React native vs Kotlin: Which one to choose?

In the course of recent years, React Native has gotten a popular choice for Android and iOS application development. The cross-platform code sharing promise is the most tempting feature of this technology. Regardless of being a very popular choice, React Native isn’t a Holy Grail and has its limitations. There are companies which already decided to change their mobile tech stack radically and switch to platform-native development for their existing applications.

There is another solution available which aims to permit implementing scalable, multi platform projects and promises to eliminate React Native’s issues. Kotlin Multi Platform allows focusing on iOS, Android and  also backend, web frontend, and desktop platform simultaneously, allowing you to compile the shared codebase into platform specific executable code without any bridges.

Here we will thoroughly analyze the capabilities of the well- adopted and well developed React Native technology with the new trial Kotlin language  feature called Kotlin Multi Platform so as to discover what use cases each one of them is better suited for.

React Native-

Being already steady for a couple of years now React Native- a framework created by Facebook, is a popular choice for mobile applications development. It permits building mobile applications for Android and iOS in JavaScript. Respond Native let us make UI components in JS code which are then translated into the native platform-specific components. The big benefit of React Native is the huge community and great adoption in the mobile community. There are a lot of external libraries and custom, open source components available around. This makes it a helpful decision for rapid prototyping and quick MVPs. What’s the fundamental downside of this JavaScript-powered framework? Probably the JavaScript itself which restrictions make React Native projects fairly harder to scale and less flexible compared with different technologies.

Main features–

• UI code shared between iOS and Android
• Powered by JavaScript
• Live reload of the app’s UI

Pros of React Native-

1. Faster to build–

The important point of React Native is shorter development time. So you could state React 1 and Kotlin 0. How is it faster? There are various ready-to-apply components that beat having to create such functionality from scratch BUT they are limited . Some solutions are missing in React Native, so you would be back to square one – building them without any preparation. So it fundamentally comes down to two things:

1. If you locate your desired components in React Native, then you are all good for fast build.
2. In the event that you don’t, it would mean equivalent to developing in Kotlin.

2. Same app quality-

This probably won’t mean anything to some of you, yet applications developed in React Native vs. applications developed in Kotlin feel the same. That is so because React Native renders using native components. So you get a similar look and feel of the application.

3. Shoot two platforms with one framework–

The undeniable ace-  you get the chance to focus on various platforms with one Framework, basically iOS and Android. Not all features will be available in apt packages, you should be write your own versions for the ones missing, however you will have two applications with the effort for making one.

4. Hot reloading-

Perhaps the best thing about React Native – The hot reloading feature. You get a ‘LIVE’ feedback of whatever changes you make to the application, WHILE the application is running. That eliminates many pain points in having to work with UI. TEST AND SEE TEST AND SEE, That’s how it works and it works perfectly. Saves time in compilation, concentration and productivity.

5. Smaller teams–

Native development requires two separate teams for Android and iOS. It can keep down communication between developers and, hence, slow down the development. If you choose React Native, you will at most need a good JavaScript developer who can write the code for both platforms. Clearly, applications with more native features will require help from native developers also. Not denying this reality, in many cases, the group will be smaller in size, and therefore, easier to manage. One developer can code for both iOS and Android. Reducing team size, expenses and for the most part decreasing the time it takes to develop. This is a major benefit  since there is no need to learn two distinct languages and platforms, it is sufficient to know just one.

6. A web-full taste-

The JavaScript edge at last pays off here. If you are ever thinking of transitioning to mobile development, React Native could make the move simpler. JavaScript is generally common in web development and React Native is a JavaScript Library. It will cause Mobile development to appear to be somewhat familiar and simple to adapt to.

Cons–

• Low security and memory management issues due to JavaScript based libraries
• Bridged communication between JS code and native platform
• Performance issues
• Limited to iOS and Android platforms

Kotlin Multiplatform-

Since Kotlin began to be formally supported by Google as a language for Android applications it is continuously growing. Kotlin is getting extremely well known among developers because of its cleanness and development speed. It was even chosen as the second most preferred programming language in the Stack Overflow Developer Survey in 2018. Despite the fact that this new language itself is right now more popular among Android developers it can be used also on the backend and frontend sides. Additionally, it can be compiled and run natively on iOS, MacOS, Linux, Windows, WebAssembly, and even embedded systems like STM32.

