Why You Should Use Node.js To Develop Real-time Applications?

Node.js is very beneficial as a backend solution to all your problems while developing a web app. It is used extensively by everyone and is easy to learn which makes it pretty popular amongst people. It is a distributed development project and was first written by Ryan Dahl in the year2009. In this blog, we learn about Nobe.js and what it does and why it is popular for real-time application development.

What is Node.js?

* Node.js is a JavaScript runtime that is built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine.

* It uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model due to which node.js development environmentis lightweight and efficient.

* It is a cross-platform and open source that creates a variety of tools and application and uses a JavaScript runtime environment to build them.

* The node.js developers can write new modules in JavaScript as most of the basic modules of node.js are in JavaScript. (But Node.Jsis not a JavaScript Framework; it just uses some of its features)

* This language made it easy to create web servers and tools for networking for which it uses JavaScript and modules to make the core functionality works.

* It is most suited for startups and freelancers as it easy to learn and use and is beneficial for them to grow.

* Since it is based on JavaScript, it became easy to distribute it across web development services.

What is Real-time Application?

If we want to know how node.js development has helped real-time applications to grow and prosper, we first need to understand what real-time application is. Here are some important points that will clear it up:

RTA is an application program that works under a time-frame, which for the user is a current or immediate time. It usually exists for a brief period of time and can be measured in seconds. Like if in a chatting app, you see the other user typing it is because it is a real-time application.

When you use RTAs in your application it is called real-time computing. Examples of such apps are:

* All the applications that provide video-conferences using specific hardware.

* Online gaming apps

* Apps or solutions that stores information about the community and keep updating them

* IM apps like WhatsApp

Interesting fact: - WhatsApp uses the node.js environment to show the other person typing

Why Node.JS development is used for creating real-time applications?

Here are some reasons why node.js is popular among real-time app developers
:
1. It is fast
Node.js developers use this environment working on JavaScript to create network applications because it makes building and executing them easy, scalable and fast. One of the most important benefits of node.js is that it lets the developers handle multiple client requests using a single threaded model with the event loop.

2. It lets you share and reuse library codes

It lets the user share packages of library code which is pretty awesome especially when another developer is in a crux. They can use these shared codes may help him. Node package manager has above 50,000 packages that help the developers with solutions. It can be updated or shared and even re-used without much trouble.

3. Stream in node.js

The node.js is an event-driven environment which makes tackling I/O bound tasks easy and good. The streams used are UNIX pipes due to which reading data from the source and guiding it towards its destination is easy.

4. It syncs the data between client and server

Since the node.js developer has the option to write JavaScript on both the client and server side, it becomes easy to transfer the data between client and server.

5. The server is event-based

If the application you are developing has to handle a large number of real-time users, then this is best suited for you as it is an event-based and non-blocking driven server.

6. It has different and numerous modules

It has numerous modules like file system I/O, binary data and other important function. Its modules an API that reduces the complex procedure involved in writing server applications. These apps run on MacOS, Microsoft Windows and Unix servers.

Node.js framework and its use in RTA

Due to node.js development, JavaScript has become the top choice for web and app development. It was already a very popular language, but with node.js offering best solutions to creating servers and web/mobile app, it has become the first choice for developers.

The node.js framework scope has increased as the contributions from web developing community keeps flooding in. Many frameworks that are performance driven are being developed with the principle of node.js.

How noode.js framework helps in the creation of RTA:

Simple RTA creation using the frameworks node.js:

Let’s understand what does a framework do using an example, if you are creating a chat application, a node.js framework will help by:

* Allowing the node.js developer to use several strong features that will aid you to manage the apps route, and use templating solutions with ease.

* It lets user organize your code and create a real-time, bi-directional connection between web clients and server.

Creating a chat application or any other app is easy and quick with the node.js framework.

I hope that the blog helped you in knowing what Node.js is. RTA has been benefited immensely due to Node.js development. The technology benefits the user in so many ways. It is the future of coding, and we can expect even better and advanced app because of the Node.js framework.