Full Stack Node.js Semester Plan

About the course

About the course

Taught on: Thursday

Semester Plan

Title	Date	Description	Learning Goals	Resources and Activities
01. Introduction	Aug. 28	Intro to the course. Information about the mandatories / exam expectations. Intro to Node.js. Variables, data types. Intro Exercises. Our REST API conventions vs. Richardson Maturity Model Code conventions / Clean Code	Can work with Git in the terminal. Understand and work with data types in JavaScript. Can explain what Node.js is and how to run files with it. Knows the existing data types in JavaScript and can work with them. Understands type coercion and strategies to avoid it. Can design a REST API. Knows the three REST conventions we follow: Using the right HTTP verb, Ordering, Naming (noun, plural) that maps to collections in your system. While using a linter is not a requirement, having clean code is.	REST API Design Introduction Exercises
02. First Server	Sept. 4th	Code conventions / Clean Code (Strict Mode - ESLint). Variables and Functions. Callback functions. Build tools and package managers. Package.json. Express. Sending data with GET requests.	Understand scoping in Javascript and know to always use const if you can get away with it otherwise let. Understand advanced things about functions in JavaScript. Can write callback functions with different syntax. Understands the function of NPM and can compare it with other package managers. Understands the different purposes of package.json and can set it up by hand. Can create a server with Express from memory. Understands how to send data with GET requests over HTTP and knows how to do it in Express. Understands node_modules.	Greek Gods REST API - Part I
03. Loop methods	Sep. 11th	Nodemon Loops and loop methods in JS. CRUDable REST API - Part I. Anatomy of an URL. All the ways to send data from a client to a server. Serving HTML with Express.	Understands the use case for Nodemon and its limitation for development. Can use loop methods (+map, +filter, %reduce). Can choose the right one at the appropriate time: We wish to use loop methods and in a functional manner (avoiding side effects). Only use for loops in JavaScript when finger counting. Understands why a functional approach to loops is to be preferred and how to implement it without side effects. Can use the right terminology when it comes to the different parts of an URL. Can make a POST request and parse the body in Express.	CSS Games Greek Gods REST API - Part II
04. HTML / Time	Sep. 18th	CRUDable REST API - Part II. Time. Deployment. Fetch.	Can create a full CRUDable REST API that follows conventions. Can get the Date in Javascript. Can write a fetch request without hesitation.	Time to deploy
05. Export / Import	Sep. 25th	Serving static files in Express. Exporting and importing in frontend (type="module" attribute). Commonjs vs. ES Modules in Node.js. Client-side redirection vs. server-side redirection. npm init and meta data in package.json.	Can work with both types of import/export in HTML. Can import/export in both ways in Node.js (CommonJS and ES Modules). Knows the pros of using ES Modules. Understands the security need for serving static files and can do it in Express. Can recount the number of ways and approaches to redirection. Understands the difference between client-side redirection and server-side.	Mandatory I (Given) How to serve static files with Vercel
06. Client vs. Server / Environment Variables	Oct. 2nd	Package.json scripts. Environment Variables. Fetching in Node.js. Semantic HTML: nav, main, footer.	Can define and run scripts with NPM. Know how to define environment variables natively in Node.js (natively = not using any libraries). Fetching in the client vs. fetching in the backend. Structuring HTML with semantic HTML. Can point out which files are client files and which are server files. Knows at least one way to style a footer so that it appears at the bottom, always. Can argue for a better way to structure the frontend (assets, pages).	Work on the mandatory: Set up pages. Add lots of documentation. Implement styling including how to display code snippets.
07. Server-side Rendering (SSR) / Routers	Oct. 9th	Server-side rendering vs. client-side rendering. Reading files. Nodemon ext.	Understands how code and its placement affects application memory and efficiency. Understands the arguments for and against SSR vs. CSR when it comes to: Load time. Ressources spent (duration, when and where). SEO. Dealing with CORS (SSR has no CORS issues). Can argue for better ways to structure the code and how to avoid files that are too long.	Svelte interactive tutorials (introduction / props)