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Developing Mobile Applications Using Node.js

Node.js is a server-side JavaScript platform specially designed for efficient and responsive web applications. Not only just web applications but also for mobile to make it fast, scalable and super portable on every platform. It uses Google Chrome’s v8, one of the finest JavaScript engines for running standalone JavaScript programs. Node.js contains a built-in library that allows applications to act as a web server without any software such as HTTP servers. Nowadays, Node.js is getting popular as a server-side platform and is used by IBM, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Walmart, PayPal and GoDaddy and much more.

Why Count on Node.js?

The exclusive features of Node.js are designed to support multi-user, collaborative, real-time web apps that support various network connections with maximum input.
Node.js, or just Node, with or without a JavaScript frontend, makes well-organized use of hardware resources, especially for I/O-intensive services. It also decreases developers’ reasoning and coding loads via several key features, such as:

  • It substitutes the traditional request-response paradigm with a rapid or two-way communication model.
  • Most developers understand  JavaScript, so the development ramp-up is shallow
  • Node.js web sockets run on TCP, not HTTP, so low-overhead client-server communication is enabled in both directions.
  • Usually, using a single language and portable code base between frontend and backend developers saves much time and money.
  • Generally, Developers avoid having to manage I/O blocking and threads.

How Node.js plays a vital role while working with Mobile Apps

Some of the reasons why some mobile developers need Node.js in mobile developing apps, here are few reasons:

  • Node.js has the fastest growing ecosystem with well over 110,000 free JavaScript modules. Tapping into this resource can help you to develop apps faster and more proficiently.
  • Use the similar platform to advance your Server and Mobile apps. Many times your mobile app will have a parallel browser-based application for desktop access. Having one platform and one codebase for both the browser and mobile applications can make the development course far more efficient.

Unfortunately, there is currently no way to implement Node.js on the mobile client side for all leading mobile platforms. Technically, you can run JavaScript on Android, but neither iOS nor Windows which it accepts V8’s JIT compiled code except under special circumstances.

Lastly, real-time mobile services and applications are now the next immense thing. Node.js is designed accurately to support a real-time mobile web. Throw in shortened development cycles, combined frontend/backend teams plus streamlined support and Node.js looks like a winning strategy for servers and mobile devices.

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