Learning Underscore.js

Table of Contents

Learning Underscore.js

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why subscribe?

Free access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Getting Started with Underscore.js

Why Underscore

Getting started with Underscore by example

The ECMAScript 5 starter example

The Underscore find starter example

The Underscore countBy starter example

Key Underscore functions

Underscore each

Underscore map and reduce

Functional programming fundamentals

Useful patterns and practices for JavaScript applications targeting ECMAScript 5

The immediately-invoked function expression

The revealing module pattern

The JavaScript strict mode

Setting up a development workflow for exploring Underscore

Modern JavaScript development with Node.js

Windows

Mac OS X

Linux

Verifying Node.js installation

Managing JavaScript dependencies with Bower

Choosing a JavaScript editor

Testing JavaScript code with Jasmine

Jasmine introduction

Adding tests using the default Jasmine infrastructure

Summary

2. Using Underscore.js with Collections

Key Underscore functions revisited – each, map, and reduce

Applying reflection techniques

Manipulating the this variable

Using map and reduce with object properties

Searching and filtering

Searching

Underscore find

Underscore some

Underscore findWhere

Underscore contains

Filtering

Underscore filter

Underscore where

Underscore reject and partition

Underscore every

Aggregations and transformations

Aggregations

Underscore max and min

Transformations

Underscore sortBy

Underscore groupBy

Underscore indexBy

Underscore countBy

Other collection-based functions

Summary

3. Using Underscore.js with Arrays, Objects, and Functions

Arrays

Extracting array start and end sequences

Union, intersect, and related functions

Other array-related functions

Objects

Underscore keys

Underscore values and pairs

Underscore invert and functions

Underscore pick, omit, and has

Underscore extend, clone, and defaults

Underscore has, property, propertyOf, and matcher

Comparing objects and making assertions against objects

Other object-related functions

Functions

Functional composition with bind, bindAll, and partial

Further functional composition with memoize, wrap, negate, and compose

Controlling when and how often functions are called

Utility functions

Summary

4. Programming Paradigms with Underscore.js

The object-oriented programming paradigm

Inheritance with object literals

Inheritance with object constructors

Using Underscore with the object-oriented programming paradigm

Using classes with original client data

Constructor validation with Underscore

The functional programming paradigm

Migrating to a functional programming style

Functional programming with Underscore.js

Summary

5. Using Underscore.js in the Browser, on the Server, and with the Database

Using Underscore in the browser

Enhancing examples output with Bootstrap

Better HTML markup with Underscore templates

Using Underscore on the server with Node.js

Executing JavaScript with Node.js

Using Node.js modules

Locating modules

Creating a npm package

Converting JavaScript code to Node.js modules

Running tests with Node.js

Using Underscore with MongoDB

Installing and configuring MongoDB

Installing MongoDB on Windows

Installing MongoDB on Ubuntu Linux

Installing MongoDB on Mac OS X

Configuring and running MongoDB

Creating initial data using the MongoDB client and Underscore

Asynchronous programming in Node.js

Accessing data using the MongoDB Node.js driver

Using Underscore with PostgreSQL

Installing and configuring PostgreSQL

Installing PostgreSQL on Windows

Installing PostgreSQL on Ubuntu Linux

Installing PostgreSQL on Mac OS X

Using psql with basic database commands

PostgreSQL data types

SQL types

The jsonb type

Using PostgreSQL with plv8

Generating data using plv8 and Underscore

Summary

6. Related Underscore.js Libraries and ECMAScript Standards

Using the Underscore-contrib library

An overview of Underscore-contrib functionality

Exploring Underscore-contrib via examples

Using the lodash library

An overview of lodash functionality

Migrating a project from Underscore to lodash

Underscore and JavaScript standards

ECMAScript 5.1 (ES5)

ECMAScript 2015 (ES6)

