 'my-app', providers: [], template: ` <div> <p [sizer]="200">Butter{{name}}</p> </div> `, directives: [Sizer]}) export class App { constructor() { this.name = 'Monkey' } }

Dependency Injection• A way to supply a new instance of a class with the

fully-formed dependencies it needs

• Most dependencies are services

• Angular know which services a components by looking at the types of its constructor parameters

• Services are injected by an Injector which uses a Provider to create the service

Module

• Modules are optional but a best practice

• export tells TypeScript that the resource is a module available for other modules

• import tells TypeScript the resource in a module

• Angular ships a collection library modules

Webpack

Webpack?

• Module bundler

• Replaces System.JS

• Works with JS, CSS, and HTML

• Minifies, concatenates, and bundles

The MERN Stack

• Keep Mongo, Express, and Node

• Replace Angular with React

• HashNode create mern-cli to scaffold a mern app

• http://mern.io/

MERN CLI• A scaffolding tool to minimize setup time

• npm install -g mern-cli

• mern init <app_name>

• cd <app_name>

• npm install

• npm start

mern commandsCommand Purpose

mern init <name> initialize a MERN app

mern list List MERN variants

mern search <term> Search for a variant

mern info <term> View details of a variant

merng generates a component

npm commandsCommand Purpose

npm run start start dev servernpm run bs bundles, starts prodnpm run test starts test runnernpm run watch:test starts test runner in watchnpm run coverage generates coverage reportnpm run lint runs linter

generator commandsCommand Purpose

dumb-s <name> dumb comp in shared

dumb-m <name> dump comp in module

functional-s <name> functional comp in shared

functional-m <name> functional comp in module

module <name> create a module

React

• A JavaScript library for building UIs

• Created by Facebook & Instagram

• Initial release March 2013

• Highly recommend reading their license

React

• Virtual DOM

• One-way data flow

• JSX - JavaScript eXtension allows in HTML generation

• Component-based

Flux

• A pattern for managing data flow in your app

• One way data flow

• 4 main parts: Dispatcher, Store, Action, & View

The 4 main parts

• Dispatcher: receives actions & dispatches them to stores

• Store: holds the data of an app

• Action: define app’s internal API

• View: displays the data from stores

Redux• A predictable state container for JS apps

• Works well with React Native

• An alternative to & inspired by Flux

• Single store for the entire app

• Makes it easier to hot-load your app

React Router

• A complete routing library for React

• Keeps UI in sync with URL

Links• https://www.mongodb.org/

• http://expressjs.com/

• https://angular.io/

• https://nodejs.org/

• http://mongoosejs.com/

• https://www.heroku.com/

Links• https://facebook.github.io/react/

• https://facebook.github.io/flux/docs/overview.html

• https://github.com/reactjs/react-redux

• https://github.com/ReactTraining/react-router

• http://mern.io/

• http://www.electrode.io/

Summary• React is easier to learn than Angular

• When you add in parts like Redux, Flux and React Router, React is more complex than angular

• In the end choose what is best for you and your team

• Don’t give in to dogma