What does one need to build a website or a mobile application? A programming language. What else? An ‘environment’ or a set of processes and programming tools used to create the program. That brings us to Node.js. Node is a popular environment that is used by giants of the IT world such as PayPal, Walmart, and Netflix among others.
The letters ‘js’ stand for JavaScript and it means that Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment. With more and more people going digital every moment, there are never too many people to design dynamic websites and applications. As such, having the knowledge of node.js becomes an attractive proposition and it is certainly useful to think of undertaking Node JS training. But before that, let us understand what makes Node.js so important.
The what, how, and why of Node.JS
By definition, Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment that executes JavaScript outside of a browser. What does all this mean? Let us have a closer look.
What exactly is Node.JS?
Node is open-source, which means it is free to use, modify, and distribute. It is cross-platform, which is again kind of good news, as it means that node is a platform-independent software that can be implemented on multiple computing platforms, thus giving it flexibility.
It can execute JavaScript outside of a browser, meaning that it is not limited to the web user interface and can be used to execute the JavaScript code for building backend services where the code can interact with the database and create APIs or Application Programming Interfaces. An API is a software intermediary that allows two applications to communicate with each other in order for one to access certain features from the other, for example, your browser requesting twitter to load a certain tweet.
Node.JS is best effective when it comes to dynamic and interactive applications, such as a messenger, that has a continuous data flow.
How it works
Node.JS uses Google Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine alongside an ‘event loop’ which allows the requests to be handled in a loop form instead of a to-and-fro form, reducing the processing time. It works on a non-blocking mechanism as primarily intended by author Ryan Dahl. Node.JS also uses ‘npm’, a Node Package Manager as its default package manager. A package manager is a package of software tools that automates the process of installing, updating, or removing computer programs for its OS.
Why Node.JS
One may argue that all of the things written above can be done without Node.js being absolutely necessary, then why go for Node.js? For the following reasons:
- Faster
This is the greatest reason most of the Fortune 500 tech companies are switching to Node.js. There are proven stats that show that building dynamic websites or applications take considerably lesser time and man-hours using Node.js. The code required is also shorter, with many companies claiming they replaced an existing code by a 30-40% shorter one, thanks to Node. Along with being fast, it is also highly scalable. In a data-driven world, that is a very important feature.
- JavaScript everywhere
Node eliminates the need for more than one language as you can now write the code in both server and client side. This allows for smaller teams, even of one, to work on applications and results in saving resources. The use of JavaScript also means that transforming JSON data, the most common data interchange format on the Web, is fast by default.
- Single threaded architecture
Unlike other platforms that create a new thread for every request, Node uses a single threaded architecture that reduces the RAM usage. It uses a non-blocking input output mechanism, where multiple requests can be handled in the event loop without extra threads.
- Cross-Platform:
In simple terms, it can be used for Windows, Linux, or Mac, and you do not need the particular platform to build for the specific platform.
What it means for me
It means interesting opportunities in the ever-expanding field of web and app development. The community for Node.JS is constantly growing and new improvements are happening every day with a large number of people constantly working on it. All the great IT companies have understood the importance of Node.JS. Now that you know what Node.JS is about, the next step is to enroll in a good Node JS course with hands-on Web Development training!
Leave a Comment