Starting with Kotlin 1.2 JetBrains released an experimental language feature called Kotlin Multiplatform. Its promise is to write the business logic  components once and reuse on all platforms it can be compiled to including JVM, Android, JavaScript, iOS, Linux, Windows, Mac, and embedded systems. The greatest benefit over other multi platform solutions like React Native is that Kotlin code can flawlessly cooperate with other native components like UI layer or platform specific code. Besides, it’s possible to share the logic to a backend or whatever different applications you may have.

Kotlin Pros–

1. Maintainability-

Kotlin is backed by a great organization which is responsible for creating some of the very best IDE tools brought to light. There is no possibility JetBrains will neglect to give tool support for Kotlin. As of now, Kotlin has support on different Development environments including Android Studio. So if you are choosing Kotlin, know you are choosing a potential giant that could be used over numerous tools and IDEs.

2. Less code-

Consider coding. It is simply writing and with any writing, one brilliant principle consistently applies: “The less you write, the less mistakes you make.” Kotlin code isn’t just concise however it has a clear codebase. That leaves less space for mistakes and more space for stable code in production. You need to write less number of lines of code to achieve a similar functionality.

3. Reliability–

Kotlin is a well developed language which first appeared in 2011, it has experienced numerous testing stages before the final release. It is a programming language made by programmers and they took into account many issues with a developer’s point of view. One of which is they made the most recent release compatible with the previous versions too. Working on Android and managing various versions is one of the greatest pain points. So, Kotlin’s dependability is a gift.

Cons–

• Still in the experimental state
• A limited amount of available libraries
• Usually requires a bigger team of devs working together
• Less suitable for fast MVPs and prototypes

What the future will look like?

React Native will in general lose its control in the mobile area which is most likely brought about by the most recent arrival of Flutter. The future of both is as yet unknown, in spite of the fact that it appears the hype for Flutter has just begun.

Is there a place for Kotlin Multiplatform then?

It appears to be so. It turns out it could be a great technology to be integrated into the mobile applications alongside Flutter. That is because Flutter allows separating the UI layer from the business logic effectively and Kotlin Multiplatform provides an especially good way of the business logic code sharing among numerous platforms.

You can also compare React native with Ionic at- React Native vs Ionic: Which one is best for you?

Final Words-

Choosing the best technology stack for development is crucial act as it leads your development to the success. Knowing the Pros and cons of a technology stack before development will be more beneficial. Here you have gone through React Native vs Kotlin. You can choose the best one for development as per your requirement.

If you are still confused to choose the best one between react native and Kotlin, Solace experts team is here to help you. Team is well proficient in new technology trends to give you the best solution which helps to achieve the success you deserves. Consult with solace team for effective development solution. We will be happy to help you.

Kotlin vs Java

For mobile app developers, Java is the go-to language for building Android applications. But, there are many new emerging languages all over the industry. This might challenge Java’s dominance in the Android world.

One of them is Kotlin, a new programming language. It has been already reported by Google as a “first-class” language supported on Android. Although, it is continually being developed and improved, Kotlin is already considered a mature ecosystem and its popularity is growing rapidly, particularly with the mobile development.

Here you get to know more detailed comparison- Kotlin vs Java. Let us see.

What is Kotlin?

Kotlin was designed by programmers from JetBrains to add some modern features to Java mobile development. It has certainly picked up momentum after being declared as an official programming language for Android at Google I/O in 2018. Google has also internally switched to using Kotlin rather than Java on Android. Kotlin is an open source, statically typed language based on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), yet you can also compile it to JavaScript or native to build code that can run on iOS. Everything necessary is done with installing the Kotlin Plugin and allowing it to configure your project.

