Node.js is used to develop and run io-intensive web applications like video streaming sites, single-page applications, or online chatting apps. It is the perfect environment for data-intensive applications as it uses a single-threaded, asynchronous event-driven model. This begins to touch down on the advantages of developing within the JavaScript runtime ecossystem, but let's dig deeper into questions like what is Node.js used for, where is Node.js used, and its applications and features.
The following are some of the key characteristics that make Node.js the top option among software architects:
A common misunderstanding is in regards to where Node.js is used. Many believe that Node.js is primarily used for back-end frameworks and for developing servers, but this is not true: Node.js can be used on both the front-end and the back-end.
The event-driven, non-blocking nature of Node.js frameworks is what makes it a popular choice amongst developers. Because of its adaptive evolution and minimal resource requirements, Node.js has become a standard for business giants like eBay, Uber, and Microsoft.
It's important to note that Node.js is part of popular MEAN and MERN Javascript-centered technology stacks that cover the entire web development pipeline.
Let's take a look at how Node.js works and is applied for both front-end and back-end:
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All in all, the application of Node.js on both ends has many benefits.
Uber chose Node.js to create its large matching system because of its ability to keep up with the pace of Uber's massive business demands and better data processing capabilities. It has benefited the company in many ways:
Node.js was originally used by the world's most popular video streaming service to provide high-volume online streaming for its millions of users. In this early architecture, Netflix sought to provide observability (metrics), debuggability (diagnostic tools), and availability (service registration). The resulting architecture was known as NodeQuark.
NodeQuark basically authenticates and directs requests to an application gateway, which then communicates with APIs and prepares replies before returning them to the client. Netflix has partnered with NodeQuark to create a managed solution that allows teams to create unique API experiences for certain devices, enabling the Netflix app to function on a range of devices.
LinkedIn switched from their synchronous Ruby on Rails mobile app to a Node.js system, as the former required clients to make many requests for a single page. As a result of its scalability, Node.js brought significant performance improvements to the platform:
The primary problem PayPal's engineering team was facing was having to write the frontend and backend with different languages.
Using Node.js helped their developers overcome the barrier between the browser and the server by allowing both browser and server apps to be developed in JavaScript. It merged all engineering skills into a single team, enabling for a better understanding of and response to consumer demands.
Besides the above mentioned reasons, Node.js has a lot of other advantages such as:
As you might have understood by now, Node.js shines on apps which are event-driven, data-intensive, I/O intensive and non-blocking. So what are the drawbacks of Node.js?
Heavy Computational Applications
The main drawback comes to the fact that Node.js is not able to do many calculations, i.e., it is not suitable for compute-intensive applications. Let’s say you’re writing a function which computes the Fibonacci number which is computationally intensive - what happens is that Node.js is unable to move on to the next thread because that heavy computation will block the single thread running in the application.
If your application requires a few heavy computing operations but benefits from Node.js' features in general, the ideal scenario is to implement the heavy computational task as background processes in another appropriate language. By using a microservices architecture, you’ll be separating heavy computational tasks from Node.js implementation.
In essence, Node.js shouldn’t be used for operations which are data calculations, processor intensive, and blocking because it simply doesn’t have the capacity to run them.
Although there are other open-source web development technologies, there really isn't a general principle to determine which technology can be applied for web and mobile app programming. If you need great performance, use Node.js, and if you need **high scalability, you can turn to other frameworks like Django. Being sure about what form of platform you want to build makes it easy to choose one.
All in all, Node.js' positions as a language designed with back-end programming in mind. Unlike general-purpose languages like Java or Python, its functionality is not unduly extensive since the runtime environment does not intend to cover a lot of niches simultaneously.
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