Introduction to Node.
js®
Jitendra Kumar Patel
Saturday, January 31, 2015
Why node.js ?
“Node's goal is to
provide an easy way to
build scalable Network
programs”
About Node.js……
• Created by Ryan Dahl in 2009
• Development && maintenance sponsored by Joyent
• Licence MIT
• Last release : 0.10.31
• Based on Google V8 Engine
• +99 000 packages
Success Stories…..
Another project like Node.js….
● Vert.x => Polygot programming
● Akka => Scala and Java
● Tornado => Python
● Libevent => C
● EventMachine => Ruby
Node.js not……
● Another Web framework
● For beginner
● Multi-thread
Development for the Web….
• Traditional desktop applications have a user interface wired up with background logic
– user interfaces are based on Windows Forms, Jswing, WPF, Gtk, Qt, etc. and dependant on operating
system
• On the web user interfaces are standardized
– HTML for markup
– CSS for style
– JavaScript for dynamic content
• In the past proprietary technologies existed on the web, e.g. Adobe Flash, ActiveX
– They are slowly dying
• Data is generated on the server, transferred to the client and displayed by the browser
• Server Side technologies include PHP, JSP, ASP.net, Rails, Djanog, and yes, also node.js
REST……
● REST = REpresentational State Transfer
● Not new technology
● Architectural style for client-server
Goals of REST……..
● General interface
● Scalability of component interface
● Reduce latency
● Encapsulate legacy system
HTTP Method……
● GET
● POST
● PUT
● DELETE
HTTP Method with CRUD…..
● POST => Create
● GET => Read
● PUT => Update
● DELETE => Delete
Why node.js ?
● Non Blocking I/O
● V8 Javascript Engine
● Single Thread with Event Loop
● 40,025 modules
● Windows, Linux, Mac
● 1 Language for Frontend and Backend
● Active community
What is node.js?
• Asynchronous i/o framework « A platform built on
Chrome's JavaScript
runtime for easily
• Core in c++ on top of v8
building fast, scalable
• Rest of it in javascript network applications. »
• Swiss army knife for network Related
http://nodejs.org/
stuffs
• Can handle thousands of Concurrent connections with
Minimal overhead (cpu/memory) on a single process
• It’s NOT a web framework, and it’s also NOT a language
Why javascript ?!!!
• Friendly callbacks
• Ubiquitous
• No I/o Primitives
• One language to RULE them all
JavaScript is well known for client-side scripts running inside the
browser
node.js is JavaScript running on the server-side
SSJS -> Server-Side JavaScript
Use a language you know
Use the same language for client side and server side
JavaScript Engines……
The idea behind node.js….
Perform asynchronous processing on single thread instead of classical multithread processing,
minimize overhead & latency, maximize scalability
Scale horizontally instead of vertically
Ideal for applications that serve a lot of requests but dont use/need lots of computational power
per request
Not so ideal for heavy calculations, e.g. massive parallel computing
Also: Less problems with concurrency
Node.js Event Loop
There are a couple of implications of this apparently very simple and basic model
• Avoid synchronous code at all costs because it blocks the event loop
• Which means: callbacks, callbacks, and more callbacks
Blocking vs Non-Blocking……
Example :: Read data from file and show
data
Blocking…..
● Read data from file
● Show data
● Do other tasks
var data = fs.readFileSync( “test.txt” );
console.log( data );
console.log( “Do other tasks” );
Non-Blocking…… Callback
● Read data from file
When read data completed, show data
● Do other tasks
fs.readFile( “test.txt”, function( err, data ) {
console.log(data);
});
When to use it ?
• Chat/Messaging
• Real-time Applications
• Intelligent Proxies
• High Concurrency Applications
• Communication Hubs
• Coordinators
Node.js for….
● Web application
● Websocket server
● Ad server
● Proxy server
● Streaming server
● Fast file upload client
● Any Real-time data apps
● Anything with high I/O
Getting Started…..
• http://nodejs.org/ and Download tar.gz
• Extract to any directory
• $ ./configure && make install
File package.json…..
Project informations
• Name
• Version
• Dependencies
• Licence
• Main file
Etc...
Node.js Modules…..
● https://npmjs.org/
● # of modules = 1,21,943
Install module…..
$npm install <module name>
Using module…..
• var http = require(‘http’);
• var fs = require(‘fs’);
• var express = require(‘express’);
In NodeJS
Others modules…..
Favorite Modules…..
● express
● underscore
● request
● async
● mysql
Find more in npmjs.org…..
Tools of the trade…..
• IDEs for node.js
– online IDE like cloud9
– Eclipse with node.js plugins
– Visual Studio node.js Toolkit
– Jetbrains Webstorm
– lots of other IDEs: webmatrix, coderunner, Expresso, Atom, etc.
• Preferred : Jetbrains Webstorm & Visual Studio with node.js
Express…
http://expressjs.com
Express As Middleware
Middleware can:
• Execute any code.
• Make changes to the request and the response objects.
• End the request-response cycle.
• Call the next middleware in the stack.
Express Middleware
Modules….
Working with Express…..
● Inspire from Sinatra
● Fast
● Flexible
● Simple
Some Warnings…
• Release stable 0.10.36 (young)
• Lots of stuffs to look at
• Lots of half backed stuffs
• Retro compatibility???
• Bad at handling staticcontents
• Bad at handling binarycontents
• Hard to find organized and authoritative informations
Jitendra Kumar Patel
www.jitendrapatel.in
jitendra.patel@iiitb.org
@bewithjitendra
facebook.com/bewithjitendrapatel
Saturday, January 31, 2015
