Foreword

In 2011, Geoff Schmidt, Nick Martin, and I started writing Meteor, a new JavaScript application platform. Our plan was to make it possible for any JavaScript developer to built great web and mobile apps with a mimimum of fuss and confusion.

JavaScript is a remarkable technology. From its humble beginnings as a scripting tool for browsers, it has become the programming language that runs everywhere: inside a browser, on a mobile device, and in the cloud. It is favored by both experts and beginners, an unusual combination for the software industry. But the JavaScript ecosystem is highly fragmented, and the teams who choose JavaScript have to assemble and maintain complete application stacks from scratch and spend far too much of their time working on low-level technical tasks—like designing application-specific WebSocket messages—that have little to do with their actual application.

Meteor offers a simple and straightforward solution for JavaScript developers looking to build a modern application, and Meteor in Action includes everything you need to get started. It covers all the key parts of the Meteor stack: the data synchronization system that publishes new information from the cloud to each active user, reactive templates that redraw the screen as data changes, events and forms, Meteor’s isomorphic user account system, routing, packages, and security.

More than that, though, Meteor in Action teaches the fundamentals of Meteor’s application architecture. Meteor is a full-stack reactive platform, which means all its parts, from the database driver to the client-side template engine to hot code push, work together to respond to changes in real time. And Meteor is an isomorphic platform, meaning that wherever possible the JavaScript APIs you use are identical across the browser, mobile device, and in the cloud. With clear examples, the authors explain these principles and show how they add up to form the Meteor development experience.

Stephan and Manuel have been active in the Meteor community since our earliest releases. They’ve contributed on countless email and forum threads, and now they’ve shared their knowledge in an enjoyable and approachable book on Meteor.

Happy hacking!

MATT DEBERGALIS

FOUNDER, METEOR DEVELOPMENT GROUP