Getting Mean With Mongo, Express, Angular, and Node 1st Edition

I am just loving this book. I have gone from zero to a full-stack developer in a matter of week with this book.The layered approach introducing all these new (to me) technologies is just amazing. Simon introduces new concepts layer by layer and in doing so, enabled me to understand each and empower me to use them and learn more.At the time of writing this review, the 2nd edition of this book is ready to go out. A lot of the technologies have evolved since the 1st edition was published which in a way was a help with my learning - I had to investigate many issues that were evident due to changing times and that forced me into deeper understanding of what my guide was showing me.I followed Simon's loc8r app about half way through the book and then decided to start over with my own app, using the book as my guide. I went right through to the end.Brilliant - the best technical book I have ever read.

This book does it's intended purpose well. It explains and teaches the MEAN stack effectively and efficiently. However, there are some small problems with it. Such as the section explaining MongoDB usage is a bit unclear, and there are a few instances were the book is a bit outdated. The main example would be that the author writes several examples through the book using Jade, a scripting language with some Javascript functionalities for generating HTML. However, now it's recommended to use EJS or PUG instead.I would like to stress that I learned a LOT even with the small problems that I had with the book, I do not regret buying it. HOWEVER! Soon the author will release a NEW version of this book, which will be more polished and up to date. I recommend checking to see if the new version is out if you are reading this review.4.9/5, I like javascript now.

I'm somewhat new to web dev. I've dabbled with basic HTML forms and CSS before, and a little bit of PHP, but nothing about doing both backend and frontend web dev. What I liked about this book was the actual architecture of writing up a RESTful API via Express, which I thought was handled pretty well. The sections on Node and Express give you a pretty decent handle on routing, but I felt the intro to Angular was a little lacking. You'll learn basic Angular concepts like routing and dependency injections, but I had to look up a few Angular documents/presentations on the side to really get the core concepts around which Angular is built. Additionally, there was a bit of debugging as some of the Angular modules are now outdated, but this was generally as simple as searching around for the new module names.Took me about 2 weeks to work through this book on and off. I'd recommend it if you're looking into this stack for the first time. If you're experienced to web dev and RESTful API's, you might be able to just get by off documentation and looking up best practices for an Express/Nodejs application.

EDIT (10/16):After finishing a node project, I've lowered my review from 4 to 3 stars. While this book is a well written introduction to Node and Express (though it inexplicably omits Swagger when the subject turns to APIs), it struggles when the subject changes to Mongo, Mongoose, and Angular. It's still a readable book, but don't expect to come away with an understanding of APIs, Mongo, Mongoose, or Angular (which in 2016, feels like dated framework). Ironically, the book's awkward approach to Angular did a good illuminating why you might want to look for a different client-side framework..~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~This is a very good intro to MEAN development. The book has a good project that it's based around, it develops all the themes you'll need and most important, it's very readable, easy to scan, and the examples are straightforward, easy to read and implement immediately. I would recommend this book to anybody like myself who needs to get up to speed with MEAN quickly, without a prior, deep background in Javascript.

This probably one of the best books for MEAN stack within the category of full-stack development. Not only does it walk through all levels of building an application from the ground up, it also incorporates the best step by step approach regarding any project you would write.Other positives include, utilizing other technologies that can be used with other stacks aside from MEAN such Bootstrap, Git and Heroku, the best practices for making your application amorphous with APIs to output to different templates or versions of your product while working from one foundation.Downside is that this is for NodeJS platform which is strictly server-side Javascript with a bit of a learning curve, so it doesn't utilize php or servers such as nginx or Apache. However it's totally worth the effort and should be considered.

Maybe the best coding book I've ever read. The author resists the temptation that many authors fall into which is to get too clever in their examples, trying to make two or three points at a time and unwittingly obscuring the essence of what's being taught. Holmes is extremely systematic in his approach, focusing on one and only one point at a time, allowing it to sink in before moving on to the next. His coding style is also very well organized, with emphasis on best practices. In retrospect, the other books and tutorials I read on MEAN stack were less than helpful. It won't surprise you that I highly recommend it. Also check out Holmes's online Appendix D about javascript coding practices, particularly the section on callbacks.