The software development world has evolved, with multiple platforms for application development. Node.js, an emerging app development platform, is ready to compete with Ruby on Rails, React.js, and ASP.Net.
However, after 12-13 years, that is from 2009-2023, Node.js has become the dominating framework in this industry. It beat ReactJS to be the most successful web framework- as per the StackOverflow developers survey 2022.
If you desire to build your project using Node.js, you can hire Node.js developers in India who can assist you develop your required business app.
In case you are a Node.js developer, you need to learn Node.js best practices for developing a reliable app. It’s because the app development process is tricky, and you just need speed, tech scalability, and other things to develop it.
In this article, we will learn about the top 5 Node.js best practices to follow by Node developers.
Node.js- A brief overview
Node.js is a JS open-source runtime environment for Chrome. It makes it easier to develop extensible web apps. It’s built using JS Engine V8 in the Google Chrome platform.
Node.js has a non-blocking I/O, event-driven approach making it efficient, lightweight, and perfect for real-time and data-intensive apps that are running across multiple shared devices.
Developers use Node.js for creating server-side web apps that are ideal for data-intensive apps because of its event-driven and asynchronous approach.
Why is Node.js popular?
Here are the primary features that make Node.js a popular choice amongst developers:
- Easy to learn- Node.js is a JS environment that uses Javascript. Hence, it is easy to learn in a few weeks, if the developer is familiar with JS.
- Scalability- Node.js intends to develop scalable network apps. So, it can manage multiple concurrent queries.
- Easy development of cross-platform, mobile-friendly app
- It is a developer-friendly JS runtime environment
- Node.js is lightweight and helps in the quick development of productive web apps
- It is supported by the maximum number of web hosters available across the world
- This environment is highly adaptable
Now, let’s see some of the Node.js best practices for developers to implement in their Node.js projects.
5 Amazing Node.js Best Practices for Developers
Here’s the list of Node.js best practices that developers should implement while developing Node.js apps.
Setting Up .npmrc
If you have used npm, you might have come across the –save flag used to update the package.json using dependency. While other programmers clone the system, they can surely have the accurate dependencies. However, it can create a problem when it comes to remembering to add that flag.
Additionally, npm adds one caret ^ to all its versions. Similarly, when someone rund:
npm install
They might see various versions of modules than what you get. Moreover, updating modules is good, but having a whole developers team and running against minimally differently can lead to behavior differences in APIs.
So, having everyone in the same version is a good alternative. For making it easier for everyone, the .npmrc file has useful properties that make sure that the npm install command always updates the package.json & enforces the version of dependencies installed.
You can simply run the below code in the terminal:
$ npm config set save=true
$ npm config set save-exact=true
After this, when developers will run the npm install, they can be sure that the dependency saved will not change and will be in the version that you installed.
Use a proper style guide
Sometimes developers have to face situations where they have to work on code that is written by another developer. Then the next hour they spend is on reformatting braces and making a proper structure of the code.
This process is time-consuming and there arises a problem even if a single brace is missed or deleted. So, developers and teams need to follow one standard styling guide to overcome such situations.
It is simpler to know and work on code that is well-written and is in one decided format. It reduces the analytical overhead of writing tabs or spaces.
If one single style is enforced using JSCS, ESLint, or JSHint, then the whole codebase becomes more manageable.
It’s not necessary that every time you need to bring your own rules of design and development. Sometimes, it is better to choose an already available set of guidelines and follow them. Here are the examples of existing style guides:
Google – https://google.github.io/styleguide/javascriptguide.xml
Airbnb – https://github.com/airbnb/javascript
Standard JS – http://standardjs.com/
jQuery – https://contribute.jquery.org/style-guide/js/
Just choose anyone and stick to those guidelines!
Layering of components
Layers of components are essential and hence each component is made to have different layers. Layering components is one of the node.js best practices. In this process, layers have a specific object that is easy to use on the web, data access, and logic code.
By implementing this best practice, one can easily find the difference in performance errors & can separate the process using test codes and mock tests.
Multiple developers mix the layers with the data layers and service layers. It makes the app tightly coupled. Hence, your application’s performance will be tightly coupled.
Asynchronous Structures
When developers use synchronous functions, it makes the app’s logic flow easy to learn and understand. But, it blocks different lines of code from executing until it completes.
One can track the synchronous functions present in the code with the use of the -trace-sync-io flag. It displays a warning that displays whenever a synchronous API is encountered.
However, the await/asynchronous structures provide solutions for blocking other code problems. Hence, a Node.js developer uses async API in the majority of cases for easy code execution without any wait for other processes.
Start all Node.js apps with npm init
Most developers are well-known with NPM as a way of installing dependencies, but it’s a lot more than this. When you create a new project, start it by using npm init. Here’s a simple example of the same:
$ mkdir my-new-project
$ cd my-new-project
$ npm init
This creates a new file named package.json for developers which allows them to add a collection of metadata to assist others who are working on the same project and have the same setup.
For instance, here’s a small code to open package.json & adding a particular node.js version that you want to run on:
“engines”: {
“node”: “6.2.0”
}
These are the top 5 Node.js best practices that help Node.js developers easily develop Node.js apps. Here are a few more best practices that are worth implementing:
- Add scripts to your package.json
- Use environment variables
- Create Logging Solutions and Use Libraries
- Handle errors thoughtfully
- Ensure that your Node.js an automatically restarts
- Optimize Performance for Node.js App, etc.
Node.js Best Practices- Final Verdict
We hope that the Node.js best practices mentioned in the above article will help you create your next Node apps productively. This list of node.js industry standards that will help the developers produce high-quality apps.
These Node.j’s best techniques for easy development can also be valuable for beginners as well as experienced developers who want to expertise their Node development skills. With these node js security best practices, and decided style guides and techniques, one can easily enhance the app’s performance and make it scalable.
