Node.js has been a game-changer in the world of JavaScript, allowing developers to use JavaScript for server-side scripting to produce dynamic web page content before the page is sent to the user's web browser. This blog post will cover the basics of Node.js, its core libraries, popular frameworks, and best practices to build, test, and deploy your Node.js applications.
Node.js is a JavaScript runtime that uses the V8 engine developed by Google for use in Chrome. V8 compiles JavaScript into native machine code which improves performance dramatically. Node.js allows developers to work in a unified JavaScript environment, eliminating the need for different languages on the server and client side.
The HTTP module in Node.js allows Node.js to transfer data over the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
const http = require('http');
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
res.end('Hello World!');
}).listen(8080);
The URL module splits up a web address into readable parts.
const url = require('url');
const adr = 'http://localhost:8080/default.htm?year=2017&month=february';
const q = url.parse(adr, true);
console.log(q.host);
console.log(q.pathname);
console.log(q.search);
Express.js is a minimal and flexible Node.js web application framework that provides a robust set of features for web and mobile applications.
Socket.IO enables real-time, bidirectional and event-based communication. It works on every platform, browser or device, focusing equally on reliability and speed.
Once you have written your application, you need to test it thoroughly before deploying it to a production environment. There are various tools available for testing Node.js applications, including Mocha, Chai, and Jest.
Node.js has revolutionized JavaScript programming by bringing it out of the browser and into the server. This has opened up myriad possibilities for developers to create applications that are fully written in JavaScript.
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