Pros of Kotlin-

• Kotlin has a lot of traction in Android development, but it’s also used in backend projects such as Spring 5;
• Kotlin is able to compile to almost every platform including Android, JVM, JavaScript, and native.  Using the Kotlin Multi Platform framework you can extract one common codebase that will target all of them at the same time;
• Changing from Java to Kotlin is simple – just install the Kotlin plugin, add it to the Gradle build files, and click ‘Convert’;
• It supports modern programming concepts like extension functions, higher-order functions, delegates, and more out-of-the-box to help devs build clean APIs;
• Kotlin provides a built-in null safety support which is a lifesaver, particularly on Android, which is full of old Java-style APIs
• It’s way is more concise and expressive than Java, which means less room for error;
• You can write new modules in Kotlin and be sure they will work alongside the existing Java code; Kotlin is compatible with all Java libraries and frameworks, the JVM, and can integrate with the Gradle or Maven build systems;
• Devs can take an advantage from a rapidly growing collection of open source projects on GitHub, many books, learning resources, and online courses;

Cons of Kotlin-

• Rather steep learning curve when switching whole teams to Kotlin because of the language’s concise syntax.
• More slow compilation speed than Java 
• Has smaller developer community than Java. This means limited learning resources and trouble in discovering answers to questions; 
• There are many more Kotlin developers available, anyway finding well experienced mentor for your team may require more effort;

Kotlin use cases-

• Pinterest- It is a mobile app for the popular creative idea sharing social app; 
• Trello- This is a visual tool for organizing work with customizable to-do lists.
• CarLens-  This is a car recognition app powered by machine learning made by the Netguru R&D team for detecting cars and showing information about them. 

What is Java?

Java is the most preferred language among developers with regards to Android application development– essentially because Android itself used to be written in Java. Developed by Sun Microsystems (Now the property of Oracle), Java is an object oriented programming language that flaunts the title of the second most active language on GitHub. And its popularity seems to grow continuously.

Pros of Java-

• Java is easy to learn and understand;
• It is Flexible. You can run it in a browser window or a virtual machine. This comes in handy when you reuse code and update software;
• Android depends on Java – the Android SDK contains numerous standard Java libraries;
• Java has a huge open-source ecosystem, somewhat because of Google’s selection of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) for Android;
• Accelerated assembly within Gradle- we’re all grateful for it when assembling large projects;
• Java applications are more compact and are simpler to be streamlined when better execution is required. Also, in contrast with Kotlin, Java applications will in general be lighter as Java is a more imperative language;

Cons of Java-

• Java has limitations that cause problems with Android API design;
• Java requires writing more code, which carries a higher risk of errors and bugs;
• It is slower in comparison to many other languages. Also it requires a lot of memory.

Java use cases-

• Android-oss – the official kickstarter.com Android app, a social platform for funding creative projects;
• NewPipe- It is a lightweight video streaming app project for Android;
• WordPress Engineering – The official WordPress App for Android. 

Why use Kotlin for Android?

What is the purpose of switching from Java to Kotlin? The primary argument may be the fact that Kotlin is intended to address Java’s issues. It implies that Kotlin provides numerous safety mechanisms available out-of-the-box while being more concise and expressive than Java simultaneously. Maybe that is the reason Kotlin is among the top five languages most preferred by developers, which represents % of developers who are developing with the technology or language and have expressed interest in continuing. 

Know the comparison of Kotlin with React native at- React native vs Kotlin.

Conclusion-

While Kotlin has numerous advantages that Java doesn’t, despite everything, it has a few disadvantages. Many times transitioning to new language is not exciting for developers who have found the tools and strategies that work for them. You need to give some time for your team to get familiar with Kotlin. You also need to bear in mind that Java isn’t going anywhere and will stay essential for Android application development. But if you are thinking to adapt to new technology, can go with Kotlin.

Choosing the best technology for apps development is most important as it leads to the success. Here you have gone through detailed comparison of Kotlin vs Java. If you are still confused to choose the best one, consult with solace experts. Expert’s team is well proficient in new trends and technologies. We will be happy to help you.

5 Best Kotlin Server-side Frameworks

Kotlin is a new programming language, which has been already reported by Google as a “first- class” language supported on Android. Although, it is continually being developed and improved, Kotlin is already considered a mature ecosystem and its popularity is growing rapidly, particularly with the mobile development. Everything necessary is done with just installing the Kotlin Plugin and allowing it to configure your project.

Kotlin is a great fit for developing server-side applications, allowing you to write concise and expressive code while maintaining full compatibility with existing Java-based technology stacks and a smooth learning curve:

Features of Kotlin-

Expressiveness- 

Kotlin’s innovative language features, for example, its support for type- safe builders and delegated properties, help build powerful and simple to use abstractions.

