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Node.js

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Node.js is a cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment that can be used for both servers and desktop apps.

What Is Node.js?

Node.js is a cross-platform, open-source runtime environment and framework for executing web applications outside of the client's browser.

It's a server-side programming language that's mostly used for event-driven servers like standard websites and back-end API services, although the intention while creating it was to develop a real-time, push-based architecture in mind. Every browser has its own JS engine, and node.js is one of them. The V8 JavaScript engine in Google Chrome is used to power Node.js. Isn't it a little complicated?

In basic terms, this means that whole sites may be run on a single “stack,” allowing you to focus on accomplishing the project's business goals rather than on development and maintenance.

Because Node.js is open source, it is free to use and is continually being updated and enhanced by a worldwide developer community.

A crucial point to grasp about Node.js is that it is truly neither a framework nor a library, as with traditional application software, but a runtime environment.

A runtime environment (also known as an RTE) is a collection of Web APIs that a developer may use to create code, as well as a JavaScript engine that parses that code. This makes it light, versatile, and simple to deploy, all of which will aid in the optimization and speeding up of your application project.

The Basic Node.js Architecture

The architecture of Node.js makes it quite popular among programmers. Unlike most other runtime environments, which use multi-threaded processing models, Node.js accomplishes everything in a single thread.

In multi-threaded processing configurations, each server has a restricted thread pool it may access. As a result, whenever a server receives a request, it selects a thread from the pool and assigns it to that request to handle the processing. The processing is synchronous and sequential in this scenario, which implies that just one operation is carried out at a time.

When using multiple-thread processing, a thread is chosen for each request until all of the threads are used up. When this happens, the server must wait for a thread that is now too busy to become available again. This might result in sluggish and inefficient apps, which can have negative consequences ranging from customer experience to lead conversions. It is especially problematic if your program has to handle a large number of concurrent client requests.

Node.js, on the other hand, works on a single thread. The distinction between the two is that you might expect single-thread architectures to use event loops to conduct blocking Input/Output activities in a non-blocking manner. Don't be concerned if any of these phrases are foreign to you. 

In principle, a single-thread design can operate and grow faster and more effectively than multiple-thread configurations. This is exactly what Ryan Dahl had in mind when he created Node.js, and it's one of the reasons it is so popular among web app developers.

Examples of Application Developed Using Node.js

Here are some more in-depth case studies to help you understand the technology's real-world applications and commercial applications.

Netflix 

Netflix is the most popular streaming media and video-on-demand service in the world. It's a data-driven platform that employs extensive A/B testing to provide a rich experience to its 195+ million global subscribers.

The difficulty of conditional dependencies and app scalability is compounded by the large number of unique packages released each push cycle. As a result, the firm chose Node.js, which is lightweight and speedy. One of the most significant outcomes was a 70% decrease in loading time.

LinkedIn

When moving their mobile app backend from Ruby on Rails to Node.js, LinkedIn, the world's largest business and employment-oriented social networking site, trusted Node.js as well.

Despite the fact that it was still a fairly immature runtime environment at the time, it proved to be a wise decision. The new app was 2-10 times quicker than the previous one, and it was also quite light. Furthermore, the development time was short.

NASA

Yes, it is correct. Node.js is also used by NASA.

The technology is far more important in this application than in others since it saves lives by keeping astronauts safe during their perilous space missions.

Following a near-fatal accident caused by inefficient data stored in several locations, NASA was confronted with the task of consolidating data relating to EVA spacesuits into a single cloud database to minimize access times. The new Node.js-based system reduced the number of steps in the process from 28 to 7.

Walmart

Walmart is the largest retailer in the world, and it is making its way into the internet shopping business. Despite the risks involved, the company has hopped on the bandwagon of working with Node.js, a relatively new and extremely hot technology.

On the client side, the business re-engineered the mobile app to include complex functionality. Walmart praised Node.js for its asynchronous I/O and single-threaded event loop architectures, which allowed it to manage several concurrent queries.