5 Dangerous Mistakes Node JS Developers Commit

In the last few years, the Node JS framework has experienced remarkable growth.

For those who don’t know, Node JS is basically a JavaScript runtime environment that allows writing server-side scripts.

It has been built on Google Chrome’s V8 JavaScript Engine, and although there are many Node JS Use Cases, it’s mostly used for building scalable network applications.

In fact, of all companies that implemented Node JS in their software productions, only 4% have said that it had no impact. What’s more is that Node JS has become the primary backend technology for many famous companies including Netflix, eBay, Paypal, and even NASA.

With so many well-established companies using Node JS, there must be something special about Node JS, right?

Yes, there is.

The number one reason that made Node JS popular is its single-threaded event loop and Non-Blocking I/O model. Yet, blocking the event loop is the number one common mistake many Node JS developers make.

In this article, we will be going through 5 common yet dangerous mistakes that every Node JS Developer must avoid at all costs.

5 Common Mistakes Node JS Developers Make

Whether you’re a company planning to hire Node JS Developer or a developer just learning Node JS development, avoiding the following mistakes is of utmost importance if you want to build Node JS application efficiently.

That being said, let’s dive right in!

1 — Blocking the Event Loop

Since Node JS comes with a single-threaded environment, no two parts of a Node JS application can run parallelly.

So, If you block the event loop, you end up blocking everything.

Simply put, a single piece of CPU-bound request that is connected with multiple clients can easily block the event loop. Therefore, it is essential to address each case individually.

The only way out of making this mistake is by using open-source modules like StrongOps.

StrongOps, for example, can help you identify and fix any delays in the event loop and prevent you from blocking the event loop.

2 — Trying to Execute Multiple Callbacks

Callbacks, in case you don’t know, is an effective way to allow asynchronous elements to communicate with each other.

However, many times developers execute the same callbacks multiple times, which is one of the common yet dangerous mistakes.

You see, executing the same callbacks or multiple callbacks all at once can lead to interface freeze.

Therefore, it’s important to ensure you’re not continuously pressing for callbacks multiple times.

There are two ways to avoid making that happen.

First, you can wrap the callback so you’ll be notified each time a callback is executed twice.

The second solution is to add a return before the callback to prevent invoking the same callback more than once.

3 — Deeply Nesting Callbacks

Deeply nesting callbacks is majorly known as callback hell and it basically consists of multiple nested callbacks that make it difficult and sometimes impossible to read & debug the written code.

While some Node JS developers see callback hell as unavoidable, but the fact is it’s not true.

There are many ways you can keep your code easy-to-read and debug such as using promises.

A promise is basically a value returned to confirm the processing done by an asynchronous function. In simple terms, promises can be nested to make complex code look clear and easier to maintain.

Besides promises, you can also use the async module that provides a straight forward, powerful functions to work with asynchronous JavaScript.

4 — Not Testing Thoroughly

Your Node JS application is not completed if you haven’t written the required tests for it.

Testing, as you might already know, is an essential part yet an ignored part of the Node JS development process.

If you’re building a Node JS app, you must perform an inspection of code and repetitive testing. Doing so can help carry out the development of your application smoothly.

Moreover, there are already many tools like Jasmine, Mocha, etc. available write tests and inspect the code of your Node JS application.

5 — Using Console.log for Debugging

The Console.log in the Node JS is created to let developers print almost anything to the console. So, when developers use Console.log to debug, it restarts the server and ultimately slows down the performance of the app.

If you’re someone who uses console.log every time something goes wrong, then you will soon end up making your application code unusable.

The good news is that the solution to this problem is simple: just use the Debug Library.

The Debug Library is specifically designed to help prevent the logs from getting printed out during the debug mode. As a result, all your files and documents will remain secure.

Conclusion

These are the common, dangerous mistakes that developers make during application development. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that you hire Node JS developer who understands this and can implement best practices in your Node JS project.