Get MEAN!: A Three Part Introduction to the MEAN Stack



A lot of people are talking about the MEAN stack, a completely open source Javascript solution that combines MongoDB, Express, Angular.js, and Node.js. But what’s it all about? Is it useful to me? How would I get started?

To get you up to speed and demo some of the magic behind MEAN, SFHTML5 put on a special three-speaker event that provides a technical orientation, an introduction to some of the important concepts, and plenty of live code.

Join our three panelists — Ward Bell, Matt Green, and Alicia Liu — as they build a sample app, injected into a traditional web page, before your eyes.

Part 1: Orientation to the MEAN Stack & Node

Ward Bell, VP of Technology at IdeaBlade, begins with a tour of the MEAN stack, touching on each technology’s role and contribution to our end-product web application, then delves specifically into the role of Node/Express. He starts us off and builds the initial API for the app.

Part 2: Adjusting to Changing Tides with MongoDB

Next, Matt Green, co-founder of Thinkster.io, walks us through the basics of Mongo by coding some queries to support a front-end feature. As the meetup page asks, “Tired of migrating tables every time a feature needs to be added? Have you been told your "big data" just isn't big enough and now you need to add columns to store more information?” Find out how MongoDB can help!

Part 3: Sneaking Angular into an Existing App

Finally, Alicia Lio, Senior Engineer at Lift, ties everything together with a discussion on Angular. We’ve heard about how powerful this JavaScript framework can be for creating Single Page Apps, but if the app you are working on is built in drastically different way? Alicia walks us through who we can gradually incorporate Angular into an existing app and how to to talk to the Node/Express serves with Angular’s AJAX facilities.

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Published November 7, 2014