Javascript callbacks: can't live with them can't live without them... or can you?

This is a confession post. Yes, I'm a phony too. I pick up some things very late. Like JavaScript. And Node and ... well a lot of things.

But I'm sure that a lot of people have run into this and maybe, just maybe, there will be some others that haven't run into it yet. So this might help someone. Or me, for that matter, when I come back to this problem later.

It has to do with callbacks. The things that Node is made up of. And how they confused me a lot. And how I grew to love them, then hate them, and finally get them. And right about that point realize that there's another way.

Let's see if I can explain this. Just as an experiment.

Marcus Node Bits: Ok then, Moogose is pretty sweet

I often blog too early. I get excited and want to tell everyone as soon as possible. I whip together a demo and then write a blog post about my experience. Sometimes that is a bit too early. Sometimes you need another look to really appreciate a tool, or to realize that it doesn't do the job.

In my blog post about Monk (which I still think is great... Monk, that is, not the blog post) I wrote that I didn't like Mongoose that much. That was too early to say. I have now used it for real and I think I like it.

Let's me redeem my bad Mongoose-conscience and write a short post on what I've picked up when trying it... for real.

Marcus Node Bits: supertest is a nice way to test an api

I'm writing down some of the things I've picked up when I started to learn about Node, Express and Mongo. Here are all the post in the series:

• Doing stuff in the terminal is not scary at all
• npm is not only for getting packages
• Package.json is a mighty tool
• Git is not that hard, but I need to refresh my knowledge
• Callback function is cool stuff, and I even know how to write them
• mocha is cool both as framework and test runner
• Should is a nice way to do asserts
• monk is an easy way to access mongo
• Express is best without generators
• supertest is a nice way to test an api - this post

This post is about a testing framework for HTTP: supertest.

Marcus Node Bits: Express is best without generators

I'm writing down some of the things I've picked up when I started to learn about Node, Express and Mongo. Here are all the post in the series:

• Doing stuff in the terminal is not scary at all
• npm is not only for getting packages
• Package.json is a mighty tool
• Git is not that hard, but I need to refresh my knowledge
• Callback function is cool stuff, and I even know how to write them
• mocha is cool both as framework and test runner
• Should is a nice way to do asserts
• monk is an easy way to access mongo
• Express is best without generators - this post
• supertest is a nice way to test an api

This post is about the most commonly used web framework in Node: Express.

Marcus Node Bits: monk is an easy way to access MongoDb

I'm writing down some of the things I've picked up when I started to learn about Node, Express and Mongo. Here are all the post in the series:

• Doing stuff in the terminal is not scary at all
• npm is not only for getting packages
• Package.json is a mighty tool
• Git is not that hard, but I need to refresh my knowledge
• Callback function is cool stuff, and I even know how to write them
• mocha is cool both as framework and test runner
• Should is a nice way to do asserts
• monk is an easy way to access mongo - this post
• Express is best without generators
• supertest is a nice way to test an api

This post is about monk, a nice framework that makes accessing MongoDb really easy.

Marcus Node Bits: Should is a nice way to do asserts

I'm writing down some of the things I've picked up when I started to learn about Node, Express and Mongo. Here are all the post in the series:

• Doing stuff in the terminal is not scary at all
• npm is not only for getting packages
• Package.json is a mighty tool
• Git is not that hard, but I need to refresh my knowledge
• Callback function is cool stuff, and I even know how to write them
• mocha is cool both as framework and test runner
• Should is a nice way to do asserts - this post 
• monk is an easy way to access mongo
• Express is best without generators
• supertest is a nice way to test an api

This post is about an assertion framework that I've come to love; should.js.

Marcus Node Bits: mocha is cool both as framework and test runner

I'm writing down some of the things I've picked up when I started to learn about Node, Express and Mongo. Here are all the post in the series:

• Doing stuff in the terminal is not scary at all
• npm is not only for getting packages
• Package.json is a mighty tool
• Git is not that hard, but I need to refresh my knowledge
• Callback function is cool stuff, and I even know how to write them
• mocha is cool both as framework and test runner  - this post
• Should is a nice way to do asserts 
• monk is an easy way to access mongo
• Express is best without generators
• supertest is a nice way to test an api

When it comes to testing frameworks on the javascript and node stack it's an abundance of choices, just like for any of your needs. Once again you need to look around, ask around and make up your mind by yourself.

Marcus Node Bits: Callback function is cool stuff, and I even know how to write them

I'm writing down some of the things I've picked up when I started to learn about Node, Express and Mongo. Here are all the post in the series:

• Doing stuff in the terminal is not scary at all
• npm is not only for getting packages
• Package.json is a mighty tool
• Git is not that hard, but I need to refresh my knowledge
• Callback function is cool stuff, and I even know how to write them - this post
• mocha is cool both as framework and test runner
• Should is a nice way to do asserts 
• monk is an easy way to access mongo
• Express is best without generators
• supertest is a nice way to test an api

This is not Node related but rather a Javascript thing that was something that I had a real hard time with at first. And I know that I should learn about promises, but I haven't yet.