Array – new features

Other notable new features

Using ECMAScript 2015 (ES6) today with transpilers

Using Babel directly in the browser

An overview of Babel CLI

Using Babel CLI for the client-side code

Using Babel with Node.js

ECMAScript 2015 (ES6) by example

Testing ES6 code

Further ES6 examples – the arrow function

Further ES6 examples – function declaration improvements

Summary

7. Underscore.js Build Automation and Code Reusability

Build automation with Gulp

Reusing code based on Underscore between client and server

Using CommonJS modules for packaging client code with Browserify

Testing CommonJS modules in the browser with Browserify

Using Gulp with Browserify

Adding ECMAScript 2015 (ES6) support to Browserify

Summary

Index

Learning Underscore.js

Learning Underscore.js

Copyright © 2015 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: October 2015

Production reference: 1261015

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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ISBN 978-1-78439-381-6

www.packtpub.com

Credits

Author

Alex Pop

Reviewers

Craig Davis

Pavel Tkachenko

Jitendra Zaa

Commissioning Editor

Dipika Gaonkar

Acquisition Editors

Indrajit Das

Rebecca Pedley

Content Development Editor

Divij Kotian

Technical Editor

Siddhi Rane

Copy Editor

Janbal Dharmaraj

Project Coordinator

Nikhil Nair

Proofreader

Safis Editing

Indexer

Hemangini Bari

Production Coordinator

Komal Ramchandani

Cover Work

Komal Ramchandani

About the Author

Alex Pop is a professional software developer with 14 years of experience in building applications for various platforms and technologies.

He has worked for ISVs, building enterprise resource planning applications, a content management system, and insurance and financial software products, and is currently working in the higher education sector as a web application developer.

He is the author of Learning AngularJS for .NET Developers, Packt Publishing. His developer blog at http://alexvpop.blogspot.co.uk/ contains technical articles about .NET, JavaScript, and various software engineering topics.

I would like to thank my wife and daughter for their support and understanding.

About the Reviewers

Craig Davis is a software engineer with a 20-year history in the web industry. He works at Help Scout, an organization that helps people bring personalized e-mail support to the enterprise. He has been a technical editor for many programming books and is proud to contribute to multiple open source projects. He is a competitive cyclist and runner and lives in New Mexico with his wife and their dog.

Pavel Tkachenko is an inspired self-taught computer wizard. Since childhood, he has had a passion for designing and developing websites and maintaining complex server architectures. He has created a number of original tools, such as HTMLki, Sqobot, and Sqimitive, to tackle common problems in a new way. He is also the founder of the Russian Laravel community and an active member of Russian publication networks such as Habrahabr.ru.

He has been freelancing since 2009, working on all sorts of websites built around PHP, Rails, Python, JavaScript, and MySQL. He used to lead his own team as well as work on his own. His views are often unconventional, but that's what allows him to work on high-profile projects with a custom approach. You can contact him via his page at http://proger.me.

Jitendra Zaa is Salesforce MVP with more than 6 years of experience in web technologies and cloud platforms. He is a manager at Cognizant technology solutions.

You can follow him @JitendraZaa or at his website http://jitendrazaa.com/.

Writing technical blog articles, learning new programming languages and frameworks, and sharing knowledge with others are some of his hobbies.

His experience and projects normally include Salesforce, Java, C#, ASP.Net, JIRA, and PHP-based applications.

Other books he has reviewed include Force.com Enterprise Architecture, Developing Applications with Salesforce Chatter, and Visualforce Development Cookbook, all by Packt Publishing. Right now, he is writing a book on design patterns in Salesforce with Packt Publishing.

I would like to thank my mom, dad, my wife, Minal, and our adorable son, Rudra, for all their support, time, and above all for the motivation to go on.

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Preface

Over the last few years, JavaScript has emerged as one the most popular programming languages, expanding its reach from its original browser environment to server runtimes, databases, and to mobile, embedded, or desktop applications. The sixth edition of its specification ECMAScript 2015 (ES6) was a major milestone that brought JavaScript features in line with other popular programming languages. The community and the browser vendors stepped up their efforts to support ES6, and we should see full support for the standard across multiple JavaScript engines as soon as early 2016. The future of JavaScript beyond ES6 looks very promising as its standardization effort aims to release a new specification every year.

In summer 2015, JavaScript was the most popular language used on the GitHub repository hosting service and had the biggest number of packages compared to all other languages. This change in popularity was made possible by an intense process of creation and refinement of libraries and frameworks alongside an improvement in development standards and practices throughout the JavaScript community. One of these modern JavaScript libraries is jQuery, the most popular browser library, which was a great facilitator in speeding up the adoption of common web standards across browser engines. Similarly, at least in impact, the Underscore library brought uniformity and functional programming features to JavaScript while bridging the gap between client and server environments.