Scalability-

Kotlin’s support for coroutines which helps to build server-side applications that scale to huge numbers of clients with modest hardware requirements.

Interoperability:

Kotlin is fully compatible with all Java- based frameworks, which gives you a chance to stay on your familiar technology stack while gaining the benefits of more modern language.

Tooling:

Kotlin offers framework-specific tooling (for example, for Spring) in the plugin for IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate.

Learning Curve:

For a Java developer, getting started with Kotlin is very easy. The automated Java to Kotlin converter included in the Kotlin plugin helps with the first steps. Kotlin Koans offer a guide through the key features of the language with a series of interactive exercises.

Top 5 Kotlin server-side frameworks-

1. Javalin-

Basically, Javalin is just a few thousand lines of code over Jetty. It began as a fork of the Java and also Kotlin web framework Spark, which immediately turned into a ground- up rewrite influenced by the Javascript framework koa.js. Since the first release, A new version is released two times per month (overall), where each non-major version is backward compatible.

Advantages-

• It centers around completing things rapidly. In some cases this doesn’t feel like an advantage
• Simple to use
• Embedded Jetty server
• Lightweight and fast, especially compared to other counterparts here.
• Lambda- based WebSocket API
• Real micro- framework

Limitations-

• Documentation is not a great. While suitable for someone with a prior Javalin knowledge; it simply not good for someone who simply needs to learn from scratch. 
• Not sticking to standard terminology. For instance, what is normally known as Routes and Filters are combined together as Handlers. Which makes it harder when you read outsider tutorials and people keep referring to it as routes or filters.
• Not develop enough; their feature to-do list is still excessively long. To battle this you should depend on outsider dependencies and that is an extremely profound gap. 

2. KTor-

Ktor is a framework for rapidly making web applications in Kotlin with minimal effort. It is very light and don’t impose any constraints on what underlying technology a project is going to use. What makes it stand up is that it’s created by the Kotlin team. 

Advantages–

• Reliable and stable
• Small memory footprint and lightweight
• Fast but competition is faster (like Javalin and http4d)
• Perfect for prototyping
• Real micro-framework

Limitations-

• Experiences a similar issue as Javalin. If you have to make anything complex you should incline toward third-party libraries.
• If you do not know what are you doing then documentation is going to be confusing as hell.
• Not mature enough
• Small community

3. Spark-

Spark is the typical suspect with regards to micro-services. It’s one of the oldest expressive Kotlin/ Java web framework built for rapid development, you can even consider it a higher level of Kotlin frameworks. Really awful the support is still in the alpha version.

Advantages-

• Small memory footprint
• Fast and also a lightweight
• Excellent for rapid prototyping
• Easy to setup
• Plays well with Angular
• Real micro-framework
• Embedded Jetty server

Limitations-

• Documentation could be better, it is not intended for beginners.
• Not appropriate for large projects. 

4. Spring Boot-

Spring Boot makes it easy to create stand- alone, production- grade Spring based Applications that you can “just run”.

Advantages-

• Can create stand- alone spring applications
• Easy to setup and handle
• Spring family environment
• Modular
• Plays well with other libraries
• Large community (very popular)
• Enterprise-ready

Limitations-

• Documentation fragmentation. Too many sources, too many versions, too many differences. Make sure you know which version you are going to use.
• Breaking changes between versions. If you hate what Angular is doing you will also hate it here.
• Confusing documentation. 

5. Vert.x-

Vert.x is a tool- kit for building reactive applications in a different programming language, like Java and Kotlin. This tool (kit) is powerful, however, it is not for everyone. Keep reading and you will find why.

Advantages-

• Fast
• Small memory footprint – Comparable to Spark
• WebSockets support
• Reactive systems approach. The idea is to have more flexible, loosely-coupled and scalable applications.
• Vert.x offers a complete ecosystem
• Highly modular

Limitations-

• It’s not for everybody. As a reactive toolkit, it fills a different niche compared to other frameworks here. 
• Not a solution for you if the Spring Boot is your framework of choice. Before you try it make sure you know what are you getting into.

Conclusion-

Just like with Java, this comparison is a fight between well- established all-around frameworks and their more lean micro-service counterparts. Here we’ve listed out some advantages and also limitations of each framework. Know the comparison between Kontin and Java at- Kotlin vs Java. You can select the best one among these as per your requirement.

