Node JS

Node.js is an open source, a server-side script which runs on the top of Google’s open-source scripting engine V8. Node.js is fast, lightweight and efficient. It uses the asynchronous mode of operation, event-driven Input/Output rather than using the traditional threads or separate threads for each process. Node.js was originally written by Ryan Dahl in the year 2009. It is a cross-platform Javascript run-time environment that executes Javascript code outside of a browser. Node.js uses javascript for creating node applications or we can use any other language that ultimately compiles to javascript (like typescript)

Why we use it

• Easy

  Node.js is quite easy to start with. It’s a go-to choice for web development beginners. With a lot of tutorials and a * large community—getting started is very easy.

• Scalable

  It provides vast scalability for applications. Node.js, being single-threaded, is capable of handling a huge number of simultaneous connections with high throughput.

• Speed

  Non-blocking thread execution makes Node.js even faster and more efficient.

• Packages

  A vast set of open-source Node.js packages is available that can simplify your work. There are more than one million packages in the NPM ecosystem today.

• Strong backend

  Node.js is written in C and C++, which makes it speedy and adds features like networking support.

• Multi-platform

  Cross-platform support allows you to create SaaS websites, desktop apps, and even mobile apps, all using Node.js.

• Maintainable

  Node.js is an easy choice for developers since both the frontend and backend can be managed with JavaScript as a single language.

Applications of Node JS

Node.js is used for a wide variety of applications. Let’s explore some popular use cases where Node.js is a good choice:

• Real-time chats

  Due to its single-threaded asynchronous nature, Node.js is well-suited to processing real-time communication. It can easily scale and is often used in building chatbots. Node.js also makes it simple to build additional chat features like multi-person chat and push notifications.

• Internet of Things

  IoT applications usually comprise multiple sensors, as they frequently send small chunks of data that can pile into a large number of requests. Node.js is a good choice since it’s able to handle these concurrent requests quickly.

• Data streaming

  Companies like Netflix use Node.js for streaming purposes. This is mainly due to Node.js being lightweight and fast, besides which Node.js provides a native streaming API. These streams allow users to pipe requests to each other, resulting in data being streamed directly to its final destination.

• Complex single-page applications (SPAs)

  In SPAs, the whole application is loaded in a single page. This usually means there are a couple of requests made in the background for specific components. Node.js’s event loop comes to the rescue here, as it processes requests in a non-blocking fashion.

• REST API-based applications

  JavaScript is used both in the frontend and backend of sites. Thus, a server can easily communicate with the frontend via REST APIs using Node.js. Node.js also provides packages like Express.js and Koa that make it even easier to build web applications.