Building A Single Page Web Application With Knockout.Js

Create a complete and structured single page application by doing more with less code.

Knockout is a JavaScript MVVM (Model View ViewModel) library that helps you create rich, dynamic user interfaces with clean, maintainable code. Moreover, Knockout automatically updates the UI when your data model state changes, ridding you of the need to refresh the page. As a developer, discover how you can use KnockoutJS to architect a complete single page web application from start to finish while maintaining its structure and flexibility!

This course walks you through the process of creating a real-life web application using the MVVM pattern to add functionality to the code as it evolves. If your JavaScript often turns into a giant convoluted mess while building an application with Knockout, this video course will give you an insight on how to organize your code to avoid this.

Starting with an overview of the core concepts behind KnockoutJS to create a real-world application, you'll begin your journey by first learning to build a simplified version of Google Docs. You'll discover the power of data binding and dependency tracking to automatically keep various parts of your application in sync. Next, you’ll learn how you can use debugging techniques to track errors before moving on to creating a spreadsheet to represent more complex data structures. Lastly, you’ll learn how to create a form and then save and load a page using server side functionality.

The final section of the course lets you explore best practices and some additional tools you can use to ensure a maintainable code base.

Chris Black is a software engineer, adjunct faculty member, and public speaker from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has taught courses on advanced scripting, dynamic web apps, motion graphics, and interactive design. Chris currently works full time as a software developer at The Nerdery. Prior to working at The Nerdery, he was the owner of Blacktop Interactive, LLC, and developed twelve mobile apps across six different markets. He has more than 8 years' experience building software for the web and mobile devices. Chris has spoken at a number of conferences locally and internationally in Toronto, Amsterdam, and the UK. In 2011, he was the keynote speaker at the Geeky By Nature conference in New York. When Chris is away from his computer, he enjoys rock climbing, kayaking, and snowboarding.

David Ly is a software developer at The Nerdery who works primarily in C#, ASP.NET and has a strong JavaScript skill set. He also dabbles in other programming languages such as PHP, Ruby, and Python. David has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and is a graduate of Macalester College. He has over five years of professional software development experience. David has worked with Knockout.js for over one and half years, exploring several different techniques across various projects. A father of two, he strives to balance work, family, personal development, and his love of games.

A basic understanding of the JavaScript language, HTML, CSS, and object-oriented principles is expected

A clear and practical approach to building a web application with sample code provided to help you every step of the way so you can see not just the final product, but also the evolution of the code base

Use declarative data-binding to specify what your code should do in the HTML markup

Write class-based JavaScript code to encapsulate functionality similar to object-oriented languages

Apply the MVVM pattern to utilize two-way bindings between JavaScript and HTML

Use knockout templates to organize and reuse markup

Dynamically choose a template based on the type of object

Learn how the "this" keyword works in JavaScript and how to use it effectively

Utilize computed properties to automatically track dependencies