The Advantages of Node.js — A Complete Guide
Developed on the JavaScript V8 Engine of Google Chrome, Node.js is a popular open-source runtime environment. It is used by some biggest companies and start-ups alike.
To name a few, its users include Netflix, Uber, Paypal, and Linkedin, while more than 43% of Node.js developers use it for enterprise apps. Developers love to use Node.js as it allows them to build fast, scalable, flexible, lightweight, and cross-platform mobile and web applications.
In simple words, Node.js adapts JS functionality to backend programming.
The motive of Node.js creator, Ryan Dahl, was to empower developers to use the same technology stack for entire web development projects. This way, there is no need to learn new server-side platforms like PHP, Java, or .Net.
Moreover, the structure of Node.js is the core reason for its popularity.
Within three years of its debut in 2009, Node.js extended its application from Linux and macOS to Windows.
Today, the OpenJS Foundation is an umbrella organization with a massive community of developers for Node.js support. With 50% of positive responses, Node.js was considered the most popular tool in the “Frameworks, Libraries, and Tools” category in a 2019 Stack Overflow survey.
This guide will help you answer What is Node.js used for? What are Node.js advantages? Its different features and industry trends. So, let’s get going.
Specific Features of Node.js
Here are some exciting features of Node.js which lie at its core and make it a popular choice in the industry.
1. Non-blocking I/O –
The event-driven architecture of Node.js uses a non-blocking I/O system that allows you to process multiple requests concurrently without any delay.
In simple words, in traditional synchronous programming, every request blocks a thread, while all subsequent requests have to wait until the processing is finished.
In Node.js, to remain lightweight and efficient, each request uses the same thread one after another instead of starting a separate thread for each request.
As a result, your mobile or web app will require comparatively less RAM, perform faster, and become highly scalable. Here, Node.js, with its event loop mechanism, fills the gap by handling numerous user requests with high throughput.
2. Libuv
What allows continuous processing of a single thread? Linux is the answer. It is a multi-platform C library designed for the Node.js environment to abstract non-blocking i/o.
Behind the scenes, this multi-platform support library (Libuv) creates a pool of threads to make synchronous into asynchronous. Additionally, it interacts with the OS, which manages the timing.
3. Node Package Manager
Node package manager (or ‘NPM’) is a default tool with every Node.js installation. The NPM does some crucial things. Firstly, it is a free marketplace of Node.js packages — a group of publicly available, reusable components. Further, developers can use it as a command-line service to interact with the repository.
There were approximately 1.3 million packages on the NPM registry in April 2020, and millions of worldwide programmers rely on it. In addition, NPM is a free online repository of Node.js projects with version management support.
Node.js Resources:
To start your development project with Node.js, here are the resources to refer to and install, including the runtime environment, Node Package Manager, editing tool, and Node.Js frameworks.
- Download: Install the latest versions of Node.js source code or a pre-built installer (including the newest NPM version) for Windows and macOS. Happy development!
- IDE: Since Node.js is a back-end Javascript-based environment, almost any integrated development environment (IDE) or code editor will support it.
However, to fully leverage Node.js true potential, you should prefer specific IDEs or customize your existing editors as per your need. Most developers use specific tools like Visual Studio Code, Sublime Text, WebStorm, Atom, and Eclipse.
- Documentation: Find the various types of docs available for Node.js here. You can find API reference documentation, ES6 features, and Guides.
- Framework: Microservices are best developed with Node.js. The Node.js repository contains Express and Koa frameworks, making it easy to mount multiple server instances for microservices and design routing addresses.
