A look at the frameworks backbone.js, serenade.js and Google Closure

With the progress of new features in the browser and faster JavaScript engines a range of more complex and larger web applications has emerged. More and more of a web applications logic are put into the client and the need for more structured code have occurred. The last couple of years we have seen several Model-View-Controller (MVC) frameworks emerging into the JavaScript world with the goal of making it easier for us to develop rich web applications in the client.

In this meet-up we will look at a couple of JavaScript MVC frameworks.

Single page apps with Backbone.js
Anders Norås (https://twitter.com/anoras) will learn you how to structure web applications by using the good old Model-View-Controller pattern in the browser rather than on the server. You will learn how to build models with key-value binding and custom events, collections with a rich APIs and views with declarative event handling. You will also learn how to connect it all to REST interfaces built with the your favorite server frameworks. After attending this tutorial you will be able to build modern web applications with super snappy user interfaces using technologies you are already familiar with.

This talk can be held in English if the audience wants too. Will be checked before the talk starts.

Serenade.js – the MVC template engine
Where do we go from here? We are moving more and more stuff to the client. Is there still a place for apps that aren't single page apps?

What can help you build those apps? Serenade.js is a small and focused framework which builds on ideas from the 1980's SmallTalk implementations and brings them to the browser. And while it is powerful enough to build advanced single page apps, it is so easy to use and understand you can use it today in you're existing applications to simplify your code. In this talk I will tell you why I wrote Serenade.js, why I think it offers a compelling alternative to other frameworks and how you can use it today.

Jonas Nicklas (https://twitter.com/jonicklas) is a developer from Sweden’s sunshine coast in Gothenburg Sweden, currently works at Elabs as a Ruby and JavaScript developer. He is also the creator of yet another MVC client side JavaScript framework, serenade.js.

This talk will be in English.

Google Closure, a hidden gem
Google Closure is probably one of the most underappreciated and misunderstood tools in the web community. It powers some of the most sophisticated single page web apps in existence, namely the ones by Google. The list includes Web Search (google.com), Gmail, Maps, Blogger, Picasa, Google Plus, Docs, YouTube, and many more.

However, very few developers seem to actually use Google Closure when building single page web apps. August Lilleaas (https://twitter.com/augustl) will try to explain why that is, why you should consider using Google Closure, both for single page web apps and progressively enhancing plain old multi page webapps, and some of the basics of building single page apps with Google Closure.

This talk can be held in English if the audience wants too. Will be checked before the talk starts.