Continuous improvement is the nature of any industry, and the software industry is a prominent example of such change. Every day developers are exploring new technologies, programming languages, frameworks to create more efficient, fast, responsive, scalable, practical, and user-friendly products. With the advent of Node.js software development, developers are now more energetic to create software and applications that provide ease to their users. The Node js software architecture has made the development process more simplified. Here we listed best 10 tools for Node js development.
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Developing good software is not an easy task. But if you have the right tools, the process becomes easier and you can create great products efficiently. Whether you are familiar with the great tools for Node.js or planning to indulge with the phenomenon and explore useful tools for your project, you need to go through this piece of article. Stay till the end.
Brief Intro to Node.js
Before we go into the details of the tools which can make your work easier, let’s first walk through the basic intro of Node.js.
It is a JavaScript runtime environment that works on the Google Chrome V8 engine and is one of the most preferred tools for web application development. Back in 2009, it was introduced by Ryan Dahl. It has a long list of features due to which this is now the most popular among the developer’s fraternity. You can create a secure, fast, scalable application by just crafting some lines of code.
Node.js offers flexibility to the developers to create applications on the client and server side at the same time, thus efficiently saving the effort and time of the developer. From a real-time application to gaming, chatting, messaging and live-streaming applications, Node.js is the perfect partner of yours.
Why You Should Select Node.js Software Development for Your Web App?
Selecting the best framework for your software application development is a tough job. But Node.js software architecture has some amazing features that can surely attract you as a developer.
Scalability of Node js software:
There should always be a scope of up-scaling in any application and before opting for a platform for development, you must consider this parameter. The scalability factor of Node.js offers you the flexibility to expand your software in the future.
High Performance:
People do not want to use an application that has a low performance. In the competitive market, the non-blocking I/O operation of Node.js with high efficiency gives a smooth performance.
Faster response:
Everybody likes the software or application that responds quickly. The lightweight structure of Node.js makes it quicker than its competitors. The platform is lean and therefore, you can get enough time for review.
10 Great Tools for Node Js Software Development
Let’s have a look at some of the great tools for Node.js software development which can surely help to carry out your work more timely and efficiently.
Express.js:
It’s one of the closest choices of the best node.js development companies. The non-synchronous programming feature of Express facilitates you to figure out multiple operations at a time. With its minimalistic, classic, top-notch features, it offers an ample amount of flexibility and to its users. This can be an ideal framework for single-page web applications and APIs. It is also feasible to add plugins and extensions also.
Koa.js:
If you’re wishing to create an internet or mobile application that has the scope of customizations, you should explore Koa.js. It is developed by the same Express team. This is fast, quick-responsive, and can competently handle errors. Moreover, in this tool, there’s no middleware attached which improves the performance drastically and hence, is a popular choice for web developers.
Meteor.js:
Meteor.js is known for its fast response in its Node js software architecture , thanks to its lightweight structure and cross-functional application attribute. The lightweight attribute of this tool makes it faster and more responsive. Being only a JavaScript operative framework, Meteor.js is pretty simple to use and supports all the OS like iOS, Android, web, desktop.
Socket.io:
This popular tool for Node.js software development operates incredibly fast in real-time activity. The smooth audio and video streaming makes it a perfect choice to create a chatbot or for adding an audio-visual streaming function to your website. It has a fantastic bi-directional communication capability between the client and server.
Keystone:
This open-source framework is created on MongoDB and Express, which are also popular tools of Node js. In the case of creating database-driven web applications and APIs, this is the perfect tool for you. This tool has an amazing feature that helps to generate UI automatically thus, supporting the developer to handle the web app more simply. You can easily manage the routes, templates, and views through this tool. Keystone also provides a strong admin interface for the Content Management System (CMS)and ease in the form-processing process.
PM2:
It operates as a production process manager for the Node.js application and is one of the simplest tools for this framework. With its lot of features and inbuilt load balancer, PM2 is a perfect choice for the production environment. Without any downtime, it can check and reload the web application which offers some kind of relaxation to the developers as they do not need to think twice before restarting the app if there is any crash in the system.
Electrode:
Another famous Node js software based tool is Electrode. Walmart Lab has created and launched this tool to provide a standardized structure and other best practices. Along with high performance, you will get access to all the docs, components, and module trees through Electrode.io. Electrode allows the programmers to deploy the applications to the cloud effortlessly.
Babel:
It is basically a JavaScript compiler that is also considered and used as an extensive toolchain. Using this tool, you do not need to write long codes and it also helps to transform the syntax. The prominent feature of the support map that Babel offers, helps programmers to debug the codes easily. Most importantly, Babel mutates the ECMAScript 2015, which is a standard for scripting languages, to a backward-compatible JavaScript version.
Mocha.js:
If you are planning to use a tool that offers faster testing for integration and unit testing, you must try Mocha.js. This is one of the popular JavaScript test frameworks. Here you can test the codes in the browser as well as in the console itself. Be it BDD (Behavior Driven Development) or TD (Test Driven Development) it operates efficiently. The modularity of Mocha.js provides an amazing facility to the developers where you can easily use the other libraries (like Should.js, Sinon, Chai) with this.
Chai:
Similar to Mocha.js, this is also based on BDD (Behavior Driven Development) or TD (Test Driven Development) assertion library for Node.js software architecture and browser. This has an array of interfaces and chain-capable BDD style that ensures good readability along with expressive language. You can combine it with any JavaScript testing framework and, as a developer, you can create your own plugins.
Conclusion on Node js Software
Node.js has emerged as one of the most efficient JavaScript runtime engines. It not only offers a basket of features. But also helps developers to create amazing applications through its massive array of tools. You can utilize any of them to develop scalable, faster, real-time, responsive software. If you are already using Node.js or planning to enter into the world of Node, don’t forget to take these tools along with you for a happy journey.
Magdalena Polka is a Business Solution Designer and an Information Technology / Project Management consultant and author with over 15 years of software development, management and project management experience.