Brief Introduction to Node.js

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Every day developers are exploring new technologies and programming languages as continuous improvement is the software industry's essence, making frameworks to create more efficient, fast, responsive, scalable, practical, and user-friendly products indispensable tools.

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Developers are now more enthusiastic about creating software and applications that deliver to their users with the advent of Node.js software development. 

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Before delving into the details of the tools that can make development teams work more efficiently, let's first look at the basics of Node.js.

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This JavaScript runtime environment works on the Google Chrome V8 engine.

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It is one of the most preferred tools for web application development, offering flexibility for developers to build applications on both client and server sides simultaneously, thus efficiently saving the effort and time of the developer. 

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You can make secure, fast, and scalable applications with relatively small amounts of code; from real-time applications to gaming, chatting, messaging, and live-streaming applications, Node.js is your perfect companion.

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Why should you choose Node.js for developing your next Web Application?

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Selecting the ideal framework for software development is challenging, but Node.js software architecture has some great features that can attract development teams.

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Scalability: The scalability factor of Node.js offers you the flexibility to expand your software in the future. Before opting for a platform for development, it's critical to consider scalability, as there should always be a method of up-scaling an application.

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High Performance: In the competitive market, the non-blocking I/O operation of Node.js with high efficiency gives a smooth performance, which is crucial for capturing and retaining users, as people do not want to use a sluggish application.

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Faster response: Everybody likes software or applications that respond quickly, including software developers. Node.js is quicker than its competitors, thanks to its lightweight structure, with a lean platform that teams get sufficient time for review.

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Top 10 Tools for Node.Js Software Development

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Developing helpful software is not an effortless undertaking, but if you have the right tools, the process becomes more straightforward, and you can build excellent products efficiently. Here we listed the top ten tools for Node js development.

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Let's look at some of the great tools for Node.js software development, which can surely help you carry out your work more timely and efficiently.

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1. Express.js
2. Koa.js
3. Meteor.js
4. Socket.io
5. Keystone
6. PM2
7. Electrode
8. Babel
9. Mocha.js
10. Chai

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Express.js

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Express.js is one of the most valuable and popular Node.js frameworks you can use in your project. The great thing about this robust framework is its simplicity.

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Its non-synchronous programming features allow dev teams to resolve multiple operations simultaneously, making it one of the top choices of the leading Node.js development companies.

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Offering minimalistic, classic, top-notch features and an ample amount of flexibility to its users while also having the ability to add plugins and extensions, it can be an ideal framework for developing and managing single-page web applications and APIs. 

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Easily integrating databases, multiple routing, template engines, and more are some of the many valuable features ExpressJS has for creating robust mobile and web applications. 

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Koa.js

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If you wish to create a web or mobile application with room for customization, you should explore Koa.js. Developed by the same team as Express.js, Koa is fast and responsive and can competently handle errors.

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Performance is drastically improved by the lack of middleware, making it a top choice among web developers.

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Koa is the next-gen web framework for Node.js; while having the same creators as Express.js, it is much more advanced and does not require any middleware.

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With built-in plugin support for actions like routing, compression, and caching, Koa also holds the potential to reduce errors and remove callbacks.

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Meteor.js

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Meteor is another popular and helpful JavaScript prototyping framework for cross-platform coding(Android, Web, IOS). It is built on Node.js and helps you seamlessly deploy or create applications in JavaScript.

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Meteor's most outstanding features are its fast performance, lightweight structure, cross-functional applications, and reduced footprint, making it quicker and more responsive than other frameworks in Node.js Software Architecture.

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Meteor.js is remarkably simple to use as it is a JavaScript-only operative framework, with the benefit of supporting all the current operating systems like iOS, Android, web, and desktop.

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Socket.io

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Real-time bi-directional communication between two devices is one of the essential features you can have on a web application regarding messaging or streaming apps, for example.

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‍Socket.io operates incredibly fast in real-time activity, with smooth audio and video streaming making it a perfect choice to develop chatbots or to add audio-visual streaming functions to your website.

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It's an excellent Node.js real-time bi-directional communication framework, extremely scalable and performant, that easily adapts to any device or platform needed for your application.

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Keystone

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This open-source framework is based on industry-standard Node.js tools like MongoDB and Express, making it an outstanding tool for creating database-driven web applications and APIs.

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This tool has a fantastic feature set that allows developers to generate user interfaces automatically, making developing and maintaining web applications much more accessible.

