Standalone V8 engine that allows for Javascript code to be run on a server. Useful as web server, server node as well as required for many new javscript testing platforms.
BTW, Streaming is what node really does best.
"Streams in node are one of the rare occasions when doing something the fast way is actually easier. SO USE THEM. not since bash has streaming been introduced into a high level language as nicely as it is in node."
-@dominictarr in his high level node style guide
Why the hell would I use NodeJS - Pretty good overview!
Resources
learn NodeJS
Async node article
Node Streams
Notable examples
Drywall A login and admin/user management server. Looks really nice.
Tutorials
The best tutorial is at node school. Learn it for big win.
- Building Rest web service in nodejs Quick tutorial to set up a node service as a rest service. Uses mongo as the backend. Has instructions on how to deploy to OpenShift, a cloud environment.
- real time chat with node and websockets
Blog notes and web wisdom
- linkedin brings some sanity to the node debate Mostly lessons learned from Linkedin using Node. A few good tips like they really do not use third party librarys for compatability and usind CDNs to cache css. Not exactly things we need to worry about, but puts things in perspective.
- Blasing fast node hints from linkedin
- getting started w node on the cloud
Libraries
Node has a ton of em
Emitter
Useful to avoid deep callback nesting.
Edit step
- edit step makes stepping through logic sequential or parallel easy.
Middleware
Node has plenty of plug ins. You run npm and the things just work!
Connect Middleware
Express
Express is the MVC solution for node on the server side. It is very light and fast. Handles routing, sessions and templating.
Default HTML templating is Jade, but you can use many other packages like handlebars.
http://evanhahn.com/understanding-express-js/
express and sessions
http://blog.modulus.io/nodejs-and-express-sessions
http://runnable.com/UTlPPF-f2W1TAAEY/login-auth-using-sessions-in-express-for-node-js-and-authentication
Tutorials
- Node js todo app A Todo list with node, express and redis. Looks like a good thing to learn about installing and getting things up and running. simple code.
- Intro to express A walkthrough of a small blog like site. No DB that I can tell. Uses Handlebars.
- intro to express js w hb Another express website. uses Handlebars as well
Redis
Key Value datastore that seems to be popular with the kids
Tutorials
- http://howtonode.org/node-redis-fun Builds a Pastebin app
- http://www.giantflyingsaucer.com/blog/?p=3614 , http://java.dzone.com/articles/working-nodejs-and-redis Dead simple explaination. Actaully, there is a pre-tutorial as well.
JSDom
http://www.steveworkman.com/node-js/2012/installing-jsdom-on-windows/
This totally worked.
The point here is to install a DOM on the node server. From there, you can do server side d3