Alt.Tekpub is me learning things in the open, as I go. In this case it's NodeJS, MongoDB, Redis, Backbone, Hypermedia APIs - all the fancy buzzwords I can get my hands on. The only way I can truly learn something is to build something meaningful - in this case it's rewriting Tekpub. I may use it, I may not... we'll find out.
One problem people face when starting out with Node (and Javascript in general) is handling the asynchronous, deep callback nesting issue. EventEmitters help fix that.
I'm really liking what's coming together with this Hypermedia-ish API. So many ideas and approaches are starting to come into focus. Like this one: how much structured data do I pass on the initial load of the API?
Continuing on with building out a NodeJS app with Express and other buzzwords - I decided to build out a page using my API, while I build the API.
One of the perils of riding blind into the Wild West of Web Programming: Everyone has an opinion on what you should do. What tool you should use, what language you need to flex. It's almost as if they don't want you here...
The best way to build an API is to use it while you're building it. At least that's what I find the most effective. But how am I going to consume this API?
I asked for help with the Alt.Tekpub API from the RESTafari because I grew incredibly weary of the constant talk and Fielding quotes. Here are my results.
The Alt.Tekpub site is coming together... all the pieces are starting to play nicely. But I still don't have an API. I have an *idea* what I want to do - but I'm waiting on a few more opinions.
Right from the start I've known this application would serve a number of clients over its lifetime: HTML, Single Page JS Apps, and Mobile. How do we lay this thing out? A touchy subject of late, to be sure.
NodeJS has a pretty specific convention when implementing callbacks in modules - function(err,result). Does this always make sense?
Mongo is installed, our data is ported. Time to roll together our first model: the Customer. How do you model this stuff with MongoDB and Node?
The data has been rolled into MongoDB - at least the first round - and now I need to get the API up and tested.
I've chosen to use MongoDB - now what?
I love learning in the open. The simple process of relaying what you see/do/think/learn/fear/love can, itself, be illuminating. So here we go again - I'm going to fuddle around live, with some edge technologies, and you get to laugh at me.
