Hey guys. Today I'm happy to announce the release of a free book I've written called 'Essential JavaScript & jQuery Design Patterns For Beginners'. Design patterns are reusable solutions to commonly occurring problems in software development and are a very useful tool to have at your disposal.
I wanted to write this mini-book was because I felt that patterns were an area a lot of new and intermediate JavaScript developers may not have had a chance to explore just yet and I'm hopeful my book will encourage you to check them out as they can be quite powerful.
Update: Version 1.5.x of the book and above are available in either online form to read for free or via O'Reilly if you'd like to pick up physical or eBook formats of the book. The latter is a lot more visually pleasing than the PDF/eBooks I used to generate and I hope this combination of free or purchase options satisfies most readers needs.
You can download my book and learning resources right away or read online if you'd prefer.
Why A Free Book?
There's some really fantastic literature available out there on design patterns in JavaScript (Stoyan Stefanov's excellent 'JavaScript patterns' book comes to mind) but a lot of the JS-centric material requires purchased literature.
These books are definitely worth buying, but I personally feel that until a developer is interested enough in learning about patterns to make the leap to invest in these, the majority of material they have accessible online doesn't focus enough on how to apply design patterns to JavaScript or jQuery. That's where having a free book of this nature comes in useful.
Contributors
I was the primary author of this book but I would like to thank JavaScript and design pattern enthusiast Alex Sexton for technically reviewing the content and ensuring that it was accurate. Alex also provides some insightful feedback on the book's content that helped improve it. I would also like to extend my thanks to Rebecca Murphy as her open-source book 'jQuery Fundamentals' served as the inspiration for me aiming to create a piece of useful free content that goes beyond the depth a standard article would.
What Does The Book Pack Contain?

The downloadable version of the book pack contains:
- My 'Essential JavaScript & jQuery Design Patterns' Book
- Printable Design Pattern sheets (courtesy Jason MacDonald)
- Design Pattern Reference Cards (courtesy of DZone)
I'll be updating the book (and download links) with minor changes anytime they are made to keep the material as accurate as possible. If you have changes you would like to suggest, please feel free to get in touch and we can discuss them.
That's it!. Thanks for checking out this post. If you found my book helpful and would like to share it with your friends or colleagues, please feel free to click the retweet button below. Together we can help spread more awareness of design patterns in the JavaScript and jQuery communities.
Update: Due to popular demand, you can now also download Essential JavaScript & jQuery Design Patterns in ePub format (compatible with iBooks) as well as in PDF format. Just click on any of the download buttons above and you'll grab the latest version of the book from GitHub.



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You are a great human.
Great post! Now I'll read this with brand new iPad haha
Only I wirte to say: “Thank you for a free book”.
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Very useful book especially for free lancers or smaller shops. I've used design patterns extensively in the corporate world, but I know many who have not had that type of extensive exposure. Great tool for more standardized development. Thanks for publishing and distributing it.
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Excellent work, thanks much!!!
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Very nice! Amazing doc, good work and thank a lot
sethier (Montreal)
I can see a lot of work is done in the book,
Thanks for making it free, keep up the great work
I believe as much knowledge as can be given free and to the community should be
You're welcome!
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I want a bound version, I'll pay
haha. Who knows – maybe one day
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Many thanks for providing this valuable material!
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Thanks for good material and your great effort. I started translating this book into Japanese. http://blog.sarabande.jp/post/2908152943
Few days ago I had a chance to talk with a college student on twitter and felt need for a guide book before buying several books.
Hey there. Thanks for taking the time to translate this to Japanese and post it back here. I'm sure many of the readers in Japan will find it useful!
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ADDY…you are the MAN!!! Thanks again for ALL the wonderful things you do for this open source world we "live" and "work" in. I am a current Web Design/ Interactive Media student at the Art Institute of Jacksonville, FL. And this is exactly what I need. Word spreads quick around here and I know many peeps who can use this.
Hey Jason! Thanks for taking the time to write that kind comment. I'm really glad that any of the open-source material we in the community put out comes in helpful. Do let me know if you/your friends have any further feedback on it! – Addy
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Useful and great!!!
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I downloaded the ePub file to put on my Evo, but where should I save it? I installed the Sony Reader because it supposedly opens ePub files.
Sorry Ron! I haven't used ePub files on the Evo before, but perhaps you'd have better luck checking what other reader apps support ePub files?
The problem I am encountering is that various reader apps direct you to buy from their respective stores, but do not indicate how to add a file you got somewhere else, e.g. downloaded here from you.
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Ebook link is broken
Thanks for the head's up! (this was affecting the ePub edition). Was moving things around to accommodate the new version but I've just gone and corrected the link. Should work now!
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Great job! Thanks.
I didn't find a PDF version in the zip/tar ball, but the HTML version is also convenient to me. I saw a small typo in line 04 of the Non-Dry example code (a single quote is missing).
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