Node.js is one of the Javascript technologies that made Javascript so trendy. But why? This is because it builds high-performing, real-time web apps easily. It can be used for client side programming and server side programming. If you wonder what’s the superpower of this technology for server side programming, or maybe you don’t know what Node.js actually is, then this blog is for you. Here we’ll see the reasons of why you should choose Node.js for server side programming. But before digging to it, let us see the overview of Node.js.
Node.js is an application runtime environment that allows you to write server-side apps built on Chrome’s V8 Javascript engine. It uses event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that make sit lightweight and efficient. And it’s ability to use Javascript on both frontend and backend adds one more benefit for development. Node.js package ecosystem, npm is the largest ecosystem of open-source libraries. Lots of big companies have adopted Node.js in the production environment.
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Javascript is a programming language that web apps are using on the client side. Using same language on server-side meaning that developer can apply his Javascript knowledge both on client side and server side and use the same functions as needed.
It includes a style that allows components to communicate through asynchronous messages. Systems based on event-based styles are generally organized as a loosely coupled federation of components that trigger behavior in other components through events. There are lots of event styles, for example- Point to point, Publish-Subscribe. Aspect.style addressed crosscutting concerns. Aspect.style is a module style, event-based style – runtime style, so it’s important not to mix them up.
Node.js uses an asynchronous architecture that javascript can handle properly. Meaning that the server reacts to event and sends events(messages) to the database. This programming style is different to synchronous style and might be difficult to use with other languages. Node.js uses asynchronous style with asynchronous IOS and can aslo scale.
NPM allows you to select between global and local installation. With this local installation, packages are installed into a directory called ‘npm_modules’ inside the current directory. Node makes all installed packages available to a running app, hence there are no issues with other app’s packages. In case npm packages has other dependencies, they are installed into that package’s directory, NOT into a shared one. Means if a project needs package A and B, and both of these need incompatible versions of package C, they will get their own copy that is local. Hence there will not be any conflicts.
One can just copy and paste the project files and install dependencies on other system by using npm. No need to copy your entire project files like node_modules. If a package provides command-line tools, it can be still installed system-wide, by using ‘-g’ flag. This approach means packages may be duplicated on the filesystem, but with size of most packages vs. size of current hard drives, which is not a big issue.
These are application programs which function within a time frame that the user senses as immediate or current. The latency should be less than defined value, generally measured in seconds. Use of RTA in app is known as real time computing.
Streams in Node.js- Node.js is event-driven so dealing with I/O bound tasks are extremely good. Streams are UNIX pipes that eases the data reading from source and pipe it to the destination.
Data synchronization between server and client- Data transfer between client and server is fast because Node.js allows javascript writing on both client and server side.
Event based server- event based and non-blocking driven server is best if web apps need to handle a large number of real-number of real-time users.
Scalable and fast- Javascript execution is fast so one can use it to create the network apps. Single threaded model with event loop is very helpful and can handle various client requests.
Functions in Node.js- Functions in node.js are designed to be non-blocking. Node.js has event-driven programming to web servers. Freelance web designer community is using Node.js for a long time.
Different modules- Availability of file system I/O, networking binary data, data streams and so on functions are important. Node.js’s modules use an API designed to reduce complexity of writing server.
Sharing and reusing- It is OK to share packages of library code. If a developer faces any issue, Node package manager helps developer with the solutions. Now it is easy to update, share and reuse the code.
We know that Node.js is a cross-platform Javascript runtime environment for servers and apps and it is built on a single-threaded, non-blocking event loop, the Google Chrome V8 JavaScript engine, and a low-level I/O API. Lots of techniques like cluster module allows Node.js apps to scale beyond a single CPU core.