JavaScript, being the most widely used programming language, is also one of the most adaptable software development tools, enabling you to construct high-quality apps for a variety of platforms, including Apache Cordova, React Native, NativeScript, Appcelerator Titanium, and others.
But the scope of JS does not end there. Recently, this language has often been considered as a top contender for server-side programming. The birth of Node.js signified this transition in the web development industry.
What is Node.js?
In actuality, Node.js is a runtime based on the Chrome V8 JavaScript engine, rather than a framework or library.
The technology was first introduced in 2009 by Ryan Dahl at the annual European JSConf forum and was immediately recognized as the most significant piece of software in the modern JavaScript universe.
Benefits of using Node.js
According to Google Trends, interest in this fork of JS peaked in 2017 and remains high. And there are good reasons for that.
Robust JavaScript-based technology
By using Node.js as the backend, you automatically get all the benefits of fully functional JavaScript development, including:
- optimal application speed;
- possibility of sharing and reuse;
- a huge number of free tools;
- cross-platform.
All of this enables you to make the development process as adaptable and time-efficient as feasible. As a consequence, you’ll get high-quality, dependable software as quickly as feasible. JavaScript developers can start programming back-end with minimal effort by packaging existing code into modules and creating new levels of abstraction.
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Fast request processing and efficient event model
Node.js is fast. This is proven by the performance test results presented by toptal.com. The researchers compared how popular languages like GO, PHP, Java, and Node.js handle concurrent requests.
The latter demonstrates the best results in almost all indicators due to the use of the V8 engine. It was originally developed for the Chrome browser. Written in C++, Chrome V8 is used to compile functions written in JS into native code, and does the job with impressive speed. With Google investing heavily in its engine, V8 has seen performance gains over the years, and Node.js has taken full advantage of it.
Another important advantage is asynchronous request processing. In the context of the server side, synchronous processing means that the code is executed sequentially. Thus, each new request blocks the thread of the others, and other commands will start executing only after the previous one has been completed.
Ideal choice for microservice architecture
Being a simple and lightweight programming environment, Node.js has become an ideal solution for the so-called microservice architecture. This approach involves developing a single application as a collection of small services, each running its own processes and interacting with lightweight mechanisms, often the HTTP Resource APIs.
As an implementation example, consider Walmart’s transition to a microservice architecture based on Node.js. This decision allowed the company to get many advantages:
- Overnight, a 20% increase in overall conversions and a 98% increase in mobile conversions.
- 100% Black Friday uptime (over 500 million page views).
- Save up to 40% on equipment.
Rich ecosystem
NPM, the default package manager for Node.js, also serves as the main platform for the open source JavaScript tools that play an important role in the development of this programming language. With about a million libraries currently available on the npm registry and over 10,000 new ones published weekly, the Node.js ecosystem is quite rich. According to statistics, 97% of modern web applications consist of npm modules. And this demonstrates its clear appeal among developers.
Support for IT giants
The list of companies using Node.js is constantly growing. It currently has over 300 well-known companies such as PayPal, Medium, Trello, Uber, Zendesk and many more.
Very few open source projects have ever enjoyed such strong support from the world’s leading corporations. And this speaks to the outstanding potential of Node.js.
Full JSON support
While other server-side technologies such as PHP and Ruby on Rails can use JSON for communication, Node.js does this without converting between binary models via JavaScript.
It is because of these reasons that Node.js. so popular among developers. It also has disadvantages, but we will write about this in future blogs.
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