---
layout: meetup
title: Realtime Web Apps with Node.js and Socket.io + Couchbase App
author: jmccann
when: 2011-07-19T19:30:00-05:00
video: https://vimeo.com/27712070
speakers:
  - name: Aaron Forsander
    title: Developer at [Four Kitchens](http://fourkitchens.com/)
    avatar: https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1542856050/14116_10100201593422040_7905226_60357440_1066919_n_bigger.jpg
    bio: If you don't know who Aaron is, he's a developer at [Four Kitchens](http://fourkitchens.com/) in Austin, TX and graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.  Aaron's been doing web development since 2005 plus a brief and excruciating year of desktop development.  Most of his current work is making large websites scale but he's taken a particular interest in the server side javascript community in recent years.  He's beaten Alex Sexton in ping pong a lot.  Like, a whole lot.
    email:
    homepage:
    twitter: AaronForsander
    github:
    linkedin:
  - name: J Chris Anderson
    title:
    avatar: https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1153739929383346176/4usYqHma_400x400.png
    bio:
    email:
    homepage:
    twitter: jchris
    github:
    linkedin:
sponsor:
  name: Compass Learning
  url: http://www.compasslearningodyssey.com/
venue: frog
after: gingerman
organizers:
  - jmccann
  - asexton
---

***UPDATE 07/19/11 ::** Meeting moved to 7:45pm to accomodate the owners of our space.*

It's hot.  We know.  But don't fret, this month, we'll have plenty of cold beverages (courtesy of [Compass Learning][1]) alongside a talk by local web developer, [Aaron Forsander][2] (no really, he will be here this time!).

## Realtime Web Apps with Node.js and Socket.io

[Node.js][5] and [Socket.io][6] have made web sockets ridiculously easy to implement.  Creating real-time web applications has never been easier.  Couple that with the fact that most new phones have GPS and you've got the potential for some really cool interactivity.  In this talk Aaron will be discussing building realtime mobile web applications and demo a really amazing Android app called Zombie Run and how he's porting it to the web using Node.js and Socket.io.

UPDATE:: 7/15/11

Also (surprise!) joining us will be J Chris Anderson from Couchbase!

Chris was one of the early committers to the Apache CouchDB project and has been working on CouchDB for over 3 years. He's watched CouchDB grow from unknown to a widely deployed and trusted database, now used by large organizations such as the BBC and CERN as well as small organizations like Dimagi using CouchDB on smartphones in rural Africa. Chris has a unique perspective from being involved in all aspects of Couchbase, he is deep into technology but equally involved in the business side of Couchbase

## JavaScript CouchApps Hackalong: jQuery, Couchbase, and a Chat App in 30 minutes or less

Couchbase is an HTTP server (as well as a database) so it can serve apps directly to the browser. In this talk, we'll build an HTML5 app on Couchbase, at a pace that anyone who knows basic JavaScript will be able to keep up with. At the end we'll create an ad-hoc cluster so we can all chat across the distributed system. I'll talk a little about how you can use the same techniques for serious apps, not just fun chat toys.

Of course we will followup all of this up with our wildly crowd-pleasing roundtable of JavaScript-related questions. This is an open forum to present topics of discussion in a rapid-fire manner.

And bonus time, with [Joe][7] travelling the world, [Alex Sexton][8] will be hosting the meetup again!

 [1]: http://www.compasslearningodyssey.com/
 [2]: http://twitter.com/AaronForsander
 [5]: http://node.js.org
 [6]: http://socket.io
 [7]: http://twitter.com/joemccann
 [8]: http://twitter.com/slexaxton