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This tool can easily manage the routes, templates, and views. Keystone also provides a robust admin interface for the Content Management System (CMS)and ease in the form-processing process.

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Keystone is a handy framework and development tool for API and Node.js database-driven web applications.

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However, it's also considered a CMS for its ability and toolset design to manage websites and have an ideal backend for your front end.

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What's excellent about Keystone is that it gives you all the backend you need to stay focused on the UI/UX of your application.

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PM2

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PM2 functions as a production process manager for Node.js applications and is one of the most straightforward tools for this framework.

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With its many features and inbuilt load balancer, PM2 is a perfect choice for the production environment.

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Without downtime, it can check and reload the web application, which gives developers and DevOps teams peace of mind since restarting applications after a crash becomes much more straightforward.

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PM2 is a great process manager tool that can help eliminate most challenges and issues related to running Node.js apps in Docker containers. It offers extensive load balancing, application clustering, hot reload log management, container integration, and monitoring of crucial parameters.

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Electrode

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Walmart Lab created and launched this tool to provide a standardized structure and a set of best practices, granting access to all the documents, components, and module trees with high performance through Electrode.io.

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Electrode allows programmers to deploy applications to the cloud effortlessly; with a set of tools tested on a massive amount of data, it is a universal platform for React.js/Node.js applications.

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Including "Electrode Explorer" and "Electrify," makes it much more than a set of best practices, standardized structure, and modern technologies.

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These tools let you explore all your platform's docs and components and visualize the module tree of electrode.io + Webpack project bundles effortlessly.

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Babel

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Babel is a JavaScript compiler that also performs as an extensive toolchain, saving developers the need to write comprehensive and repetitive blocks of code as it also provides syntax transformation methods.

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The support map that Babel offers allows programmers to debug the codes effectively and efficiently, making it one of its most prominent features.

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Most importantly, Babel allows for transforming ECMAScript 2015, which is a standard for scripting languages, to a backward-compatible JavaScript version.

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Quickly transforming your ES6+ JavaScript code into a backward compatible version when using Node.js is where Babel excels, as it is an excellent JavaScript compiler that will compile all your modern code into an alternative version of code that earlier browsers can understand.

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Mocha.js

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Mocha.js is a JavaScript test framework based on Node.js, enabling developers to test both in the console and the browser. You can use this high-speed testing suite to do the unit and integration testing, plus it works perfectly for TDD (Test-Driven Development) and BDD (Behavior Driven Development).

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A significant advantage of Mocha.js is its modularity, so you can easily use other libraries, such as Chai, Sinon, or Should.js.

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Suppose your team plans to use a tool that offers faster testing for integration and unit testing. In that case, Mocha.js is a must-try, as it is one of the most widely adopted JavaScript testing frameworks, allowing developers to test code both at the browser and console level.

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Whether doing BDD (Behavior Driven Development) or TD (Test Driven Development), Mocha.js operates efficiently because of its modular approach.

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It provides a fantastic platform for developers to integrate other libraries like Should.js, Sinon, or Chai effortlessly.

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Chai

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Like Mocha.js, Chai is also an assertion library for Node.js based on BDD (Behavior Driven Development) or TD (Test Driven Development) and has an array of interfaces and chain-capable BDD style that guarantees excellent readability with expressive language.

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It's possible to combine Chai with any JavaScript testing framework, and, as a developer, you can create your own plugins.

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With practically every other testing tool, you could utilize Chai.js to confirm the outcomes of the asynchronous test with the aid of Chai.js.

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Moreover, Chai can be launched via Node.js or a web browser, and its numerous plugins act as an assertion tool for TDD and BDD.

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Conclusion

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Node.js has emerged as one of the most efficient JavaScript runtime engines offering a rich set of features and helping development teams create unique applications through its many tools to design and build scalable, faster, real-time, and responsive software.

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Whether your team is planning to or already using Node.js, these tools are crucial in making the most out of the array of Node.js Frameworks.

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Node.js has many tools that make application development more accessible and straightforward. Express.js, Socket.io, and Keystone.js are among some of the best Node.js development frameworks used for various purposes. 

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Many of these tools are beneficial in making Node.js development a lot easier and increasing your productivity while coding and are some of the most useful Node.js tools for developing and maintaining websites and web applications.

A solid understanding of Node.js tools can help development teams increase productivity and beat the competition in building seamless applications.

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Have you picked your favorite Node.js development tools? We hope this list will make your journey with Node.js development more manageable, and as always, if you need assistance on this matter, we'll be more than happy to help! Drop us a line!