Programming Phoenix (Pragprog)

AstonJ

by Chris McCord, Bruce Tate and José Valim

Don’t accept the compromise between fast and beautiful: you can have it all. Phoenix creator Chris McCord, Elixir creator José Valim, and award-winning author Bruce Tate walk you through building an application that’s fast and reliable. At every step, you’ll learn from the Phoenix creators not just what to do, but why. Packed with insider insights and completely updated for Phoenix 1.4, this definitive guide will be your constant companion in your journey from Phoenix novice to expert, as you build the next generation of web applications.

Phoenix is the long-awaited web framework based on Elixir, the highly concurrent language that combines a beautiful syntax with rich metaprogramming. The best way to learn Phoenix is to code, and you’ll get to attack some interesting problems. Start working with controllers, views, and templates within the first few pages. Build an in-memory context, and then back it with an Ecto database layer, complete with changesets and constraints that keep readers informed and your database integrity intact. Craft your own interactive application based on the channels API for the real-time applications that this ecosystem made famous. Write your own authentication plugs, and use the OTP layer for supervised services. Organize code with modular umbrella projects.

This edition is fully updated for Phoenix 1.4, with a new chapter on using Channel Presence to find out who’s connected, even on a distributed application. Use the new generators and the new ExUnit features to organize tests and make Ecto tests concurrent.

This is a book by developers and for developers, and we know how to help you ramp up quickly. Any book can tell you what to do. When you’ve finished this one, you’ll also know why to do it.

Don’t forget you can get 35% off the ebook using the code ‘devtalk.com’

Current: Search

Original: Search

For those looking for an update to this book, please see this post.

68 comments

/phoenix #book-programming-phoenix #pragprog

7 18908 68

2024-09-22 15:32:53 UTC

Showing Posts 68 to 59

Show Best Posts
Show All (oldest first)
Show All (newest first)

AstonJ

I wouldn’t say it’s deprecated, but as José mentioned it is now several years old and targets Phoenix 1.4 - so if you want a book that covers more recent versions of Phoenix with all its latest goodies, such as LiveView (which most people probably will) then Programming Phoenix LiveView includes more of that recent stuff… until perhaps we see the next edition of Programming Phoenix.

PP 1.4 is also still worth getting if the topics it covers interest you. Personally, while I did not get around to finishing the book I really liked it - it basically shows you how to create a web framework, does an amazing job at selling Phoenix and includes loads of other interesting info too - such as about timing attacks! But despite all this, as you pointed out, most people coming to Phoenix will want a book that is more up-to-date, and right now, that’s Programming Phoenix LiveView (PragProg).

Post #70

arcanemachine

I wasn’t trying to imply any malicious intent. I know of at least one person who recently bought the book and didn’t know that they would have to downgrade Phoenix in order to be able to follow the instructions. That’s certainly not an elegant footgun for newcomers to stumble into, so I’m happy to nudge things in the right direction.

The book has served its purpose, and while I think it would be nice to have “The Phoenix Book”, the docs are an excellent up-to-date resource, and have an unbeatable price.

Post #69

josevalim

Creator of Elixir

The above is just my words and the book says on the tin what version it was originally written for (edit: and I just noticed it is almost 5 years old!).

My comment was mostly about a follow up edition: a new edition would effectively be a new book, so I’d rather direct folks towards Programming LiveView.

In any case, I will reach out to the other authors and we will notify PragProg accordingly.

Post #68

arcanemachine

So the Programming Phoenix book is deprecated?

Perhaps the folks at PragProg should add a notice on the book’s web page, or lower the price or something. I don’t think it is in good taste to charge ~$30 USD for a book that has been unusable for beginners since Phoenix 1.7 was released almost 2 years ago.

Post #67

AstonJ

Hope José doesn’t mind but I’m quoting his post here from another thread since the topic gets brought up quite a lot:

On another topic

Yes, I’d consider the Programming LiveView book to be the “official” follow up (my words). We have improved many things since Programming Phoenix v1.4 was published:

There was a whole chapter on authentication but now there is a generator

There was a chapter on contexts but Phoenix Guides have a more in depth exploration , as it can evolve freely over time

While channels are still important, that’s not the default tool the majority of users will use to write real-time apps, which makes the whole second part of the book a non-priority

Overall, we are left with 6 chapters, and 2 of them are mostly about Ecto. It is a big testament to Phoenix’ growth that huge chunks of the book have been streamlined.

Perhaps the gap from the four remaining chapters could be filled with a book on Plug, showing how to compose and test them, by building a simple application or an API, and with one chapter explaining how Phoenix controllers are just plugs too (as highlighted in the Programming Phoenix book).

So the advice for now is to get Programming Phoenix LiveView

Post #66

pillaiindu

A good suggestion. It’s working.

Post #65

DevotionGeo

You don’t need to wrap your head around every bit of this code at this point. Try to digest as much as the book teaches you.

Post #64

pillaiindu

I’m reading Programming Phoenix 1.4 and to be honest wrapping my head around config files etc is really hard even if I have used Phoenix before. The book tells where the Endpoint is configured which is config :hello, HelloWeb.Endpoint, in config.exs. Then it jumps to the endpoint.ex.
I know what it’s doing, but there is a lot of more code. I can’t wrap my head around it completely.

I think this section needs more explanation, because we are not as proficient as the book authors.

Post #63

Sanjibukai

Hello everybody!

@pragprog @chrismccord @josevalim @redrapids Hey guys! Thanks for this great book! Do you know if it will be updated to latest Phoenix 1.6 (or even maybe the next one 1.7) since some important things changed (gen_auth, LiveView, heex, etc.)

Also, hijacking this comment to ask the following.. I noticed the “XYZ Brain Teasers” series. Please guys do one with Elixir (also @sasajuric)!

It was delightful to watch José in AoC.. I guess an Elixir Brain Teasers will be a best seller!

Post #62