Training Guide: Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3 Ebook

341

Chapter 8 Websites and services

CHAPTER 8 Websites and services

T

he previous chapters have presented many things you can do at the browser, but you

can also do things at the server. When using Microsoft technologies, it’s typical to create

a website by using Visual Studio .NET, which uses ASP.NET or model, view, controller (MVC)

technologies that are programmed using Visual Basic .NET or C#. These technologies and

languages are outside the scope of this book, but can you learn to create a form without

creating a website to process the form?

This book is about HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript; this chapter covers web services, using

JavaScript on the web server, which is possible by using Node.js, a platform built on the

Google Chrome JavaScript runtime.

Lessons in this chapter:

■■Lesson 1: Getting started with Node.js 341

■■Lesson 2: Working with web services 364

Before you begin

To complete this book, you must have some understanding of web development. This

chapter requires the hardware and software listed in the “System requirements” section in

the book’s Introduction.

Lesson 1: Getting started with Node.js

The Node.js platform is built on the Google Chrome JavaScript runtime for easily building

fast, scalable network applications. The platform implements an event-driven, non-blocking

I/O model and is lightweight and efficient. This platform is perfect for data-intensive, real-

time applications that run across distributed devices.

Using Node.js, you can write JavaScript that executes on the back-end server. Node.js

interprets and executes your JavaScript by using Google’s V8 virtual machine, which is the

same runtime environment for JavaScript that Google Chrome uses.