Nov 14 2018

My new book: Hands-On TypeScript for C# and .NET Core Developers.

Category: Angular | TypeScript | JavaScript | Asp.net coreFrancesco @ 03:28

An exhaustive introduction to modern client side techniques for .Net Web developers.

All you need to learn for using modern client-side frameworks like Angular in a single place! I conceived this book to avoid the frustration of a never-ending search for the knowledge required to afford a modern JavaScript framework. This book consolidates in a single place all the knowledge required to implement a modern "rich-client" Web application using a non-trivial JavaScript / TypeScript code base:TypeScript, ECMAScript 6 features, JavaScript modules, TypeScript library development  and testing, bundling modules with WebPack, and the Angular single page application framework.

TypescriptCover_

JavaScript was initially conceived to enrich server-generated HTML pages with JavaScript widgets, including date pickers, autocomplete, tabs, and so on. With the increase in available internet bandwidth, and the enhanced computational power of desktops, laptops, mobile devices, and smartphones, in order to ensure faster responses to all user inputs, and to be in a position to better exploit all available resources, increasingly, application logic moved from the server-side to JavaScript code on the client machine, that is, until the diffusion of single page applications, where the entire application logic runs in JavaScript on the client machine and the server's role is limited to handling shared data, as well as authentication / authorization logic.The increasing complexity of JavaScript code bases led to the definition of new JavaScript specifications and toolsets to bring JavaScript from the level of a scripting language to that of modern object-oriented languages, like Java, C#, and C++. Among the significant changes and tools, the following are worthy of mention:

  1. The new ECMAScript 6 specifications that turn JavaScript into an advanced object-oriented language.
  2. The new TypeScript language that adds types to JavaScript to enable better compilation-time checks, and implements almost all new ECMAScript 6 features that are not yet supported by all browsers. What makes TypeScript great is that it is JavaScript of the future plus types, and that it transpiles to browser-compatible JavaScript.
  3. JavaScript library repositories, such as NPM, that are capable of automatically tracking dependencies among libraries.
  4. JavaScript test frameworks, such as Jasmine.
  5. The organization of JavaScript code into modules, and the usage tools called bundlers that facilitate the linking of several interdependent modules into a few JavaScript files to add to each HTML page.
  6. Frameworks such as Angular, that contain everything needed to implement single page applications.

Somewhat unfortunately, knowledge of the above subjects is spread across a variety of locations, so it is very frustrating when you come to write modern "rich-client" web applications. For instance, if you decide to learn Angular, you'll discover that you need to learn TypeScript beforehand, and then you'll discover that a knowledge of TypeScript is not enough either, because you also need to learn more about ECMAScript 6 and JavaScript modules. Finally, if you have resisted hitherto, you'll discover that you also need to learn about bundling and WebPack.

This book consolidates in a single place all the knowledge you require to implement a modern "rich-client" web application using a non-trivial JavaScript/TypeScript code base:TypeScript, ECMAScript 6 features, JavaScript modules, TypeScript library development  and testing, bundling modules with WebPack, and the Angular single page application framework.

What the book covers in detail.

Chapter 1, Introduction to TypeScript, explains how to install and configure TypeScript transpiler, TypeScript base types, variable declarations, and scoping. It also discusses TypeScript's mission, and how TypeScript types can help you to write, debug, and maintain your code bases.

Chapter 2, Complex Types and Functions, explains the basics of the language: arrays, tuples, interfaces, and function declarations. It also explains how to define new types by performing operations on existing types, and how to simplify your code with ECMAScript 6 destructuring and spread.

Chapter 3, DOM Manipulation, covers TypeScript types used to describe and manipulate the DOM, and how to use JavaScript libraries such as jQuery from TypeScript.

Chapter 4, Using Classes and Interfaces, covers TypeScript object programming, classes, interfaces, inheritance, and interface implementations. A complete code example explains how to architect a modular application with the help of abstract classes, interfaces, and inheritance.

Chapter 5, Generics, covers TypeScript generics, and how to define constraints on generics and type-mappings based on generics. TypeScript generics mimic C# generics, but, like C++ generics, they disappear in the compiled code.

Chapter 6, Namespaces and Modules, covers TypeScript's modular organization of code based either on namespaces, or on ECMAScript 6 modules. While TypeScript modules are completely based on ECMAScript 6 modules, they may run also in environments that do not support ECMAScript 6 modules, since ECMAScript 6 syntax may be processed by JavaScript bundlers such as WebPack, or transpiled in the syntax of AMD, CommomJs, or
SystemJs loaders, that run on all platforms/browsers.

Chapter 7, Bundling with WebPack, contains a quite complete and practical description of WebPack, and of its more frequently used modules and loaders. Here, the reader can learn everything that is worth knowing in terms of using WebPack with most modern JavaScript frameworks/libraries.

Chapter 8, Building TypeScript Libraries, describes how to develop a TypeScript library package with VS Code, how to test it with Jasmine, and how to package it as an NPM package.

Chapter 9, Decorators and Advanced ES6 Features, covers all ECMAScript 6 features, such as Symbols, Iterators/Generators, and Promises, that were not covered in previouschapters. The chapter also covers TypeScript's async/await notation, that is transpiled to Promise-based code, and TypeScript decorators and metadata that are important Angular building blocks.

Chapter 10, Angular ASP.NET Core Project Template, introduces Angular architecture, and describes all the parts an Angular CLI project is composed of, and how to configure a project. The chapter then lists all Angular building blocks, focusing on modules,
components, and data binding.

Chapter 11, Input and Interactions, explains how to take and validate user input, and how to customize standard data binding behavior with pipes and life cycle hooks. The chapter also covers the interaction of components through JavaScript and custom events.

Chapter 12, Angular Advanced Features, covers the details of attribute and structural directive usage and definition. The chapter also explains how to customize components with content projection (that is, filling predefined holes with input content), and how to improve the user interface with Angular animations, giving all details of Angular animation syntax.

Chapter 13, Navigation and Services, covers all Angular features conceived for complex applications, navigation among application pages, and how to dynamically load Angular modules. It also covers how components can communicate with the server using Angular HTTP Client class, and how HTTP Client and other services can be injected into components' constructors with the help of dependency injection. It also describes how to test components and other Angular classes.

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