Getting Started with Twitter Flight

Build scalable, modular JavaScript applications with the Twitter Flight framework

Overview

• Learn how to build scalable, maintainable, modular applications with Flight, Twitter’s cutting-edge JavaScript framework
• Work through building a simple application from scratch with clear, step-by-step examples
• Leap ahead of the learning-curve with best practice examples from an experienced Flight developer

In Detail

Flight is a lightweight, component-based JavaScript application framework developed by Twitter for Twitter.com. It is an exciting alternative to the complexities of modern MVVM frameworks, offering a minimal API that allows you to write fast, reliable, scalable applications with a minimum of boilerplate code.

Getting Started with Twitter Flight offers the reader insight into why Flight was created and how to use it to build performant, powerful web apps from a unique perspective – that of someone who has had the opportunity to work directly with the team that created it. From a basic knowledge of JavaScript and jQuery, you will explore every aspect of Flight through practical examples and detailed explanations.

Learn what separates Flight from other frameworks, why Flight was created, and why you should use it in your next project. Discover the power of Flight’s component-based architecture and use mixins, an exciting alternative to class-based inheritance, to create templating systems and data storage layers.

Getting Started with Twitter Flight provides all you need to know to build everything from UI widgets to large-scale, data-driven applications.

What you will learn from this book

• Architect reliable, scalable, component-based applications with Flight
• Design and build data components for storage and processing
• Create UI components to handle browser events and modify the DOM
• Use client-side templating and event delegation to create HTML on the fly
• Test Flight components by building extensions for the Jasmine test framework

Approach

Getting Started with Twitter Flight is written with the intention to educate the readers, helping them learn how to build modular powerful applications with Flight, Twitter’s cutting-edge JavaScript framework.

Who this book is written for

This book is for anyone with a foundation in JavaScript who wants to build web applications. Flight is quick and easy to learn, built on technologies you already understand such as the DOM, events, and jQuery.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: What is Flight?
Chapter 2: The Advantages of Flight
Chapter 3: Flight in the Wild
Chapter 4: Building a Flight Application
Chapter 5: Components
Chapter 6: UI Components
Chapter 7: Data Components
Chapter 8: Event Naming
Chapter 9: Mixins
Chapter 10: Templating and Event Delegation
Chapter 11: Web Application Performance
Chapter 12: Testing
Chapter 13: Complexities of Flight Architecture
Appendix: Flight API Reference