Why is Node.js Popular for Web Application Development?

Node.js has been entertaining the most of designers' consideration since its release. This open source cross-platform run-time environment has been composed in JavaScript. Today, Node.js has become a favourite choice of web application companies for the development of real-time applications.Node.js is equipped with excellent components and amazing features which have helped it turn into a top choice for developers when they consider web application development.

Due to the successful utilization of JavaScript, Node.js enables developers to web servers and system networking tools. Moreover, its applications can keep running on different servers including Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and Unix. Furthermore, the in-built library offers extensive features to applications to act as web servers.

Why Node.js in Web Application Development?

Since the invention of Internet, web applications has gained significant importance in the enterprise sector. With the help of computer, laptops, and smartphones, people can easily access different web applications designed especially for the business purpose. Take an example of an online shopping store. People can easily browse the variety of products there like household appliances, fashion accessories, books and novels, medical instruments, electronic gadgets, and more.

In addition, Enterprise application includes-

• Content, communication, and collaboration software
• CRM software
• Digital and content creation software
• ERP software
• Office suites
• Project and portfolio management

Typical enterprise applications such as ERP, CRM, accounting & banking apps are multi-component, multi-user, multi-screen, multi-machine, and multi-developer. They handle huge data and use parallel processing with distributed computing and transactions, complicated data relations, and require heavy integration with other applications. Therefore Node.js is recognized as a right technology for enterprise and ecommerce development company. Unlike traditional web development methods, it uses completely different approach. Node.js consists of applications from small modules that are linked together. Therefore using Node.js, companies can create a formation of small applications instead of one large application. If there are modifications to be made or any new functionality has to be added, it becomes easy to change the entire code-base.

What are the Advantages of Node.js for Enterprise Web Application Development?

JavaScript is pervasive. Today, being a JavaScript developer does not mean you are a front-end and back-end web developer. The progression and evolution of Node.js lead in a new generation which has made web application development easier. Definitely, Node.js is packed with several advantages and some of them are mentioned here-

1. It is Fast

Every developer knows that JavaScript execution is fast. The node.js platform is built on JavaScript runtime of Chrome. Therefore the web applications developed with it are fast. The single threaded model with event loop allows handling multiple client requests in the network. Node.js comes with event loop and it is one of the major advantages of using Node.js for web applications. Developers do not need to create multiple threads to handle multiple client requests. It handles concurrent client requests and application consumes less memory.

2. Language Reuse

If enterprise applications are developed with technologies like Spring or ASP.NET, then developers use another language for server side programming. For example, VB.NET, C#, Java. Coding client-side and server-side programming differently consumes a lot of time of development team. But, Node.js uses JavaScript both on server and client side. The modules and libraries created can be restored in Node.js and it can be reused at any level.

3. Perfect Combination of Microservices and Node.js

Node.js is lightweight technology tool and it is very much suitable for microservice architecture. It is an event-driven architecture where every single call and operation is a series of asynchronous callbacks. An application is developed as a small suite of services, each communicates and process independently with a lightweight mechanism. Breaking the application logic into microservices adds flexibility in the web application. Developers can easily scale application as it is easy to add more micro services on top of existing one.

4. Built-in Support for Object Databases

Node.js web applications use object databases like MongoDB. MongoDB. Contradictory to conventional SQL databases, Node.js uses document-based model rather than a relational model. Well, it is the best of Node.js that it uses objects corresponding to JSON. This has made Object Relational Mapping (ORM) easy for an enterprise app development company.

5. Non-Blocking IO

Node.js is all about asynchronous and non-blocking development. Most of the time, there are many pending requests on a server such as a network communication, file access, and database operation. These requests keep aside until the results are returned via a callback function. But, Node.js adds the callback function to a non-blocking function and creates sub-functions for each logical part of the process. By doing this, the callback function gets automatically invoked as soon as the operation is completed. It frees the server to handle additional requests. 

Node.js is, of course, a suitable framework for web application development particularly for real-time applications. Due to its benefits and features, many developers prefer Node.js for enterprise web application development. Popular websites such as LinkedIn, PayPal, eBay have also used Node.js which shows the strong presence of this framework in web application business.