Top 5 Most Used npm Packages
What is npm?
The JavaScript node package manager aka npm, is the default method for managing packages in the Node.js runtime environment.
npm makes it easy for JavaScript developers to share the code that they have created to solve particular problems and for other developers to reuse that code in their own application. npm consists of three distinct components:
- the website
- the Command Line Interface (CLI) aka npm client
- the registry(database of information about packages that people are sharing)
It’s the world’s largest software registry, with approximately 3 billion downloads per week. The registry contains over 600,000 packages (building blocks of code). In this article, I will discuss the top 5 most used npm packages.
1. express
Fast, unopinionated, minimalist web framework for node.
express.js is a Node.js web application server framework, designed for building single-page, multi-page, and hybrid web applications. It is the standard server framework for node.js.
Features
- Robust routing
- Focus on high performance
- Super-high test coverage
- HTTP helpers (redirection, caching, etc)
- View system supporting 14+ template engines
- Content negotiation
- Executable for generating applications quickly
2. body-parser
Node.js body parsing middleware.
It Parses incoming request bodies in a middleware before your handlers, available under the req.body property.
This module provides the following parsers:
3. lodash
Lodash makes JavaScript easier by taking the hassle out of working with arrays, numbers, objects, strings, etc. Lodash’s modular methods are great for:
- Iterating arrays, objects, & strings
- Manipulating & testing values
- Creating composite functions
lodash is available in a variety of builds & module formats.
- lodash & per method packages
- lodash-es, babel-plugin-lodash, & lodash-webpack-plugin
- lodash/fp
- lodash-amd
4. babel-core
Babel is the most popular JavaScript transpiler.
Babel’s original name was slightly more descriptive — 6to5. This was because, originally, Babel converted ES6 code to ES5 code. Now, Babel does a lot more. It’ll convert ES6 to ES5, JSX to JavaScript, and Flow to JavaScript.
5. async
Async is a utility module which provides straight-forward, powerful functions for working with asynchronous JavaScript. Although originally designed for use with Node.js, it can also be used directly in the browser.
So it was a brief introduction to top 5 most used npm packages. npm packages are ways to reuse the code from developers and also share your code with them. Thank you for reading.
Happy coding!
