Rails, Angular, Postgres, and Bootstrap - A Book Review

As I've mentioned previously, I periodically review books for the British Computer Society (BCS), including: -

"Kubernetes Microservices with Docker" - A Book Review

Book Review - What Am I Reading ?

This time around, it's Rails, Angular, Postgres, and Bootstrap: Powerful, Effective, and Efficient Full-Stack Web Development by David Bryant Copeland.

For me, this was a voyage of discovery, in part because I have little or no background in full-stack web development.

Therefore, I read this as an introduction to the core technologies, especially Bootstrap and AngularJS.

One thing that was immediately apparent was the vast number of dependencies, plugins and tools that one needs to download and install, including Yarn, Webpack, Foreman etc.

The book assumes, and expects, that the developer will have the access, ability and experience to install a whole slew of software and, perhaps, helps argue the case for containerisation ( given that a number of the core components are available via Docker etc. ).

To be honest, this isn't completely alien to me, given that I've used IBM tools such as Rational Application Developer and IBM Integration Designer, which have their own dependencies - Java, Eclipse, WebSphere Application Server, DB2 etc.

The book immediately dives into the specific detail of these dependencies and tools, and then uses a worked example, known as Shine, throughout the successive chapters to illustrate how Bootstrap and Postgres work, before diving into responsive UI development using AngularJS.

Throughout the book, the author does focus upon important non-functional requirements such as security and performance, and also focuses upon testing, caching and interaction styles ( especially asynchronous ).

For me, I found this book to be amazingly detailed guide, that would provide a good roadmap for a developer keen to to develop their skills and experience with Rails, Angular, Postgres and Bootstrap.

Whilst this isn't something that I specifically need in my job role, it's very useful context.

So, to summarise, this book is likely to be of use, and could provide a useful background to anyone beginning their career in full-stack web / UI database development.

In terms of rating, I'd give this book 10/10.