Book Announcement - Backbone.js Testing
Backbone.js Testing Book
I am very pleased to announce that I am in the last stages of publishing Backbone.js Testing - a book on Backbone.js test architecture and development due in final form around the end of June.
A brief abstract of the book’s content is available from the Packt Publishing website:
Frontend web applications are soaring in popularity and the Backbone.js library is leading this charge with a modular, lightweight approach for organizing JavaScript web applications. At the same time, testing client-side JavaScript and Backbone.js programs remains a difficult and tedious undertaking.
Backbone.js Testing brings sensible practices and current techniques to the challenges of Backbone.js test development. The book introduces fundamental testing concepts, comprehensive test infrastructure design, and practical exercises to easily and systematically test modern JavaScript web applications.
The book progresses from Mocha test suites and Chai assertions to advanced test mocks and stubs with Sinon.JS. The requisite libraries and utilities are introduced with in-depth examples and best practices for integration with your applications. The book guides you through the test planning and implementation processes for your application models, views, routers, and other Backbone.js components.
Backbone.js Testing gives you the tools, examples, and assistance to test your Backbone.js web applications thoroughly, quickly, and with confidence.
To provide a better idea of the book’s structure, the tentative chapter titles are as follows:
- Setting up a Test Infrastructure
- Creating a Backbone.js Application Test Plan
- Test Assertions, Specs, and Suites
- Test Spies
- Test Stubs and Mocks
- Automated Web Testing
All of the code examples in the book are provided online at the website backbone-testing.com and as an open source GitHub repository.
The Road to my First Book
Application testing is difficult, and frontend JavaScript testing can often be a downright nightmare. After years of working through difficulties in frontend testing practices and technologies, I have gained a lot of experience through the various trials and tribulations bringing me to my current role in architecting (and testing) large Backbone.js applications.
Packt Publishing approached me towards the end of last year about authoring a book on the subject and I signed on. My hope with the project is that I will be able to provide a resource to reduce the pain in frontend tests with a structured programming guide and practical examples using various (exciting and interesting) modern testing libraries.
It has been a stressful, hectic, and wonderful experience writing the book, and I’m really looking forward to completing the project. And, I will be happy to be able to reclaim my nights and weekends that have been devoted to the book over the past couple of months.
After the book is published, I plan on writing a series of posts about authoring a technical book, with all of the ups and downs that the process entails. In the meantime, I just have to proof each chapter one final time and it should be off to the presses, so to speak!