Selecting the best framework leads to the success of project. So choosing an appropriate framework for server-side development is cruical task. Are you facing a problem to decide the framework for server-side? You can consult with Solace experts to select the best one. Well experienced team is here to help you for that eases your development.

Top 6 JavaScript Date libraries in 2019

Adding working dates to your application appears to be a simple task theoretically until you try to do it. There is always something getting in the way, regardless of whether it’s a time zone issue when trying to internationalize your website, issues showing the date in the needed format, or even trying to do some basic arithmetic with them (i.e subtracting three days from a date, it shouldn’t be that difficult, should it?).

The issue is that, sadly, JavaScript isn’t generally prepared to locally manage dates. Which is somewhat unexpected thinking of it does have a Date object we can use for some basic operations.

What does it mean when we say JavaScript isn’t ready? This implies that the API for this object isn’t rich enough for our day by day needs, it doesn’t have the high level support you’d expect from such an object to take on issues, for example, internationalization, timezone support, and so on. Here comes the libraries in focus. Date libraries add layers of abstraction on top of JavaScripts Date Object and make it useful. Let us see Some best Javascript libraries.

Top 6 JavaScript Date Libraries-

1. moment.js-

Moment.js is one of the oldest and best known date-related libraries for both, Node.js and vanilla JavaScript (making it browser compatible). Because of this, they’ve had the time to make it compatible with huge numbers of the most widely recognized web- development utilities, for example,

• Bower
• requireJS
• Nuget
• Browsify
• TypeScript
• meteor

It offers a great API without having to modify the Date object’s original prototype, rather, they created a wrapper object around it, ensuring they don’t disturb the original namespace.

As an example, here is how you’d set up the current date. Add seven days, then subtract a month, and finally set the year and time values. All in a single line of easy-to-read code, like this:

moment().add(7, 'days').subtract(1,'months').year(2009).hours(0).minutes(0).seconds(0);

They support over 20 different locales, so if you’re focusing to solve your internationalization problems, moment.js is a good.

2. date-fns-

Date-fns is a growingly prominent time manipulation library for Javascript, chosen by numerous developers to replace moment.js. This library gives more than 130 functions to manipulate dates in the browser and Node.js. Date-fns is built using pure functions and keeps things immutable while not changing passed date instances. It functions well with bundlers, for example, webpack, Browserify, or Rollup and also supports tree-shaking. It can also be joined with Bit to make each function exclusively available to install, use and even modify.

3. Luxon-

Luxon is built by one of Moment’s maintainers. It is a Javascript library for working with dates and times with a more comprehensive interface than the native types it wraps. Unlike moment, Luxon objects are immutable so making changes actually implies creating new instance with various properties.

4. DayJS-

Having 12K stars day.js is a 2KB date library option to Moment.js with a similar API. This library also helps you parse, validate, manipulate, and display dates and times, and is also immutable and chainable. Rather than modifying the native Date.prototype, Day.js makes a wrapper for the Date object, called Dayjs object. All API operations that change the Dayjs object in some way will return new instance of it.

5. ms-

To change things up a bit, this next library was not created as a substitution for MomentJS yet rather, it just has one job, and it does so very well. The goal of MS is to change any kind of date format into milliseconds and back. This is a restricted use case, but as you know, turning dates into milliseconds has its advantages, particularly in case you’re attempting to do things like comparison, and a few types of arithmetic operations (it’s significantly simpler to add 1000 milliseconds to a number, than saying you have to add 1 second to a Date object).

So in other words, with this library you can do things like this:

ms('2 days')  // 172800000
ms('1d')      // 86400000
ms('10h')     // 36000000
ms('2.5 hrs') // 9000000
ms('2h')      // 7200000
ms('1m')      // 60000
ms('5s')      // 5000

ms(60000)             // "1m"
ms(2 * 60000)         // "2m"
ms(-3 * 60000)        // "-3m"

This library has over 30 million downloads every week. It covers a very specific and yet, common use case. 

6. Spacetime-

This library has a very interesting focused: timezones. It provides a MomentJS-like API, with immutable objects also. But the main focus of this library is to help you to manage timezones more easily. Also, remember, timezones will in general be one of the primary issues when managing any type of internationalization development, so this looks promising.

