Preface

I met Manuel in 2013 when a friend took me to the first Meteor Ruhr meetup. After too many years in the enterprise world I was about to start my own business based on a web platform built on PHP. What Manuel showed us in these early stages solved so many issues I had faced, and it made web programming seem like child’s play. Highly motivated, I got back home and immediately collected more material on this new platform. I put the collection on my blog, and since I had just read an article on SEO that recommended using superlatives to attract people’s attention, I boldly claimed to present the “Best Learning Resources for Meteor.js.” And this is where it all started.

In March 2014, Manning contacted me and asked if I was interested in writing a book on the promising Meteor platform. They had found my blog post and were convinced I was knowledgeable enough to explain the platform to other developers. Of course I agreed, but even though I had collected the—what I thought to be—best learning resources, I had little idea of how to actually apply them. I was still stuck in PHP-land. Writing a book was an excellent opportunity to learn everything about Meteor, so I happily agreed, but not without first consulting Manuel and asking him to join me in this endeavor. Luckily for me, he agreed to write the book, so together we set out to explain this new platform.

Having written this book, I feel that the combination of Manuel’s vast knowledge and my own ignorance helped us to avoid the pitfalls of assuming too much on the reader’s part and strike a good balance on usefulness vs. theoretical depth. Do let us know if this strategy pays off.

We feel the contents of this book are sufficient to get you into good shape to write amazing applications. While we can’t address each and every detail of working with Meteor, we hope that the fundamentals we teach you will help you understand the available documentation, packages, and source code much better. At the end of the day Meteor, and the Meteor in Action book, are about enabling you to turn your ideas into applications. Tell us what you built! You can find us on Twitter, use the book’s GitHub repo, or post in the Author Online forum for this book. We’d love to hear back from you!

STEPHAN HOCHHAUS