Reviewing Node
Overview
What is Node.js?
As per the website, Node.js is a platform based on Chrome’s Javascript runtime for building fast , scalable network applications. Node.js uses an event-driven, non blocking I/O model making it perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that runs across distributed devices. It was written in C++ and can work with C/C++ Libraries.
Node.js has many built in modules, and may be expanded with Express.js for more advanced web applications. Some modules need to be imported by “var x = require(‘X’)”. Node.js is the N in MEAN stack for MongoDB, Express, Angular, and Node.
Commonly used node modules
Helpers
fs - require(‘fs’) - provides file I/O
os - require(‘os’) - provides info about hardware + os
path - require(‘path’) - path related helper
dns - require(‘dns’) - resolves ip/dns related records
process - global - provides info about the node process
timers - global - allows setTimeout etc
Encode / Decode
crypto - require(‘crypto’) - hashing stuff
query-string - require(‘query-string’) - parse, encode, stringify URL query strings
url - require(‘url’) - url parser
Server
http- require(‘http’) - built in simple http server (check out https)
net - require(‘net’) - server for streams
event - require(‘events’).EventEmitter - a server side event emitter
cluster - require(‘cluster’) - allows Node to use multi-cores - unstable
Debugging / Testing
util - require(‘util’) - debugging
assert - require(‘assert’) - unit testing
console - global - console.log prints output, console.time / console.timeEnd is helpful
debugger - global - debugger
Other
zlib - require(‘zlib’) - zipping streams
Node Classes
- Buffer
- Streams
