JavaScript is at the fingertips of every frontend web developer, making it a very popular programming language, so much so that it is stereotyped as being for client-side code in web pages. The chances are that, having picked up this book, you've heard of Node.js, a programming platform for coding in JavaScript outside web browsers. Now about ten years old, Node.js is becoming a mature programming platform that's widely used in projects both big and small.
This book will give you an introduction to Node.js. By the end of this book, you will have learned about the complete lifecycle of developing server-side web applications using Node.js, from concept to deployment and security. In writing this book, we have presumed the following:
- You already know how to write software.
- You are familiar with JavaScript.
- You know something about developing web applications in other languages.
When we evaluate a new programming tool, do we latch on because it's the popular new tool? Maybe some of us do that, but the mature approach is to weigh one tool against another. That's what this chapter is about, presenting the technical rationale for using Node.js. Before getting to the code, we must consider what Node.js is and how it fits in the overall marketplace of software development tools. Then we will dive right into developing working applications and recognize that often the best way to learn is by rummaging around in working code.
We will cover the following topics in this chapter:
- An introduction to Node.js
- What you can do with Node.js
- Why you should use Node.js
- The architecture of Node.js
- Performance, utilization, and scalability with Node.js
- Node.js, microservice architecture, and testing
- Implementing the twelve-factor app model with Node.js
