This section of the Gitbook is broken down into the following steps. We'll be following along with these through class.

The MEAN Stack

What is the MEAN Stack?

The MEAN stack is a full stack for development similar to Ruby on Rails. It is built upon cutting-edge, wild-wild west crafted software:

• Angular.js (https://angularjs.org/)
• Express.js (http://http://expressjs.com/)
• Node.js (https://nodejs.org/)
• MongoDB (https://mongodb.org)

Let's compare Ruby on Rails with MEAN

• In Ruby on Rails we have been using Postgres as our database. We write most of our code in Ruby. We rely on Rails as our framework to host our application and serve APIS/Views. We use ERB and various Javascript frameworks like Backbone to display our views.

• In the MEAN stack, we will be using MongoDB as our database. We write most of our code in Javascript. We rely on Node and Express.js to host our application and serve APIs/Views. We use AngularJS to render our views that are served by Express.

• Fun Fact: Express.js looks and feels like Sinatra. If you liked Sinatra, you'll probably love Express.js because the syntax is very similar.

How the stack works together