Underscore represents a model of code quality and community involvement that other libraries should try to emulate, and many libraries were inspired or built upon Underscore. Throughout this book, Underscore proved to be the perfect vehicle to explore programming concepts that apply to any type of application. It is also a great example for the concept of universal JavaScript where the same code can be executed in multiple environments. For a JavaScript developer, Underscore is the JavaScript-based library that can be used to create code that runs everywhere or as a foundation for adopting a functional programming style.

JavaScript has become an important language in enterprise software development with the adoption of the Node.js runtime by companies such as Microsoft, IBM, and Intel to name just a few. The considerable rise in popularity of single page application frameworks, such as Backbone.js, AngularJS, React, and many others, means that developers are writing more complex JavaScript code with an increased effort in managing the increase in complexity. Adopting standards such as ES6 and using Underscore or similar libraries should help in coping with the challenges of the rapidly and continuously changing industry.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started with Underscore.js, introduces you to Underscore and explains the main problems addressed by the library together with a quick introduction to functional programming. This chapter describes some of the concepts and patterns that are used by Underscore or are helpful when using Underscore. The final part is a walkthrough to set up the development environment used throughout the book with a starter example.

Chapter 2, Using Underscore.js with Collections, explores the Underscore functionality for collections by example and explains some of the concepts related to these areas—scope resolution and execution context, map/reduce, and functional programming concepts.

Chapter 3, Using Underscore.js with Arrays, Objects, and Functions, looks at functionality for arrays, objects, and functions and builds upon the concepts and functions introduced in the previous chapter. In the functions section, you will learn how to manipulate function scopes and arguments and why this is an important aspect of JavaScript programming in general.

Chapter 4, Programming Paradigms with Underscore.js, expands on the concepts and practices of functional programming to solve common programming problems. The chapter starts with a differentiation between object-oriented programming and functional programming. It continues by exploring examples of functional programming with Underscore.

Chapter 5, Using Underscore.js in the Browser, on the Server, and with the Database, is about using Underscore in specific contexts, starting with the browser environment, closely followed by Node.js server-side applications or libraries. You will then learn how to use Underscore with databases such as MongoDB and PostgreSQL, which can execute JavaScript to query data.

Chapter 6, Related Underscore.js Libraries and ECMAScript Standards, discusses advanced topics such as the link between Underscore and JavaScript standards, libraries that augment or can even replace Underscore, with a focus on taking advantage of the new ECMAScript 2015 (ES6) features.

Chapter 7, Underscore.js Build Automation and Code Reusability, introduces a build automation solution together with strategies to reuse Underscore based code between different application hosts.

What you need for this book

You need to have the Node.js runtime installed and it is available at https://nodejs.org/. Details on how to install it can be found in Chapter 1, Getting Started with Underscore.js.

All the code in this book can be edited in any text editor or IDE that you are familiar with and has support for the JavaScript language.

Who this book is for

This book is for developers with fundamental JavaScript knowledge who want to use modern JavaScript libraries to advance their programming skills. Underscore is one of the most important libraries you should be familiar with and the book will help you achieve this goal by going through its fundamentals and using it in a wide variety of contexts. This book should be relevant to anyone who:

Is interested in building web applications, single-page web applications or JavaScript-based desktop, mobile, or embedded applications

Wants to use Node.js to build web applications or web services

Wants to work with databases such as MongoDB or PostgreSQL and leverage their JavaScript support

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: We just need to open the SpecRunner.html file in a browser and we should see this output.

A block of code is set as follows:

var peopleWithAwardAge = _.map(people, function(person){

  return {

    name: person.name,

    awardAge: person.awardYear - person.birthYear

  }

});

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

var peopleWithAwardAge = _.map(people, function(person){

  return {

    name: person.name,

awardAge: person.awardYear - person.birthYear

  }

});

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

npm install -g bower

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: Executing the following line in a Command Prompt with administrator privileges (opened using the Run as administrator option).

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

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Errata

Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the code—we would be grateful if you could report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If