Marcus Node Bits: Git is not that hard, but I need to refresh my knowledge

I'm writing down some of the things I've picked up when I started to learn about Node, Express and Mongo. Here are all the post in the series:

• Doing stuff in the terminal is not scary at all
• npm is not only for getting packages
• Package.json is a mighty tool
• Git is not that hard, but I need to refresh my knowledge - this post
• Callback function is cool stuff, and I even know how to write them
• mocha is cool both as framework and test runner
• Should is a nice way to do asserts 
• monk is an easy way to access mongo
• Express is best without generators
• supertest is a nice way to test an api

This post is not at all about Javascript or Node. But rather about git, that I use when doing Node...

Marcus Node Bits: Package.json is a mighty tool

I'm writing down some of the things I've picked up when I started to learn about Node, Express and Mongo. Here are all the post in the series:

• Doing stuff in the terminal is not scary at all
• npm is not only for getting packages
• Package.json is a mighty tool - this post
• Git is not that hard, but I need to refresh my knowledge
• Callback function is cool stuff, and I even know how to write them
• mocha is cool both as framework and test runner
• Should is a nice way to do asserts 
• monk is an easy way to access mongo
• Express is best without generators
• supertest is a nice way to test an api

This post is about the package.json file that is more than first meets the eye.

Marcus Node Bits: npm is not only for getting packages

I'm writing down some of the things I've picked up when I started to learn about Node, Express and Mongo. Here are all the post in the series:

• Doing stuff in the terminal is not scary at all
• npm is not only for getting packages - this post
• Package.json is a mighty tool
• Git is not that hard, but I need to refresh my knowledge
• Callback function is cool stuff, and I even know how to write them
• mocha is cool both as framework and test runner
• Should is a nice way to do asserts 
• monk is an easy way to access mongo
• Express is best without generators
• supertest is a nice way to test an api

This post is about the Node Package Manager, npm, and some of it's many features.

Marcus Node Bits: Doing stuff in the terminal is not scary at all

I'm writing down some of the things I've picked up when I started to learn about Node, Express and Mongo. Here are all the post in the series:

• Doing stuff in the terminal is not scary at all - this post
• npm is not only for getting packages
• Package.json is a mighty tool
• Git is not that hard, but I need to refresh my knowledge
• Callback function is cool stuff, and I even know how to write them
• mocha is cool both as framework and test runner
• Should is a nice way to do asserts 
• monk is an easy way to access mongo
• Express is best without generators
• supertest is a nice way to test an api

This post is about the terminal and how I got to use it more and more, with just a couple of simple commands.

Marcus Node Bits: Writing stuff down is great to remember it

I have been playing with NodeJs during the evenings. Really late onto that train, by here we are. In fact, this is just by coincident; I happened to bring "JavaScript - the good parts" to Indonesia and it was the only book I had. Once I had read that awesome book, I got invited to write a review for the NancyFx book by Christian Horsdal and got a free book for my effort. I just picked one and it happened to be Mastering Node.js.

After that book and my head had stop spinning, we still had to wait for our belongings to arrive to Indonesia. I had nothing to read or code. So I thought I would put my Node-knowledge into action. And started to check out Express.

Here we are. I haven't really coded anything real, but rather read, labbed and followed a lot of tutorials. But i've picked a couple of things that I've found very useful. I really don't know how to classify them, but maybe it could be called patters, as in "ways I often end up working".

BIG DISCLAIMER - these are just my remember list. I'm getting old. I forget stuff. I write it here. I'm getting old. I forget ... no... wait... What I'm saying is that you shouldn't expect to be blown away by the depth and innovation here. But I can almost guarantee that you and I haven't thought about the same things. You might pick something interesting up.

This will be super long if I put everything into a single post. So I'll do many small posts instead. Here's the link list:

• Doing stuff in the terminal is not scary at all
• npm is not only for getting packages
• Package.json is a mighty tool
• Git is not that hard, but I need to refresh my knowledge
• Callback function is cool stuff, and I even know how to write them
• mocha is cool both as framework and test runner
• Should is a nice way to do asserts
• monk is an easy way to access mongo
• Express is best without generators
• supertest is a nice way to test an api

I'm also planning to write a "putting it all together"-post where I create a little back-end api for a small site using the "patterns" I've written about.

I've learned a lot from different sources, but one that I keep coming back to is the excellent writings of Azat Mardanov on his blog http://www.webapplog.com/. Thank you sir!

The Node course at TekPub is awesome too and be sure to check it out.

CQRS–another love story

People who know me also know that I easily get all ga-ga, fall in love in or simply get very excited over thing that I like. Actually the other day I thought for myself that I right now talk a lot about BDD, Specflow and Kanban – simply because I think that these things are just great. A quote that I often use by Dan North;

“It’s no silver bullet, but this darn close”

When I thought about that I also came to think that I don’t want to talk about or focus on things that I don’t feel like that for. There are simply to many new concepts, frameworks and technologies out there – I cannot take them all in and of course not be ga-ga over all of them.

The second that thought left my mind I started to watch a recording of Greg Young from ÖreDev last year. It was called “Unleash your domain” and was about CQRS. After a short while – I was in love again. I had another of those before and after moments. I already knew about this but this time it really got to me. And stuck!