Top 10 Node JS Uses

Node.js is a powerful language based on a Javascript platform built on Google Chrome’s Java-Script V8 Engine. It is widely used to develop I/O intensive web applications like video streaming sites, single-page applications, and other web applications.

Node js has been witnessing exponential growth in popularity over the last few years, and it is known as one of the hottest languages to be used in web development. Popular majorly because of Node js uses, this is the language to watch out for in 2022.

Node.js provides a set of asynchronous I/O primitives in its standard library that prevent JavaScript code from blocking. Generally, libraries in Node.js are written using non-blocking paradigms, making blocking behaviour the exception rather than the norm. So it may be easier to write fast, scalable network applications using Node.js.

Top Features of Node JS

1. Asynchronous and Event-Driven

One of the unique features of Node JS is that all APIs of the Node.js library are asynchronous, that is, non-blocking. It essentially means Node.js is based on a server not dependent on an API to serve back the data.

The server moves straight to the following API, and a notification mechanism of Events of Node.js allows the server to track responses from the previous API call.

2. Single-Threaded but Highly Scalable

Another feature is that Node js uses a single-threaded model with an event loop. This can serve a much larger number of requests than Apache HTTP Server, traditionally provided by traditional servers with limited threads.

A single-threaded program can handle multiple requests, while each request blocks the thread. The event mechanism of Node JS allows the server to respond in a non-blocking way, meaning that the server doesn’t stop any lines.

3. Fast and Efficient

Node.js is lightweight and efficient as Node js uses an event-driven and non-blocking model. This feature of Node JS allows applications to run faster and more efficiently.

Making it the ideal choice for developing data-intensive real-time applications that operate in distributed environments.

Why is Node JS a preferred choice for business?

Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform web server environment built on Google Chrome’s JavaScript runtime. Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model for efficiency and is perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that can run across multiple devices.

Node JS is a preferred choice for business because of the following reasons:

• It’s open-source and free to use.
• It has a large community that provides a lot of support.
• The same language can be used on the frontend and backend.
• It allows developers to build fast and scalable network applications.
• There is no need for using multiple programming languages for different browsers as it unifies everything into JavaScript.

1. Node JS Supports Caching

Node JS has caching enabled by default which means that when you require something once it caches in memory, the next time you request for it, it will be retrieved from the cache, not from the disk or database, which saves lots of time in such cases hence making application execution faster.

2. Simplified Web Development

Node.js allows developers to write applications using JavaScript on both the front and back end, making it easier for developers to roll out new features and products quickly. Hire expert web developers with full knowledge of Node js uses and who can handle Node js website development with ease. When developers can write both the client-side and server-side of an application in the same language, it becomes much more efficient. If you were using PHP instead, you’d have to rewrite everything just to make sure it was compatible with your other code.

Here are the Top 10 Node JS uses

1. Streaming Data

One of the most important advantages of Node js is its ability to handle a large number of concurrent connections with high throughput, which makes it a perfect application of node js that rely on real-time, bi-directional communication between clients and servers, like chats and online games.

The operating system buffers the data in memory and then sends another request for additional data. In this way, streaming becomes possible because it eliminates unnecessary data copying.

2. Real-Time Chats

Application of node js is widely used for real-time chat applications, another significant advantage of node js. It can perform the job of a real-time chat application with Socket.io, which uses web sockets to facilitate instant data transfer.

For this purpose, Socket.io functions together with Node.js and Express.js frameworks to allow you to develop websites and apps that can run in real-time and process many requests at the same time without reducing speed or performance.

3. Single Page Apps

Single-page applications (SPA) are web apps that load a single HTML page and dynamically update the page as the user interacts with it. Think of Gmail, Facebook, Google Drive, etc.

These sites don’t reload each time you click on something. SPAs give high performance and excellent user experience, but there are other benefits and node js uses:

• More efficient. With SPAs, all of the JavaScript code is loaded upfront, so no additional round trips to fetch more JavaScript from the server are needed when navigating around an app.
• Easy to deploy. Since there’s only one HTML file to deploy on the server-side instead of having a bunch of HTML templates with different content injected into them.
• Quick to develop. As stated above, all of the JavaScript code is loaded up front, which means less time spent waiting for browser requests.
• Reduced traffic. Just one HTML file loads initially vs multiple in traditional websites.
• Easy to maintain/scale. It’s easier to bring on new developers since they can quickly make changes without worrying about breaking other parts of a site.

