Recently I was given a reviewer's copy of Build a Network Application with Node from the publisher Packt Pub. The fact that I was given a copy of the video in exchange for a written review has in no way influenced my rating of the video.
Build a Network Application with Node by Joe Stanco is a great video tutorial to learning the basics of building network applications with Node.js.
The way the video is structured is that there are 11 topics that are broken up into two to five sessions each. These sessions are a few minutes in length so it's easy to sit down and watch them when have a little free time to spare. Mr. Stanco takes you through setting up Node and what modules are through understanding events and the asynchronous nature of Node and using file streams. Next you learn how to write an HTTP server and then using the Connect and Express frameworks to make your life easier. He finishes up by walking through using databases (MongoDB), real-time communication (Socket.IO) and automated testing.
I felt the sessions were short enough to stay focused but long enough to cover the topics in decent depth.
One thing that I didn't like, although this is more my problem and not the videos, is that Mr. Stanco moves quickly between topics and it's hard to see the results he's showing some times. I know you can pause the video, but it would be nice to have a 10 to 15 second period where the results are shown on screen without having to pause the video to see things.
Overall this is a great video lesson and I definitely recommend it.
For those who like to see actual ratings, I give the video a 5 out of 5 stars.
