The rise of NodeJS can be summed up in a single statement- what PHP was in the last decade, NodeJS is today. For a detailed review, we?ll need to dig deeper.
Internet, since its inception, has come a long way both in terms of how users connect and the services they use. If we talk about connectivity, dial-up connections and privately managed servers have been replaced by broadband and cloud while a similar seismic shift can be observed in services. But until recently, one aspect largely remained untouched- how those services worked. The browser sends a request to the server, to which server responds and waits for another request. While this architecture worked well in the early days, it now poses a two-edged problem:
- Clients have to wait for server response despite their fast connectivity
- The server is highly underutilized given their huge multi-core processing power
NodeJS is popular and widely adopted primarily because it solves both of these problems. Plus the fact that it doesn?t cause any additional overhead by using an already popular language- JavaScript, makes it an appealing choice for even smaller projects that don?t necessarily face those problems.
How NodeJS works?
Technically speaking, NodeJS works in a non-blocking I/O mode. If that sounds cryptic, consider this- the browser requests the server, the server while processing that request, doesn?t block other connections and keeps listening for any other requests. The first request when processed is sent back to the browser. This not only reduces the latency for many clients but also maximizes server utility.
Now add to this the fact that NodeJS bridges the gap between the server and client-side programming languages, thus drastically reducing the rendering time for the browser, you?ll get the full picture of how NodeJS makes web applications faster and scalable.
NodeJS at its Best
While these capabilities serve basically all categories of web applications, there are some cases where it is instrumental in enabling those services.
Real-time applications
Services that need to work with data in real-time have minimal tolerance for latency and as discussed above, NodeJS excels in this regard. The fact that applications like Uber and PayPal use NodeJS at their backend is a testimony to that claim.
Streaming application
Owing to its non-blocking mode with minimal rending, NodeJS enables applications to offer seamless streaming experience. If you ever used Netflix, you are already familiar with its underlying power and efficiency.
Single-page applications
Single page apps are the new trend in web development due to its better user experience. And because such applications rely heavily on client-side, the minimal rendering ensured by NodeJS makes it a good fit for building such apps.
Dashboard
NodeJS is capable of tracking and visualizing user action on an application and thus makes an excellent option for creating dashboards.
Now if we sum it all up, we are sure you?ll get a definite answer to the question we begun with- why use NodeJS?
- It?s easy to learn
- There are tons of third-party tools for JS, that make a highly productive development environment
- It offers cross-platform support
- Its use of Google's V8 engine ensures high performance
- Excellent for modern apps like chatting and streaming
- Open source tag and corporate backing guarantees consistent improvement
- Cheap development and hosting solutions
Overall, if you wish to build a robust, scalable web application, just hire a NodeJS developer and you won?t possibly regret your choice. In fact, even the long-standing web development companies who have experience working with all technologies are resorting to NodeJS as their goto technology for new projects.
