Opa: Up and Running

by Henri Binsztok, Adam Koprowski, Ida Swarczewskaja

Overview

Want to simplify web development? This hands-on book shows you how to write frontend and backend code simultaneously, using the Opa framework. Opa provides a complete stack for web application development, including a web server, database engine, distribution libraries, and a programming language that compiles to JavaScript.

You’ll learn step-by-step how to use Opa by building two projects through the course of the book: a wiki application similar to Wikipedia, and a Twitter-like micro-blogging platform. Discover how easy it is to use Opa to develop applications with real-time updates, database interactions, and web service design. Do you have JavaScript experience? You’re ready to get started.

• Learn fundamental concepts, including Opa’s functional programming style
• Discover how Opa compiles to JavaScript, using jQuery on the frontend and Node.js on the server
• Construct HTML resources dynamically and embed static resources on an Opa server
• Use Opa’s method for performing CRUD operations and storing key-value pairs in MongoDB
• Build an Opa user interface with the Bootstrap toolkit from Twitter
• Learn variant types, pattern-matching, polymorphic types, recursive functions, and other advanced features
• Manage user accounts by building login forms, handling account activation, and tracking logged users
• Build a reactive UI—a real-time interface that continuously updates user events

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449328856
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	03/05/2013
Pages:	162
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Henri Binsztok, is the creator of Opa and previously a researcher and teacher at the University of Paris, France.

Adam Koprowski is a software developer at Google. He has authored numerous articles on Opa. Adam was previously a researcher at Radboud University.

Ida Swarczewskaja graduated from Tallinn University of Technology. She is leading the work on the user experience and design of the Opa portal, tools, demos and applications.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Coding a Mini Wikipedia
  • Chapter 1: First Steps: Getting to Know Opa
  • Chapter 2: Opa Fundamentals
  • Chapter 3: Servers, Resources, and URLs
  • Chapter 4: Data Storage
  • Chapter 5: Building the UI in HTML and CSS
• Coding a Mini-Twitter
  • Chapter 6: The Web Chat App
  • Chapter 7: More Advanced Features of Opa
  • Chapter 8: User Management
  • Chapter 9: Building Reactive UIs: New Messages with a Real-Time Preview
  • Chapter 10: Data Storage and Querying: Storing and Fetching Relevant Messages
• Colophon