Mark Volkmann

R. Mark Volkmann is a partner at Object Computing, Inc. (OCI) in St. Louis, where he has provided software consulting and training since 1996. As a consultant, Mark has assisted many companies with JavaScript, Node.js, Svelte, React, Vue, Angular, and more. Mark has created and taught many courses on topics including React, Vue, AngularJS, Node.js, jQuery, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, Ruby, Java, and XML. He is a frequent presenter at St. Louis-area user groups. He has presented at many conferences, including Nordic.js, Jfokus, NDC Oslo, Strange Loop, MidwestJS, No Fluff Just Stuff, and XML DevCon. Mark frequently writes articles on various software development topics. These can be found at https://objectcomputing.com/resources/publications/mark-volkmann.

In his spare time, Mark likes to run. To date he has run 49 marathons in 39 states.

books by Mark Volkmann

Web Component Development with Modern Libraries and Tooling

  • MEAP began May 2026
  • Last updated May 2026
  • Publication in Fall 2026 (estimated)
  • ISBN 9781633433977
  • 300 pages (estimated)
  • printed in black & white

Development teams increasingly face pressure to future-proof their code—and that makes framework lock-in a serious liability. In Web Component Development with Modern Libraries and Tooling, you’ll learn how to build reusable web components that last well beyond the next library update. In this practical and easy-to-follow guide, author Mark Volkmann shows you how Web components deliver something no JavaScript framework can match: true portability. Built on W3C standards and supported natively by every modern browser, web components let you build UI elements once and reuse them anywhere, in React, Vue, Angular, Svelte, plain HTML, or even Markdown documents. No framework downloads and no immovable dependencies.

The early chapters introduce Web Awesome, one of the most popular web component libraries. Using Web Awesome, you’ll build a UI complete with color-changing radio buttons, animated progress indicators, and more. Then, as you progress into the middle chapters, you’ll dive into creating your own web components in vanilla JavaScript, and discover 15 essential best practices that separate professional-grade components from ones that won’t stand the test of time.

Once you’ve learned how web components work, you’ll get a leg up with libraries like Google’s Lit, Microsoft’s FAST, Ionic’s Stencil, and wrec—a library created author Mark Volkmann. You’ll then integrate components with Angular, React, Solid, Svelte, and Vue, apply professional tooling for documentation, testing, and demonstration, and tackle server-side rendering. Finally, finish up with solid advice on utilizing LLMs to implement web components and use them in web applications.

In each chapter, you’ll work on progressively more sophisticated example components including hello-world, google-button, radio-group, sortable-table, and traffic-light. Every example is chosen to illustrate concepts in a flexible way you can adapt to your own real-world projects. And unlike scattered blog posts and lightweight video tutorials, this substantial book provides both a clear structured learning path and a valuable reference for your future projects.

Svelte and Sapper in Action

  • September 2020
  • ISBN 9781617297946
  • 456 pages
  • printed in black & white

Svelte and Sapper in Action teaches you to design and build fast, elegant web applications. You'll start immediately by creating an engaging Travel Packing app as you learn to create Svelte components and develop great UX. You'll master Svelte's unique state management model, use Sapper for simplified page routing, and take on modern best practices like code splitting, offline support, and server-rendered views.