Last Updated on August 21, 2020
The rising popularity of JavaScript and especially the backend has a lot of changes and the face of web application development and design practices are dramatically altered. The applications we can develop today with the help of JavaScript running on the server and browser are completely different and hard to imagine less than a decade back.
So, in one of our previous posts, my colleague has covered 24 best practices to make your Node.js application secure, you should definitely take a look at this blog post to understand why globally renowned brands like Netflix, eBay, Reddit, LinkedIn, Tumblr, PayPal, and more are using Node.js. This will help you become a productive Node.js developer; I won’t discuss it much here. So, let’s discover more on why choose node.js and how it is beneficial in incorporating your technology stack.
What is Node.js?
Node.js is one of the most current and popular programming languages, especially for backend software development. Originally written in C++, Node.js was then built in Chrome’s V8 JavaScript runtime.
Node.js is neither a framework nor a language.Iit is a run time open-source development platform.
Angular, React, Vue.js, Meteor.js, and there are a number of JavaScript-based web frameworks. Be it front-end or backend, all of them contribute to the increase the efficiency, cost-effectiveness, web security, and safety. However, Node.js is an optimal choice for building enterprise-level applications. But, the official definition describes it as a runtime environment that indicates it as a bigger scope of implementation. It includes REST APIs, OS wrappers, static file servers, drone programming, and microcontrollers.
Node.JS is usually dismissed by saying that it is a “server in Javascript,” this is partly true. Node.JS is more generally “server-side Javascript,” which is a Javascript engine, which, among other things, is capable of pull up an HTTP or TCP server in a few lines of code! The server is, therefore, not something unrelated to the web application we want to create, but it is a feature of the application itself!
How Node.js Works?
Node.js is an event-driven server-side environment based on a Chrome V8 engine that helps to create fast and reliable backend applications. It is a single-threaded metachronous structure that enhances the accessibility and performance of your application. It works like this:
All the functions (or callbacks) are executed asynchronously by multiple threads running in the background. Credit goes to the Node.js runtime that handles this. Thus, Node.js is a non-blocking environment that enhances the performance of the web-app. It is known as the ‘Single-Threaded Event Loop’ architecture of Node.js.
This open-source, JavaScript, and cross-platform runtime environment use a non-blocking event-based input model, which indirectly translates JS into ML to provide increased performance and Agility. The more possibilities and capabilities of what kind of applications can be built using Node.js that we will cover it later in this blog post.
NPM: The Node Package Manager
Issac Z. Schlueter initially developed and released the Node Package Manager (NPM) in January 2020. NPM is an online treasury of open-source node.js projects, to handle and manage packages of the javascript programming language. NPM is the default package manager for Node, and it helps in managing local dependencies of the project and tools.
In a layman’s term, Node.js NPM is a default tool that comes with everyNode.js installation. The Node, js NPM modules are similar to the Ruby Gems – publically available, easy installation, and reusable components with version and dependency management. To know more about a list of packages, please go through the NPM website.
Let me get you through the top NPM packages for Node.js developers 2020
Top 10 Most Popular NPM packages!
10. Moment:-
The moment is one of the lightweight JavaScript time manipulation date libraries for formatting, manipulating, and parsing dates.
09. Express:-
Express.js is a web framework that serves a high abstraction layer over a complex Node.js API and the de-facto standard that you need to create a full-blown backend.
08. Hapi:-
A simple, secure, and configuration-centric framework that allows you to build robust, scalable, and out-of-the-box functionality based web applications and services.
07. Prop-types:-
Prop-type is runtime type, as the name suggests it’s a small library for validating Reacy props and similar objects.
06. React:-
React is a front-end JavaScript library for building interactive UIs. It is one of the widely used and most popular front-end UI libraries maintained by Facebook as well as individual developers and organizations.
05. Connect:-
It is an HTTP server framework that provides a collection of high-performing plugins, which is known as middleware.
04. MongoDB:-
MongoDB is an open-source NoSQL database. It empowers businesses to be more agile and scalable. MongoDB has a flexible architecture, and it supports different data formats.
03. Redis:-
It is a performance-based full-featured client library.
02. Lodash:-
It is one of the most popular NPM packages that make tasks of working with objects, arrays, numbers, and strings easier.
01. Forever:-
Forever is a simple CLI tool that makes provisions for Node script. It helps to keep the process up in the production for any unforeseen failures.
Moving forwards let’s have a look at what can be done with Node.js
Real-Time Apps
Node.js is used to create real-time chat applications. But, here’s an innovative twist. Building a chat room by making use of Node.js actually makes a difference. It has all the operational and functional tools that you might need in order to create a brilliant chat room app.
You might be aware that Firefox and Chrome – search engines have an API to access a computer’s camera. Making use of it, images from a camera gets processed nearby the submission of a chat room, and then a gif is sent to the room. Moreover, you can turn your smartphone into a remote control and making use of other modern web APIs like WebRTC; you can create your own Google Hangout-like applications. i.e., Talky.io.
Complex SPAs
SPA includes an allocation of the entire application where the UX is, moreover, similar to the desktop application. This specific type of application provides mail solutions, social networking tools, online text, and drawing tools, and that is why Node.js application development is an ideal fit for SPAs. The best thing about Node SPA is it eliminates the needs of refreshing the page every time. SailJS and DustJS are highly popular to build to complex SPAs with the help of Node.js.
Make Your Own Online Game with Node.js
Node.js game development is another pro advantage as it allows us to build browser-based data streaming online games. Socket.io, as well as Express.js, makes NodeJS capable of real-time interactions. The reason is a client-side library that runs on the browser and lets the end-users perform the action. Second is a server-side library that ensures smooth communication. Together, it lets you utilize an event-based communication environment.
REST APIs
When it comes to building modern web architectures, representational state transfer based on APIs holds a fundamental position. The significant reason is the wide usage of the HTTP protocol. REST APIs are in-demand because of Microservices design patterns. NodeJS ecosystem provides ExpressJS a minimal and flexible Node.JS web application framework, which provides us a robust set of features to build single-page web applications as well as multipage web along with mobile applications and fast REST APIS. Node.JS makes routing easier.
Command Line Tools
There are numbers guidelines available on the web to build hands-on command-line scriptsNode.js expansive ecosystem is an added advantage to find an ideal package to make your CLI app.
Dashboard for Stock Traders
Stock traders ideally prefer the desktop-based application, but offering them a real-time application for broker trading software to perform calculations, track prices, create graphs, chats can make any comfortable place to their workstation.
Who uses Node.js
PayPal, Linked.in, Netflix, Uber, eBay, Walmart, Groupon, and hundreds of large-scale organizations are using Node.js, and that’s reason Node.js has becomes the go-to technology for top-notch enterprises. As per the Global presence, Noide.js is widely used by the US with 26%.
Where Deploy Node.js Code
Types of Development Work
Tools/Technologies Used
Wrapping Up:
I hope your purpose of landing on this blogpost has been served. From definition to NPM to the whereNode.js can be used to the region based usage has been explained. Using Node.js can help your application to scale a much higher level, and that’s a reason why it is the first and foremost choice of tech-giants.
If you are looking for well-versed developers who can help build interactive, result-oriented, and data-intensive apps, then hire Node.js developers from us. We are a globally renowned Node.js development company offering end to end Node.JS product development support, consulting, migration, and team augmentation support.
If you are looking for an extended arm to augment your existing team of Node.js developers as per the evolving project needs, we are also offering Node.js team augmentation services.
