In the developer community, JavaScript is a fairly popular programming language and also one of the most popular technologies used for development. JavaScript was originally developed to be used as a web frontend development tool. However, as the years passed, it evolved into a major tool for mobile development and a base for a number of other platforms.
With its increasing popularity due to its ease of use, JavaScript moved on further to dominate the server-side programming domain. Node.js was used to make this shift towards web development and became widely popular in no time.
What is Node.js?
Node.js is a server side platform built on Google Chrome’s JavaScript Engine or poularly known as the V8 engine. It is an open source, cross platform runtime environment used for developing server side and networking applications.
It is perfect to develop data-intensive real time applications since it uses an event driven, non-blocking Input-Output model which makes it very light and highly efficient. Applications built on Node.js are fast and scalable.
What is Node.js a perfect fit for?
If you plan to build a real-time or data streaming web application, Node.js is definitely the perfect solution for you to use.Node.js is highly efficient and much easier to develop. With its ability to handle multiple requests and scale smoothly, it becomes a perfect fit for API development.
What are the Benefits of Node.js over others?
1. Node.js is Faster
The Chromium Project, started by Google, created Chrome V8, an open source JavaScript engine. This helps compile the JavaScript code into a machine readable native code really fast. This is because of the fact that it uses an asynchronous non blocking I/O model which means that it uses a single thread to service all requests. This is why, basic tasks related to database, network connections and file system reading and writing operations are implemented faster than others.
2. Node.js Apps are Highly Scalable
The architecture of Node.js applications allows you to scale it using two ways – Horizontal Scaling and Vertical Scaling both of which can prove to be equally beneficial in improving your app’s performance.
Horizontal scaling consists of adding more nodes to your existing system whereas in vertical scaling you can add more resources to a single node.
3. Node.js apps are easily compatible with Database Queries
The queries for MongoDB and NoSQL databases, that are essential for today’s enterprises , are written in JavaScript. Since JavaScript is also the programming language of Node.js, developers don’t need any complex processes or techniques when combining Node.js and NoSQL databases. The data format, which is JSON, is the same for both. This is why no data conversion is required, unlike in other languages like Ruby on Rails and hence no data errors arise.
4. Node.js apps increase Developer Productivity
The productivity increases several folds when developing apps with node.js because a lot of time is saved in merging the front-end and back-end into a single entity. This makes the whole development process more efficient requiring less manpower.
“PayPal reported a 2 times increase in developer productivity after using node.js.”
5. Node.js is best for building Real-time Web Apps
The event-driven architecture of node.js makes it a shrewd choice for real-time applications, especially chat applications and games. As both the client-side program and the server-side program are written in JavaScript, the synchronization process is better and quicker.
6. Node.js is Driven by a Vibrant Community
Being an open source technology, Node.js too has a flourishing community of developers that backs it. They constantly work to equip applications developed with Node.js with unique and additional functionalities. Section.io, for instance, is a popular module that helps push real time updates to the client by persistantly managing the connections between a server and its client.
These are just a few of the many advantages of using Node.js for your dynamic web apps. No wonder many prominent companies like Walmart, LinkedIn, eBay, PayPal and Bustle etc. decided to shift to using Node.js rather than the technologies they initially chose. At least in aspects that matter the most, Node.js definitely proves to be something worthy that saves a lot of your time and investment.
The first thing to do is to consult some great mobile app development firm to lay down your app priorities. Once the priorities and goals of your business app are clear, Node.js can be the perfect solution for you and there is no doubt in the fact that it can definitely add a lot of value to it.
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