Let us see some code:

const spacetime = require('spacetime')

let d = spacetime('March 1 2012', 'America/New_York')
//set the time
d = d.time('4:20pm')
console.log(d.time())

d = d.goto('America/Los_Angeles')
console.log(d.time())
//'1:20pm'

That was very simple. A note about Spacetime however, is that it doesn’t depend on the Intl API like Luxon did, so the library itself isn’t generally lightweight sitting at around 40Kb. That being stated, timezones still follow the IANA naming convention, which is great for standardizing your code.

Another cool thing about library is that it can observe daylight saving times where applicable, so the following happens:

d = d.goto('Eastern Time') // "America/New_York"
d = d.goto('PST') // automatically becomes 'PDT' in the summer

There are other clever techniques, for example, season which returns the current season for a specific date (either summer/winter/spring/fall is returned) as well as hasDST and inDST which return whether a timezone ever uses daylight saving times and if it has it active at the specific date/time setup.

Finally, extending Spacetime is quite simple, which helps add extra features, such as:

spacetime.extend({
  isHappyHour: function() {
    return this.hour() === 16
  }
})
d = d.time('4:15pm')
console.log(d.isHappyHour())
//true

You can also refer Top 3 JavaScript frameworks and 10 JavaScript concepts every Node.js programmer must master.

Conclusion-

These are common JavaScript libraries that can deal date and time. If you’re having to deal with very complex date-time related features, go with either MomentJS because it’s a classic and time tested library, or simply try the DayJS.

If you’re still confused for selecting best JavaScript date library, consult with solace experts. Solace team is well proficient to give you the best solution of JavaScript libraries as per your requirement. We will be more happy to help you.

Basics of TensorFlow.js- A javascript library

What is TensorFlow.js?

TensorFlow.js is a JavaScript library developed by Google for training and utilizing Machine Learning (ML) models in the browser. It’s a companion library to TensorFlow, a popular ML library for Python. Let us know about its features, its future, and how it can help you.

What’s machine learning?

Machine learning is a field of artificial intelligence easily defined as the study of programs and algorithms that allow computers to perform tasks without specific instructions. A genuinely typical “supervised learning” ML program works by making a “model,” like a mathematical model, with inputs and outputs. It then accepts a group of training information with inputs and actual outputs, and “trains” itself by tweaking parameters of the model so as to minimize the amount of error of the model. In other words, the program will change the model to attempt to make its output match the desired, “actual” output.

On the off chance that you might want to become familiar with machine learning or artificial intelligence, read this article.

A quick analysis of TensorFlow.js-

1. Speed-

TensorFlow.js is hardware accelerated because it utilizes WebGL (a JavaScript graphics API), so it has surprisingly great execution. A Node.js version of Tensorflow, tfjs-hub, also exists and offers improved execution over the browser version.

2. Load existing models-

One of my preferred features of TensorFlow.js is that it enables you to load pretrained models. That implies you can use libraries like this one and incorporate image classification and pose detection on your website without the need to train the model yourself.

TensorFlow.js also enables you to load models you’ve trained in the Python version of TensorFlow. That implies you can write a model and train it using Python, at that point, save it to a location available on the web and load it in your JS. This method can altogether improve execution since you don’t need to train the model in the browser.

3. Use cases-

To an ever increasing extent, organizations are utilizing machine learning to improve interactions with users. Artificial intelligence programs handle everything from self-driving vehicles to matchmaking in computer games, chatbots like Siri and Alexa, and suggesting content for users. Before, however, machine learning has been dealt with on back-end servers.

The creation of TensorFlow.js implies that you can create and run AI models in a static HTML document. Truly, you heard that right: you can go through AI without setting a server or even a database. For whatever length of time that the user’s browser supports JavaScript (and ideally WebGL) you can train and utilize ML models, all client side.

Here are some uses of ML-

• Create abstract art: Though this example is less “valuable” for the real world, this is one of the preferred models. Go through the below page for some excellent examples.
• Play games: Having AI players in computer games is definitely not new idea, and there are as of now examples in TensorFlow.js. 
• Recommend content: Content recommendation through AI is genuinely popular and used by most media platforms. With TensorFlow.js, content recommendation can be handled on the client side!