4. Collaborative Tools and IDEs

The key advantages of node js are the collaborative tools and IDEs that have gained popularity in the past few years, especially among web developers. Node.js is used to build these collaborative tools and IDEs because it can efficiently manage multiple client requests.

Node js uses can be seen in web application development because it offers efficient modules that enable faster development of applications, and therefore companies prefer the application of node js.

5. Microservices

The popularity of node JS is also used because it’s easy to build microservices. This is a new approach to building web applications, and it’s becoming more and more popular.

Microservice architecture revolves around developing small programs and services that can communicate and do their own tasks.

These are written in different programming languages and can be developed by other teams at the same time – this makes them more flexible than monolithic apps (written in one language). Microservices are faster and easier to develop, maintain, update, scale or change the technology stack.

6. I/O Bound Applications

Now that we know what an I/O bound application is, let’s look at how the advantages of node js can help you build one.

Consider a server in which many users are trying to access a large database. Here the database engine would be CPU intensive, while the server itself will be I/O bound as it is waiting for responses from the database engine.

On this kind of platform, Node.js would be ideal because its non-blocking nature will ensure that other requests do not have to wait for the first request to finish being serviced before being processed themselves.

7. Node JS uses as a proxy server.

A proxy server is a software that acts as an intermediary between an endpoint device and another server from where a user or client is requesting a service.

When the client lacks direct access to the server, it has to go through a proxy server that may be able to make requests on behalf of the client.

There are several different types of proxies used today. Including the following:

• Web proxies – used for caching web pages from a web server.
• Forward proxies – used to retrieve from a wide range of sources (in general).
• Reverse proxies – used for load balancing, authentication, and application acceleration.

8. Data-Intensive Real-time Applications (DIRT)

DIRT is a buzzword that means applications with high data throughput (lots of reading and writing) that must update all their users in real-time. In the past, specks of DIRT were built using technologies like Ruby on Rails or PHP, but Node.js servers can handle twice as many simultaneous connections as their rivals because it uses non-blocking I/O and an event loop instead of threads.

Some popular examples of specks of DIRT are chat rooms, online gaming, stock trading software, and back ends for mobile apps.

9. The Internet of Things (IoT)

Node.js also provides an opportunity to build small, connected, and embedded devices. It can be used to connect embedded systems and sensors, so you are able to get more insight from the physical world.

It is highly scalable with a high performance and lightweight framework that processes asynchronous and event-driven I/O applications.

This means it can provide a single programming language for both the front-end and backend, reducing development time and improving productivity.

10. Single Code Base for Multiple Platforms

You can save cost and time on cross-platform development by choosing Node.js for your backend. It’s no secret that mobile apps are far more popular than their desktop counterparts, and many businesses are seeing a massive demand for the same application on multiple platforms. However, they find it hard to build their app once and run it everywhere.

The solution to this problem is code reuse using cross-platform technologies like React Native and Cordova. These technologies allow you to write once and run anywhere (WORA). But what happens when you need a server?

You don’t have time or money to hire expensive developers who specialise in different languages/frameworks based on the platform of your choice. With Node js uses in place, you can create a single code base that works across multiple platforms with minimal changes and effort from the developer’s end.

Wrapping-up

Node.js is a popular, powerful, and exciting open-source server framework that enables developers to write JavaScript on the server-side. Being an open-source technology, it has evolved to become more stable and reliable over the years.

Node.js lets developers use JavaScript to write command-line tools and produce dynamic web page content before sending the page to the user’s web browser. Consequently, Node.js represents a “JavaScript everywhere” paradigm, unifying web application development around a single programming language for server-side and client-side scripts rather than different languages.

These popular node js uses have given rise to node js development services across the world. A Leading Node JS development company can handle any project by following an agile approach, from simple CMS-based websites to complex management software.