Functional Web Development with Elixir, OTP, and Phoenix (Pragprog)

[AstonJ]

by Lance Halvorsen

Elixir and Phoenix are generating tremendous excitement as an unbeatable platform for building modern web applications. Make the most of them as you build a stateful web app with Elixir and OTP. Model domain entities without an ORM or a database. Manage server state and keep your code clean with OTP Behaviours. Layer on a Phoenix web interface without coupling it to the business logic. Open doors to powerful new techniques that will get you thinking about web development in fundamentally new ways.

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Elixir and OTP provide exceptional tools to build rock-solid back-end applications that scale. In this book, you’ll build a web application in a radically different way, with a back end that holds application state. You’ll use persistent Phoenix Channel connections instead of HTTP’s request-response, and create the full application in distinct, decoupled layers.

In Part 1, start by building the business logic as a separate application, without Phoenix. Model the application domain with Elixir Agents and simple data structures. By keeping state in memory instead of a database, you can reduce latency and simplify your code. Then add OTP Behaviours such as gen_server and gen_statem that make managing in-memory state a breeze. Create a supervision tree to boost fault tolerance while separating error handling from business logic.

Phoenix is a modern web framework you can layer on top of business logic while keeping the two completely decoupled. In Part 2, you’ll do exactly that as you build a web interface with Phoenix. Bring in the application from Part 1 as a dependency to a new Phoenix project. Then use ultra-scalable Phoenix Channels to establish persistent connections between the stateful server and a stateful front-end client.

You’re going to love this way of building web apps!

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

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Can’t wait

[lance]

Thanks for the hat-tip! I’m beyond excited for the beta launch.

[AstonJ]

I bet you are Lance, congrats! And thanks for taking the time to write it and all your work on the Phoenix Guides

I can’t wait to get my hands on the book, though it might be a while before I get around to reading it (got 3 or 4 other Elixir books to read first )

[LawJolla]

Take my money! Oh wait, you just did.

[AstonJ]

Don’t forget you can get 25% off with your forum discount - with the code ElixirForum

[voger]

Sale tomorrow. Does it mean we get a better price tomorrow? Should I wait?

[AstonJ]

Sorry, no, it just means it will go on sale tomorrow. I’ll change the title now - tho you can blame PragAndy as I just copied what he said

You should be able to get 25% off with your forum discount tho.

[jeramyRR]

money is leaving my wallet the second I get home.

[dsissitka]

Oooh, I’d love to work my way through this. Perhaps I’m overlooking something but it doesn’t look like it says how much of the content is currently available?

[jeramyRR]

Looks like there are two excerpts that look already to be fairly well done.

[lance]

Most of the book is already there! I currently need to complete two chapters, one on state machines and the other on supervisors.

They’ll be following along soon.

[AstonJ]

Sorry about the mix-up with the coupon everyone, it was my fault

You can use the code ElixirForum to get your 25% off

cc// @voger @jeramyRR @chrisalley

[jeramyRR]

@AstonJ

ElixirForum

Thanks, just purchased!

[Mandemus]

@AstonJ

ElixirForum

I can verify the code works properly. $16 for this book, $10 for the udemy course… it sure isn’t expensive at all to learn Phoenix.

I also want to attest to the high quality of this book. There is a lot of meat on the bone within it’s current 153 page PDF. I especially appreciate the target project being a game and not yet another ToDo list or blog.

[rms.mrcs]

Thanks! I just bought it!

[treble37]

Thanks for posting this (and the coupon) it sounds really exciting!

[seymores]

Cool!
Is this based on Phoenix 1.3?

[asn_baza_space]

Cool |> done |> start_reading

[AstonJ]

I love the description of this book:

Elixir and OTP give us exceptional tools to build stateful back-end applications that really scale, with rock-solid reliability. In this book, you’ll build a web application in ways that are radically different from the norm. The back end will be stateful, not stateless. Use persistent connections with Phoenix Channels instead of HTTP’s request-response, and create the full application in distinct, decoupled layers.

In Part 1, start by building the business logic as a separate application, without Phoenix. Model the application domain with Elixir Agents and simple data structures. By keeping state in memory instead of a database, you can reduce latency and simplify your code. Then add OTP Behaviours such as gen_server and gen_fsm that make managing in-memory state a breeze. Create a supervision tree to boost fault tolerance while separating error handling from business logic.

Phoenix is a modern web framework you can layer on top of business logic while keeping the two completely decoupled. In Part 2, you’ll do exactly that as you build a web interface with Phoenix. Bring in the application from Part 1 as a dependency to a new Phoenix project. Then use ultra-scalable Phoenix Channels to establish persistent connections between the stateful server and a stateful front-end client.

You’re going to love this way of building web apps!

I am sure it’s going to inspire lots of people to try out Elixir

[LawJolla]

Agreed. This addresses the exact question I’ve been having… “Do I need OTP with a web app? Where does it help?”

I just wish I didn’t miss out on the coupon