Jasmine Web App

Jasmine Web App is a brief book (around 100 pages) about how to use Parse.com as a data-store for a real application. The example application is a blog, with posts, comments and user authentication.

Being a short read, I was able to finish reading through it in a short time. That said, the content of the book opens the doors to creating many different kinds of applications. It doesn’t stray into the theory of how to abstract data-storage into repositories and services, nor does it dwell on aspects of Laravel newcomers would otherwise need to learn. It’s assumed that the reader is familiar with Laravel.

I found the formatting sufficient, the language easy to follow and the level of detail exactly right to not bore me to death. If you’re keen to learn how to use Parse, and you know a tiny bit of Laravel, this is definitely a good read. Then there’s…

The Mattaugamer Metric

In a time when things needed to have “a bit more depth”, one man stood apart. He was the protector of the “review”. He was Mattaugamer, and this is his metric.

1. Are there areas that it needs to do better?
   I am not a fan of the API library that used to communicate with Parse. It felt almost like the best that could be found, yet not fully in the spirit of PSR or the quality of other libraries I’ve used in Laravel projects.
2. Does it have a lot of information about concrete implementations?
   Yes — the whole book is a concrete implementation of a blog, using Parse as the data store.
3. Does it cover all aspects of Laravel usage?
   No. This book is not an exhaustive reference of Laravel functionality, but then it doesn’t aim to be. It’s purpose is to demonstrate how to use Parse data storage in a concrete application, and that it does well.
4. What’s its writing style like?
   Reserved but approachable.
5. Is the book actually finished?
   Yes, it does appear to be finished. It also feels complete to me — does what it sets out to do.

The author has just reminded me that you can pick up a discounted copy of the book, with this link: http://leanpub.com/jasminewebapp/c/
A0t8oYXVnSXR. The discount ends on 2014-07-26.