JavaScript (JS) is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. It is perhaps the most highly regarded of the different programming languages out there, and in terms of client-side programming languages, few tools are peers to JavaScript. Thanks to the advantages of Node.js, JavaScript has got changed into a new format and this change has been facilitated with great ease & it is important to learn all about Node.js, how it works, and what its Node JS advantages are and disadvantages of it.
Node.js is an open-source server environment and runs on JavaScript on the server. It is also a JavaScript runtime built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript Engine. It runs on various platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, etc.) and is also free. It is not a framework and it’s not a programming language. Most people are often confused it’s a framework or a programming language.it is also often that we use Node.js for building back-end services like APIs like Web App or Mobile App. It’s used in production by large companies such as Paypal, OLA, NASA, Uber, Netflix, Walmart, and so on. It is based on non-blocking execution, meaning that one block of code runs independently of another which makes this environment asynchronous — a perfect choice for building scalable web applications. This event loop in Node.js is presented as a runtime environment and it finishes executing the input, it enters the event loop instead of using a specific start-the-event-loop call.
The Advantages of Node JS
1. Easy to learn
If a developer is well acquainted with JavaScript as it is a popular programming language then Node JS is easy for them in the backend and it is less time-consuming.
2. Easy Scalability
Developers found Node JS easy at scalability because it helps the application to scale in both vertically and horizontally directions. It also allows adding extra resources to the single node during the vertical scaling of the application. Hence, NodeJS is highly scalable and offers greater options than other JavaScript servers, and same also the application can be scaled in a horizontal dimension by adding extra nodes to the current system.
3. Fast Suite
Node JS runs on chrome’s V8 engine, which is developed by Google. Event loop in Node JS handles all asynchronous operations so Node JS acts like a fast suite and all the operations can be done quickly like reading or writing in the database, network connection, or file system it is also one of the fastest runtime system engines so that’s amazing. Also, with Node JS, it is easy to find mistakes in the front end as well as backend.
4. Advantage of Caching
The advantage of Node JS is that it runs on an open-source runtime environment which helps Node JS provide the ability to cache a single module. The entire request for the first modules gets cache in the application memory when there is any request for the first module, so you don’t need to re-execute the code.
5. Data Streaming
Big companies like Netflix use Node JS for streaming purposes. This is mainly due to Node JS being lightweight and fast, besides it provides a native streaming API. These streams allow users to pipe down the requests to each other, resulting in data being streamed directly to its final destination at lightning speed.
6. Corporate Support
Most of the big companies as mentioned above are using Node JS for building applications and since Node JS uses JavaScript, most of the companies are combining both frontend and backend teams into a single unit.
7. REST API based applications
JavaScript is used in both the frontend and as well as backend of sites. So a server can easily communicate with the frontend via REST APIs using Node JS and Node JS also provides packages like Express js and Koa that make it even easier to build web applications.
These are the certain advantages of Node JS as server-side programming.
Disadvantages of Node JS
Along with plenty of advantages Node JS also comes with certain disadvantages which you should consider before choosing it as your primary technology for preparing enterprise-level applications.
1. APIs keep on changing for Node JS with newer versions.
2. Code for large applications is somewhat complex due to the asynchronous nature of Node JS.
3. Strong library support system is not found yet for Node JS.
4. Not having well with processing CPU-intensive requests as Node JS prioritizes one single request at a time leads to slow down in computation tasks.
Conclusion
It is a matter of fact that the advantages of Node JS overpower immensely the disadvantages, which is a good thing to a lookout for while considering application development. Node JS has extended the areas of JavaScript applications and be utilized in both front end and as well as back end servers. We have a strong team with NodeJS, AngularJS, and several other JavaScript libraries that help develop scalable, high-performance applications, faster!