The future of TensorFlow.js–

1. TensorFlow.js with progressive web apps-

As PWAs become more prominent, we can hope to see an ever increasing number of integrations with TensorFlow.js and on-device storage. Since TensorFlow.js allows you to save models, you could make a model that trains itself on every use to give a personalized experience, and even works offline.

2. TensorFlow.js development-

With the use of machine learning always increasing -  and with JavaScript development turning out to be more popular -  TensorFlow.js appears as though it will just increment in popularity in the near future, so it will most likely get new features and updates frequently.

According to TensorFlow, a Web Assembly backend is in development as well, which should further improve performance.

Final Words-

Here you came to know some basics of TensorFlow.js and its usecases. Are you are thinking to use TensorFlow.js in your development? But confused about how to use it? You can consult with Solace experts team. Team is well proficient in development with new trends and technologies. Develop your bets software with Solace for effective development.

Node.js vs PHP :Which one to choose for backend?

Node.js is a back- end development environment that’s written in JavaScript. It was introduced in 2009, extending the domain of JavaScript– the old agreeable frontend language. Since then, the number of its users have been increasing. Today Netflix, LinkedIn and Uber are praising the Node.js. It has become the fastest growing backend technology. Yet, before Node.js, the scene was completely differently. PHP was the undisputed leader of server- side since past times and it has been immensely successful.

Today, developers over worldwide are using both of these technologies for various projects. Many of us have a strong belief that Node.js is the future of web development while many argue server side is the unspoken domain  PHP. Hence, in this blog, we’ll talk about both the perspectives– upsides and downsides of each and how using one for specific tasks can receive the greatest reward.

What is PHP?

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is a general purpose scripting language that immediately turned into the server- side language of choice for web developers after its initial release in 1995. Today, most of sites on the web run on PHP, due in huge part to its popularity as the language of choice for content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla and various modern frameworks like Laravel, Symfony, and CakePHP that have accelerated development with this developed language.

What is Node.js?

JavaScript is a scripting language that normally runs in the browser and makes website pages dynamic and interactive, however since the release  of Node.js in 2009, it became possible to perform asynchronous coding with JavaScript on the backend. Node.js is a development and runtime environment with a huge number of available frameworks that run on top of it.

You cal also get to know the role of Node.js in IoT at- Role of Node.js in Internet of things (IOT) and Node.js for backend at- When, How And Why Use Node.js as Your Backend.

Similarities between Node.js and PHP-

There are some top-level similarities to think about when choosing which back-end technology is best for you.

• Interpreted languages- Both PHP and JavaScript, the language behind Node.js, are interpreted languages, or “scripts”- the code can be run as- is in their respective runtime environments (browser for JavaScript; server for PHP). Both PHP and JavaScript are great for beginners.

Node.js vs PHP – The Key Difference

1. Synchronous and Asynchronous-

One of the key difference that separate the PHP and Node.js is the manner in which they execute the codes. PHP has been known for synchronous execution of codes. According to the term suggests this backend language executes the codes in sequence (synchronization), so it doesn’t make a difference to how long a function takes to execute, it won’t move to the next  one until it’s finished. However, Node.js is something inverse of that. It is asynchronous which implies it doesn’t execute the codes in sequence. If one function of the code takes time to execute, it will send it to the queue and proceed to the next one. In this manner, the user doesn’t need to wait until the completion of the previous code. Know the best PHP e-commerce platforms at- Best PHP ecommerce platforms to develop advanced ecommerce websites.

2. Frameworks-

Frameworks have made life simpler by accelerating the development process and helping developers to write structured, reusable and maintainable codes. So, while considering between PHP vs Node.js, frameworks has a significant job. With regards to PHP, there is huge list of frameworks available to you. Simply name it – Laravel, Codeigniter, Symphony, CakePHP, FuelPHP, Phalcon and so on. In fact, these frameworks are well known to such an extent that they have established their very own domain in the web development industry. Each of these frameworks has made their very own specialty. You can easily find a developer or web development company who has mastery in that specific niche.

