6 Cool Things You Can Do With Node.JS

NodeJS is an open- source server- side run- time environment built on Google Chrome’s JavaScript V8 Engine. It is a JavaScript runtime environment based on event-driven programming. It enables non- blocking I/O capable of serving different simultaneous occasions in a single thread. Non-blocking I/O makes Node.js quick, lightweight, adaptable, and also proficient in handling data-heavy and I/O heavy workloads. Here you will get to know about how Node.js can be used efficiently in many kinds of applications. Node.JS event-driven nature makes it capable to handle multiple requests at a time. 

• It is powerful enough to handle a large traffic site like Paypal. 
• Node.js is fast enough to handle the most used site for video buffering Netflix.
• It is so good in handling requests to support an app like Uber. 

Know the comparison of Node 6 to Node 8 at our blog- Upgrading from Node 6 to Node 8: performance comparison.

6 Cool Things You Can Do With NodeJS-

1. IoT-

When the fame of IoT rose drastically,  Node.js has turned out to be one of the favored solutions for enterprises and organizations seeking to develop their private and public IoT systems. The most evident advantage of Node.js as a back-end for such networks is its ability to process multiple concurrent requests and events produced by thousands or even millions of devices on the network. Large amount of requests and data coming from IoT devices doesn’t block Node.js servers because of their event-driven architecture and asynchronous processing suitable for I/O-heavy operations on the IoT network. This makes Node.js quick as an application layer between these gadgets and also databases used to store information starting from them. The development of Node.js ecosystem for IoT clarifies why environment has been utilized effectively in numerous IoT items.

Skycatch used Node.js in its specialized drones that take photos of construction sites and turn them into 3D models and data needed to kickstart construction projects. Node.js is used in business products such as Siemens Smart Grid (Monet), a power management solution designed to save energy resources and identify vitality use oddities and potential risks. Monet uses Node.js as an application layer and MongoDB for data storage, both hosted in the Microsoft Azure Cloud.

2. Real time chats-

Real-time chat is any online communication tool that allows the live transmission of text, video, or audio messages from a sender to a receiver. 

Real- time chats can take the form of one-to-one or one-to-many group chats built on instant messaging (IM) or Internet Relay Chat (IRC) technologies. Nowadays in social networks, commercial sites and everywhere on the web real-time chats are mostly used.

Node.js provides all basic functionalities for building real-time chats of any complexity. Node has a powerful Event API that encourages making  certain kinds of objects (“emitters”) that periodically emit named events “listened” by event handlers. Because of its functionality, Node.js makes it simple to execute server-side events and push notifications mostly used in instant messaging and other real-time applications. Node’s event-based architecture also works well with the WebSockets protocol that encourages a quick two-way exchange of messages between the client and the server via one open connection.

By installing WebSockets libraries on the server and the client side, you can execute real time messaging. It has lower overheads and latency and faster data transfer than others. In Node, you have fantastic help for WebSockets by means of such libraries as socket.io, ws, or websocket-hub, because of which you can without much of a efforts send proficient real-time chats and applications. Just a few lines of code is sufficient to achieve this basic functionality.

3. Real-Time Collaboration Tools-

Real-time collaboration applications offer a wide assortment of programming solutions for co-browsing, project management, video and audio conferencing, application sharing, collaborative editing of documents, and also many more. Among the most well known collaboration applications, one should make reference to Slack for group chats and also management of remote teams, Trello for project management, and Google Docs for collective editing of documents. For real-time chats, asynchronous and event-based architecture of node is a great fit . Many events and I/O requests occur concurrently in these applications. For eg., some users can edit the same paragraph, comment, post messages and attach media.

Only after a cascade of events, changes to one piece of content might be applied, where each progression relies upon the past one. WebSockets and Event API of Node will ensure that heavy I/O operations performed by many users don’t make the server hang. By producing message pop-ups to the customer, Node.js will also instantly update the collaboration environment so that all clients have a solitary and rational representation of the application. Hence team of project management application Trello uses Node.js stack.

4. Create a cool mobile apps-

Consider that, you want to create a mobile version of your web application. Then what will you do? Node.js will work just as well for building a responsive web application. But you’ll need installable application iOS, Android and potentially Windows that can take advantage of the app marketplaces. NodeJS also provide frameworks for mobile app development like Meteor.JS, Mojito.JS. Meteor.JS is a full stack framework for web and mobile app development also. 

5. Multi-player games-

When we talk about real-time events, NodeJS and Socket.io come into the picture. A multiplayer game is one of their real- time applications. We can also build a multiplayer game using node.js and Socket.io. For this we need to make a node.js server and establish a socket connection for every player and emit event of our game logic on every move.

6. Remote Control Slide show presentation-

With the use of NodeJS and Socket.io, we can easily control presentation slides with just a smart- phone swipes. For this, you can use Reveal.js API to make a slideshow. Reveal.js puts every slide number in URL with hashtag. We will send this URL to every connected user and when they swipe URL will reflect and slide will change. We will use a passcode to connect with this URL (establish socket connection).

You can know the new features of Node 8 at our blog- Node 8: Six New Features You must Know.

Wrap up-

Node.js is great for building applications with heavy client-side rendering, multiple concurrent requests, and also frequent shuffling of data from a client to a server. Whenever you think about building heavy I/O and data-driven applications, Node.js should definitely be the first option on your list.

Are you looking for an application or web development to boost your business? Then you are at the right place. We at Solace believe in benefits and effectiveness of using Node in development. Solace expert’s are well trained to use Node for effective development. To get a free quote for any web development, contact us. We are happy to help you get started through our expert’s.