What is NODE.JS
Developers commonly abbreviate it as JS, JavaScript serves as a dynamic programming language, utilized for developing web applications on both client and server sides. Node.JS is one of the powerful frameworks in javascript developed by Ryan Dahl in the year 2009 and latest version is v10.3.0 built on Google Chrome’s JavaScript V8 engine. Backend developers use Node.JS, an open source, dynamic, server-side framework for developing interactive web applications. This framework is helpful for building fast and scalable web applications which aim to optimize the throughput.
Why NODE.JS
Node.JS has a rich library which contains various javascript modules and this is the reason why it makes simple to develop the web applications. Developers use it to develop interactive and single page applications, and backend developers use Node.JS.. It makes applications which are lightweight and efficient as it uses event- driven and non-blocking I/O model. Node.JS is best for building real time web API’s.
Features of Node.JS
- Single Threaded and Highly Scalable
- Fast and Scalable
- Asynchronous and event-driven
- No Buffering
Where to use Node.JS
- Single Page Applications
- I/O Applications
- Data Streaming Applications
- Application Program Interface(API) Applications
Components of Node.JS
- Node.JS imports required modules using the “Require” directive.
- It creates a server that listens to client requests.
- The server reads the HTTP request created.
- It returns the response on a browser or console.
Read Eval Print Loop (REPL)
Node is bundled with REPL environment. REPL is an environment like console where a system responds in an interactive mode for the commands given. This feature is very helpful in experimenting with node and it is also used to debug the JavaScript code. Let’s have a glance how it works,
- READ : Reads the input given by the user, phrases the input into javascript data structure and store it.
- Eval : Evaluate the data structure.
- Print : Print the result.
- Loop: Until the ctrl+c is pressed twice by the user, loop the above command.
NODE PACKAGE MANAGER (NPM)
Sounds different? But a big NO for backend developers. NPM is a package manager for Node.JS which allows users to consume and distribute the javascript modules which are available in the registry. Developers use NPM to manage packages both locally and globally.
The two main functionalities of NPM are:
- Online repositories are searchable on search.nodejs.org for node js packages/modules.
- Command line utility do version management and dependency management to install packages of Node.JS.
The truth is that Node.JS has become popular worldwide and according to the Stack Overflow’s Developer survey it is the most used technologies by developers. It is also the fastest growing popular framework over the past five years.
At Krify, we are working on various Node.JS applications like SURF, SOURCEGY, JUMP, HURDLE,etc. We put our continuous efforts on the projects and get the best quality output satisfying our customers to the core. To check our projects visit krify.co and if you have a project idea contact us.
