Node.js, an open source, cross-platform language was introduced in 2009 by Ryan Dahl. Since its inception, this language has been a game-changing technology. It is built on Chrome’s JavaScript runtime and has now become an exceptional choice for real-time web application development.
One of the major advantage of using Node.js is that it can used for both client side and the server side development. Enterprises like PayPal, Netflix, eBay, Yahoo have already taken their respective businesses to fruition using Node.js. Lets a deep dive into major reasons why Node.js has become a top choice for web application development.
Node.js: Top Choice for Web Application Development
#Flourished Open Source Community
Node.js, an open-source technology is very community friendly and offers many outstanding modules. These modules add a lot more amazing features to your web applications. Lets take an example of Socket.io, this is one the most popular framework which deals with constant communication between the client and the server. Other top-notch frameworks developed by the Node.js community are Express.js, Koa.js, Hapi.js, Sails.js, Meteor, and Derby. These frameworks helps in expediting the application development process.
Node.js language has also been welcomed by the IoT community for embedded devices and robotics, like Nodebots. This language has also emerged as a giant player in the real-time web app development.
#Robust Node.js Package Manager (NPM)
Node.js has a dynamic repository of dynamic tools and modules that programmers can share for app development. Node.js has thousands of thousands of modules one can use for various tasks, like files upload management, connectivity to MySQL databases or to Redis, via frameworks, template systems, and management of real-time communication with visitors.
Node.js package manager or NPM is a savior for many programmers who need to reuse a code some JavaScript developer from outside has created to solve a particular problem. NPM also allows JavaScript developers to download updates that made to a particular code they have previously used in their applications. Even if you don’t want to reuse a code created by a JavaScript developer from outside of your organization, you can adopt the module based approach to improve synergy between your team members.
After using NPM, PayPal saw a significant rise in developer productivity. Besides, the Internet payment giant didn’t require as many developer to build an application as it required prior to using Node.js.
#Expedites the Development Process
V8 engine, by Google is used by Node.js for compilation of JavaScript code into native machine code and fast execution. Since Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model. It’s very efficient and lightweight for in-memory usage. And data dense real-time web applications that work on multiple devices.
With Node.js, you can execute common web application tasks very fast. Some of the common examples are like reading or writing to the database, reading and writing to network connections and reading or writing to the file system. Node.js has become a blessing for developers who want to build quick robust web applications that can effectively deal with parallel connections with increased throughput.
LinkedIn, one of the companies that has opted for Node.js has seen a significant rise in their mobile traffic and they have also reduced the number of servers from 30 to 3. Another example company that has benefitted from Node.js is PayPal. After introducing Node.js, PayPal saw a significant downfall in their response time and also the request per second is doubled. Being Cross-Platform, Node.js applications can run on multiple servers including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix.
#Excellent for Real-Time App Development
In today’s environment almost every company is now looking for customer information in real time. All this for one simple reason, to boost business sales by offering the users what they are actually looking for. Over the past few years, having a real-time web app built using Node.js has emerged as the best way to notch that up.
Using Node.js, you can build a real-time web application as fast as making a simple blog in PHP. Node.js is a good fit for multi-user real-time web apps as in games and chat apps. The multi-user function is tackled by the event loop via websocket protocol which works on TCP. It also prevents the overhead of HTTP for web development.
#Data Streaming
Although HTTP request and response are thought to be two isolated events. They are data streams in real. The beauty of Node.js is that it enables file processing while uploading. As a result, it saves a lot of time that goes waste in overall processing in the event of data coming in the form of streams. The same remains the case with real-time video or audio recording.
#Node.js is Omnipresent
Thanks to Node.js for making JavaScript existence possible on both the browser and the server. If a company feel the need of changing the logic built for the browser to be shifted to the server, developers can do it with ease by using Node.js code migration. Though, there is not much difference in how the code written for either the browser or server runs.
#Allows to Use a Single Code Base for Web Applications
With Node.js, developers can automatically send and synchronize data between server and the client side. So, as it allows developers to write JavaScript for both the server and client. Meteor, a web app framework created on top of Node.js. Offers support to the same codebase for the client and the server. Any data change in the server is immediately visible on the client-side.
“Node.js is not a silver-bullet new platform that will dominate the web development world. Instead, it’s a platform that fills a particular need. Where Node really shines is in building fast, scalable network applications”, according to the web engineering company Toptal.
#Node.js Hosting has Gone to a New Level
As Node.js development is becoming very popular among developers, it’s hosting has gone a long way to become a big success. PaaS (Platform as a Service) service providers such as Heroku and Modulus offer support to node deployments to a single command. With Node.js hosting, you can also reduce page load time by up to 50% and bring down the number of servers required to host the application.
Conclusion
All the virtues of Node.js mentioned above are the major reasons why many companies now consider Node.js as a good technology for running heavy load web applications. And allowing teams to move much faster in bringing their designs to life.
If you have ever used Node.js for your web app development, please do share your experience with us in the comment box below.
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