Ember.js in Action
Joachim Haagen Skeie
(Manning – paperback)
The Ember.js JavaScript framework has “a steep learning curve,” Joachim Haagen Skeie cautions readers repeatedly in his new book.
Indeed, Ember does. I’ve watched that learning curve confuse and frustrate several experienced JavaScript and Ruby on Rails developers. And I’ve banged my own (thick) skull against the Ember.js framework several times while (1) trying to learn it from an assortment of books and websites, including emberjs.com, and (2) building a few basic apps.
Skeie’s new book is an ambitious overview of software that bills itself as “a framework for creating ambitious web applications.” And Skeie ambitiously does not start out with a lame “Hello, World!” example. Right in Chapter 1, you dive into building a real-world application for creating, editing, posting and deleting notes. ” The source code for the Notes application weighs in at about 200 lines of code and 130 lines of CSS, including the templates and JavaScript source code,” Skeie points out. “You should be able to develop and run this application on any Windows-, Mac-, or Linux-based platform using only a text editor.”
I got the Notes app to (mostly) run on a Windows machine and a Linux machine. But I can’t get it to save the contents of notes, even though I downloaded the book’s code samples, and my code seems to match what the author highlights in his book. (Still trying to sort out the problem. Perhaps something is wrong in my setups?)
I hate writing mixed reviews. It takes enormous effort and thought to create and finish a book. And I have been looking and hoping for a solid how-to text on Ember. For me, however, this book has two key downsides. First, the code examples are written for Ember.js 1.0.0, and as this review is being written, Ember.js 1.5.1 is the latest release (with 1.6 in beta). Second, the book’s opening chapter is very difficult for beginners to follow.
Some other reviewers also have noticed problems with the book’s example code –which, for me, forms the heart of a good how-to book. And they have taken issue with how the code is presented in the text.
Still, there is much to like here, especially if you are experienced in JavaScript and in model-view-controller (MVC) frameworks and have been curious about Ember.js.
I am fairly new to Ember, so some of the chapters most helpful to me have included using Handlebars js, testing Ember.js applications and creating custom Ember.js components–areas not given much notice in the other Ember books I have read.
If you are new to JavaScript and to frameworks, do not attempt to dive into Ember.js in Action as your first Ember exposure. Start with the Ember.js website and some simpler books first. Then, consider this book.
Hopefully, in the next edition, the all-important opening chapter will be reworked, and the code examples will be presented in a clearer and more complete fashion.
— Si Dunn
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