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An Encyclopedia to Node.js and Its Environment

 July 8  | 0 Comments

Readers!! We will have an entire architecture study of Node.js, so we will divide the blog into separate categories with the below table of contents:

  1. What is Node and why use Node?
    1. Comparison of Node with PHP
    2. Why Node is important
  2. Installation and environment testing of Node

Before we get into node in-depth let us scan into hardware and network requirements

Go to the below link for environment specifications.

https://npme.npmjs.com/docs/up-and-running/requirements.html

What is Node and Why Use Node

Comparison of Node with PHP

In the today’s era of web app development, developers are quite emotional with learning different programming languages when writing the code at the back end.

Well I meant to target the difference between PHP and Node

Let’s go with differences between both of them

  1. JavaScript syntax is not what makes Node better than PHP

When you develop any web application using PHP and Laravel framework you will have to deal with the lots of JavaScript in the client and the server which acts as a pure data API.

For Ex:

Sample code using PHP and LARAVEL

Route::get(‘user/{id}’, function($id) {
$user = User::find($id);
return Response::json($user->toArray());
});

Sample code using node.js Express and Mongoose

  1. Async call is your new best friend in node when compared to node

In the point no 01 with the sample node.js code you can observe all Input/output functions in JavaScript (reading a file, API calling, database calls) are asynchronous in nature i.e., request and response of object calling can happen at a single shot.

Whereas in PHP, it gets executed sequentially like assigning the output of a database call to a variable. When working with PHP, you need to work with the callbacks when you work with the JavaScript.

Inside a node, you have got the power of async libraries which helps you a lot in doing parallel thread operations and it is absolutely fun!!

  1. Node JS package manager(NPM) is the powerful option of Node.js community

We have something called composer in PHP and the same way we have NPM in Node.js.

When you install NPM you get around 128000 libraries at the time of writing and this is very clear that for any complex problems to solve you have the libraries to get help.

There is more PHP source code available on the Internet than JavaScript server side code and most of them are outdated and do not fit in modern web development environment.

So finally you have got the appropriate NPM package, its huge time saver and changes the way you think about complex web applications.

  1. You have to deal with #1 language

Developers feel pained when they have to shift from one language to another, especially so when it comes to PHP, web developers.

Since Node.js is built on Google JavaScript v8 engine, client and the server coding language is almost the same.

You have saved yourself from learning a new language at the server side.

So far now we are done with the comparison of PHP and Node.

Why is Node.js Important?

Let us find out some technical reasons why Node is very important

  • Node is the non-blocking event-driven I/O model which gives high performance, easily beating threaded server environment Like PHP and ROR, thereby handling multiple simultaneous users by fixing separate threads.
  • Node is simply fast
  • Event driven
  • First class networking
  • First class Streaming API
  • Awesome standard libraries for interfacing with OS
  • It gives a support for compiled binary modules.
  • Very easy to get started

Installation and Environment testing of Node

Installing Node and NPM is very straightforward using the installer package available from the Node.js website

Follow the below steps one by one

Step1:

Download the Node.js APK from official website of Node.js i.e. https://www.nodejs.org

Step2:

After downloading, double-click on the setup files to start the Node.js setup wizard. Click Next.

 

Step3:

If you accept the end-user license agreement, check “I accept the terms in the License Agreement”. Click ‘Next’. Again click ‘Next’

Step4:

Then specify the destination file.

Step 5:

Click on ‘Next’

Step 6:

Click ‘Next’ and ‘Install’

Step 7: Node installed successfully

We will confirm whether Node has been successfully installed on the Windows platform

Open the command prompt

Type Node -v

You will get the below confirmation number with the node version number

In the next step, we will check the verification of NPM (Node packet manager)

Open the command prompt and type the below command

Congratulations! You are done with Node Installation.

Conclusion
Scanning yourself into this blog will give you the entire idea of Node.js installation and environment testing in depth. Hope you folks enjoyed it. Stay tuned for the next blog!

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