On the other side, content management systems, for example, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento, WooCommerce and Shopify allow someone with little or no technical knowledge to create and manage blogs and e-commerce websites. With regards to Node.js, we see a lot of frameworks  alongside its growing community. Despite the fact that you may not get the choices as varied as PHP, Some popular frameworks are– Express, Meteor.js, DerbyJS and Sails.js.

3. Databases-

PHP was developed to interact with the traditional/ relational database. That is the reason it works so well with MYSQL, PostgreSQL and MariaDB. While Node.js is best for using NoSQL databases, for example, MongoDB and CouchDB and also graph database systems like Neo4j with JSON. In spite of the fact that this should be possible with PHP also, it is far more convenient with Node.js.

Pros of PHP-

1. Designed for Web- 

PHP was specifically developed for the web, unlike its companions Java and Python. This implies it is characteristically equipped to work with HTML, servers and database. What’s more, this is one characteristic that has made it an ideal server-side solution. PHP also works perfectly with intensive web applications that require high computing and server-side rendering.

2. Robust Code Base, Frameworks and Community- 

PHP has been in the industry for 20+ years now. Hence it has rich codebase and documentation and frameworks. Choosing PHP for building your website or web application gives you a variety of frameworks and CMS, for example, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Laravel, Symphony and so on. These platforms and frameworks allow you to develop and deploy an  e- comemrce website or blog efficiently with no issue.

3. Quick Development-

Apart from the rich code base, something else that PHP is known for is its simplicity of deployment and compatibility with hosting services. Powering almost 79% of the web and being an industry standard from two decades, it underpins all physical or virtual servers.

Cons of PHP-

1. Maintainability-

The reason being PHP is liable to mix the HTML and language syntax inside the HTML files. Hence, it causes issues while extending and including new functionality.

2. Speed Issues for Modern Apps-

Saying PHP applications are slacker will be wrong. However, with regards to developing modern applications like Single Page Applications, Node.js is the first preference of the developers. 

Pros Of Node.js-

1. Performance and Scalability-

The asynchronous and non-blocking feature of Node.js is the thing that makes it fast and also allows it to serve various concurrent events at a time. By adopting Node.js development, one can build scalable server-side applications that use the maximum capacity of a CPU device. This makes Node.js ideal for real-time applications, single page applications and data driven applications.

2. FullStack JavaScript-

JavaScript is the ideal client-side language used in modern web applications. With Node.js developers can even use this frontend language to build server-side applications. This implies one language can be utilized in the whole project which brings about better coordination among the team, minimum bugs and better maintenance.

3. Freedom and Flexibility-

Node.js gives opportunity and flexibility to the developers with regards to choosing the architecture and pattern as there are no desperate rules. 

Cons of Node.js-

1. Not ideal for Heavy- Computation Apps-

Asynchronous nature allows execution of simple functions such as reading and writing database queries efficiently. However, the same single-threaded environment also serves as a drawback. In many cases, while executing CPU intensive tasks, Node.js applications might get sluggish. 

2. Comparatively Immature Environment-

Node.js has a huge community of developers contributing to it. Not all Node.js modules in the NPM registry are stable and of the utmost quality. There are various untested and inferior modules and tools that may cause issues for the project. In spite of the fact that Node.js has introduced npm-audit to solve this, it is very immature compared to PHP.

Which One Perfect for your Project, PHP or Node.js?

Now the entire comparison of Node.js vs PHP comes down to this – which one is a superior server-side technology for your task.

You can use Node.js if–

1. You have to build a dynamic single page application
2. Real- Time Applications such as instant messengers
3. You are using frontend technologies such as – Angular and React (Software stacks – MEAN/MERN)

You can use PHP if you need- 

1. A blog or e- commerce website with CMS.
2. Ease of deployment and integration.
3. Goes perfectly with LAMP stack (Linux Apache, MySQL, PHP).

Wrapping Up-

Both Node.js and PHP are a great server- side language. Both have a few pros and cons also. But the best thing is both are created by intellects to improve the web development. While choosing the technology the question shouldn’t be which one is better however which one can serve your task needs in a superior manner. Understanding your project and business logic can give you a clear thought regarding choosing the appropriate technology for your project.

You can also consult with the Solace experts for selecting the best between Node.js and PHP for your project backend. Experts team is well proficient in Node.js and PHP development with new trends. You can develop your best software with Solace which leads the success you deserves. We will be happy to help you.