This chapter covers
- The benefits of full-stack development
- An overview of the MEAN stack components
- What makes the MEAN stack so compelling
- A preview of the application we’ll build throughout this book
If you’re like me then you’re probably impatient to dive into some code and get on with building something. But let’s take a moment first to clarify what is meant by full-stack development, and look at the component parts of the stack to make sure you understand each.
When I talk about full-stack development, I’m really talking about developing all parts of a website or application. The full stack starts with the database and web server in the back end, contains application logic and control in the middle, and goes all the way through to the user interface at the front end.
- MongoDB—the database
- Express—the web framework
- AngularJS—the front-end framework
- Node.js—the web server
MongoDB has been around since 2007, and is actively maintained by MongoDB Inc., previously known as 10gen.
Express was first released in 2009 by T. J. Holowaychuk and has since become the most popular framework for Node.js. It’s open source with more than 100 contributors, and is actively developed and supported.
AngularJS is open source and backed by Google. It has been around since 2010 and is constantly being developed and extended.