Node JS Framework

26 May 2021

Node

Node also called Node.js where js means JavaScript is an open-source, cross-platform runtime environment for executing JavaScript code outside of the browser. To run JavaScript on the backend servers, a virtual machine like V8 by Google executes JS in the server so Node is a wrapper around virtual machines like V8 with built-in modules providing rich features through easy to use asynchronous API.

Users see and interact with these clients’ apps, so they are just at the surface and interact with services sitting under servers or in the cloud to store data, send emails, push notifications, kick off workflow and more.

Why Node is Special? 

• Great for prototyping and agile development.
• Building super fast and highly scalable services.
• Supports widely used language JavaScript.
• Cleaner and more consistent codebase.
• Large ecosystem of open-source libraries.

Features of Node

• Asynchronous and Event Driven.
• Very Fast.
• Single Threaded but Highly Scalable.
• No Buffering.
• License.
• Seamless JSON support.

Drawbacks of Node.js

• Performance bottlenecks with heavy computation tasks.
• Callback hell issue.
• Immaturity of tooling.

NodeJS Framework

These are some popular frameworks:

• Hapi.js: is a Node.js framework that helps serve data by intermediating between the server side and client. It is quite a good substitute for Express(they both have their unique features).Hapi is a configuration-driven pattern, traditionally modeled to control web server operations. A unique feature it has is the ability to create a server on a specific IP, with features like the ‘onPreHandler’, we can do something with a request before it is completed by intercepting it and doing some pre-processing on the request.Considering it’s ‘handler’ function where we can call a route and still pass some configurations while making the requests, just to get the function to do something specified in the configuration. This handler, from what we see, acts like a pseudo-middleware.Provides you with really good enterprise plugins like the joi, yar, catbox, boom, tv, travelogue, and so on.
• Express.js: Express.js is a fast, non-opinionated, minimalist web framework for Node.js. It is simply a technology built on Node.js which behaves like a middleware to help manage our servers and routes. Looking at the asynchronous nature of Node.js and the fact that Express.js was built on node, the ability to build a light-weight application that can process more than a single request seamlessly actually depends on the serving capability of technologies like express.
  It’s robust API allows users to configure routes to send/receive requests between the front-end and the database (acting as a HTTP server framework). A good advantage with express is how it supports a lot of other packages and other template engines such as Pug, Mustache, EJS and a lot more
  • Almost the standard for Node.js web middleware
  • Fully customisable.
  • Low learning curve
  • Majorly focused on browsers, making templating and rendering an almost out of the box feature.
• Koa.js: Koa was created by the same team that created Express.js, making it seem like it would pick up from where express left off. Koa is unique in the fact that it uses some really cool ECMAScript(ES6) methods that have not even landed in some browsers yet, it allows you to work without callbacks, while also providing you with an immense increase in error handling. it requires a Node.js version of at least 0.11 or higher.
  According to the website, Koa does not bundle any middleware within core, meaning the middlewares are more cascaded/streamlined, and every line of code is quite elegant and granular, thereby allowing you to structure the parts however you want(component-based middlewares). This makes the framework to have more control over configurations and handling.Koa became futureproof owing to the fact that it could actually ditch the holy grail of asynchronous functionality: callbacks.Some key features include:
  • Almost the standard for Node.js web middleware
  • Fully customisable.
  • Low learning curve
  • Majorly focused on browsers, making templating and rendering an almost out of the box feature.
• Sails.js: Node.js framework used to build custom enterprise-grade Node.js apps. It boasts of being the most popular MVC Node.js framework with the support for modern apps requirements. The APIs are data-driven, with a scalable service oriented architecture.
  Let us take a closer look at what they mean here. Sails bundles an ORM, waterlines, that makes compatibility possible with almost all databases, going as far as providing a huge number of community projects. Some of its officially supported adapters include MYSQL, Mongo, PostgreSQL, Redis, and even Local Disk.
  Looking at the backend, Just by running an installation command, `sails generate api bookstore` for instance, sails blows your mind by providing you some basic blueprints, without you writing any codes at all.This command provides you endpoints to CRUD bookstores. You think that is all right, check this out: Sails is also compatible with almost all frontend technologies ranging from React, Angular, Backbone, iOS/objective C, Android/java, windows phone and probably even some technologies yet to be created.
• Meteor.js: The Meteor docs defines meteor as a full-stack JavaScript platform for developing modern web and mobile applications. It’s major advantage is it’s real time update. As changes are made to the web app, it automatically updates the template with the latest changes.
  The Node.js framework makes development quite very simplified by providing a platform for the entire tier of the application to be in the same language; JavaScript. Making it function just as efficient in both the server and client side.The most fascinating aspect of the Meteor framework is the very rich and organised documentation/large community it has, helping users learn fast by reaching out and getting their hands dirty with projects, very fast.

• Derby.js : DerbyJS is an application framework making it easy to write realtime, applications that run in both Node.js and browsers.It is a full stack Node.js framework for writing modern web applications. Derby has been around a little while, quite long enough to have proven itself to hop into 2019 and rock some chords. Let’s see what we have here.DerbyJs provides you with seamless data synchronisation between your server and client with an automatic conflict resolution powered by ShareDB’s operational transformation of JSON and text. It permits you the opportunity to add customised codes to build highly efficient web applications.

• Total.js: Total.js boast of being a very fast development Node.js framework, that requires little maintenance, with a good performance and a seamless scaling transition. It shows some promise by giving some insight on their website, where they ask for visitors willing to contribute to the growth of the framework. So far the Total.js team has spent some time trying to get more premium sponsors to join them. This is another indication that they have plans to expand and should be checked out for more growth in the nearest future to come.
• Adonis.js: AdonisJs has support for an ORM made with SQL-databases in mind (PostgreSQL). It creates efficient SQL-queries and is based on active record idea. Its query builder is easy to learn and allows us to build simple queries quickly.AdonisJs has good support for No-SQL databases like MongoDB too. It’s MVC structure is quite similar to Laravel, so if you’ve been using Laravel for web development, AdonisJs will be a walk in the park.

• Nest.js: NestJs is a framework built with Node.js, It is used for building efficient, scalable Node.js server-side applications. Nest uses progressive JavaScript and is written with TypeScript. Being built with TypeScript means that Nest comes with strong typing and combines elements of OOP(Object Oriented Programming), FP(Functional Programming) and FRP(Functional Reactive Programming).

• LoopBack.js: LoopBack is another Node.js framework with an easy-to-use CLI and a dynamic API explorer. It allows you to create your models based on your schema or dynamic models in the absence of a schema. It is compatible with a good number of REST services and a wide variety of databases including MySQL, Oracle, MongoDB, Postgres and so on.Key features:
  • Quickly create dynamic end-to-end REST APIs.
  • Connect devices and browsers to data and services.
  • Use Android, iOS, and AngularJS SDKs to easily create client apps.
  • Add-on components for file management, 3rd-party login, and OAuth2.
  • Runs on-premises or in the cloud

Releases

New releases of Node are cut from GitHub master branch every Semiannually. When a new version is released , the previous version undergoes in a transition process to LTS(Long Term Support) , in which the version receives an active support of 18 months and after the expiry of 18 months it receives an additional 12 months of maintenance support.

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