Hope I'm not being to general but: I have been tasked with the job of "rejuvenating/modernizing" a monolithic Java EE (JSF/CDI/EJB/JPA) app. Since the requirements state that it should support multiple clients, I have split up the code in a server (JAX-RS interfaces) and a client part (not yet done)
The server is pretty straightforward but I'm wondering about the UI part. Nowadays (hope I don't sound too oldskool) various Node JS spin-offs seem to be popular but I'm under the impression that they have the most value to offer in the "scalable server" section. Does the various Angular/React/Node framework have anything to offer for the client if you have something more complex than a single page app?
It appears to be a really hard time to pick a UI technology nowadays. Sure, the server/DB part which contains most of the business logic are pretty future-proof but still, one would like to focus on one UI technology. There are various jQuery-based frameworks like Kendo, Vaadin & co etc. One option would be to stick with JSF + ICEfaces/PrimeFaces and just work with the REST interface. And then there is JavaFX which looks nice but the future looks a bit uncertain.
So. If the backend is not going to be Node JS, does Node JS have anything to offer for the UI part that can't be done more easily with other frameworks and does anyone have other insights on the UI layer in general. Predicting is hard, especially the future ;-)
Node.js is a way to run javascript on the server side, not client side. That said, npm (nodes package manager) or its wrappers (like bower) are quite often used to manage the client side dependencies - which is very useful to have.
Angular and react (among others) are client side javascript ui frameworks to help make writing ui much nicer. Neither depend on the backend being written in node.js and can work with any rest api (or other server side apis) - or no api at all if that backend injects all the data the page needs into the page itself.
Electron, which combines NodeJS and Chromium (render Process).
https://electronjs.org/
Formerly known as atom shell it was created by Github, it is the core of the Atom Editor, VS Code, Slack app, and a ton of “thick client” applications. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_client
There are several implementations which allow you to use Node.JS modules on a client-side (ie. web browser). You can then use html/css and call Node.JS modules directly from your DOM which is used to implement UI.
I'm most familiar with NW.js which I've used couple of times. Others would be for example Electron or AppJS
Related
Can you tell me more about the relationship between the two? I want to (for example) write a little tool which plays audio files on my raspberry pi. Would I then do the player and the players interface completely in React, and then just connect to node in order to get the actual files?
Or, more generally but the same thing, if I would want to write an application that does certain things (writes files, records audio, changes system settings etc.) that would all be done in nodejs, but if I want to have an interface I would use something like React?
I am a bit confused, but I hope this question is valid!
Node and React can be used together.
There is even the MERN stack that helps with that:
MERN is a scaffolding tool which makes it easy to build universal apps using Mongo, Express, React and NodeJS. It minimises the setup time and gets you up to speed using proven technologies.
See: http://mernjs.org/
But you can use React with any other Node framework, not only with Express. React can work with any REST API so whatever you use to build a REST API can be consumed by the frontend written in React.
Some other options include: Hapi, Restify, LoopBack. For more see:
http://nodeframework.com/
from the official React Documentation React is "a JavaScript library for build user interfaces". In very watered down terms (and I mean watered down) React could be thought of as a templating library (please don't shoot me for that).
What I've learned about React is it is more like the "V"iew in MVC. It provides you a way to present the user interface using JavaScript and JSX. With the little I know about from various tutorials, I really like working with React.
Yes, this two thinks can work together, I am currently working at such project. I will point out main think here. That is where you put your routing. Does it goes to Node.js server or to React Router. This is important because it defines where you application logic should be.
ReactTS is a scaffolding engine for React on ASP.NET Core. Very powerful, and very fast - will generate your entire application with a single button click. You can also customize the templates. Check it out here... http://bssdev.biz/DevTools/React-Turbo-Scaffolding-Free-Download
I was given the following to consider:
Develop desktop application using Nodeweb kit.
Also develop web application using the same code base.
Applications should look identical.
Both apps must use the same code base. The reason for this is to cut down development expenses.
If it was up to me I would not even consider using node-webkit for desktop. There are far better desktop solutions for Win platforms. For web application using Node is certanly viable.
But people who plan the project somehow think Node is a way to go for both apps.
After lots of thinking, I came to the conclusion that doing what they want will only increase dev and maintenance costs.
I consider using express (maybe even Sails.js) for web application. I made some tests where I used express on node-webkit and it run just fine.
Certanly NW is powerfull platform (popcorn). Just in my case I fail to see how can it cut down the dev expense
Am I right to be against this solution? Is this a plausible decision and I am not seeing another solution?
Any opinion is very welcome
I have actually done exactly this, and it worked very well. The trick was to write some Node Webkit code that will "detect" that it's running as a desktop application, instead of a web app, and thus integrate with desktop notifications etc.
Yes, it was more work than just writing a web app, but it was also less work (and maintenance) than developing separate applications. You get to use a lot of common code, because of the fact that you are running in a browser already, that I feel the project saved a lot of time.
In fact, I am currently working on another application that requires some desktop features (file access, notifications) but the same functionality as the web application, and I'm proposing that the development happens in Node Webkit.
The important criteria here for me is that both applications are 90% the same, the desktop just adds things you don't normally have on the web. So the core of the application is exactly the same AngularJS application, with some JavaScript injected by the Node Webkit startup page to add the required desktop behaviour.
You haven't presented reasons why you think node-webkit is not a suitable option for desktop application.
On the other hand I think client's opinion that development in node and node-webkit will be able to cut down costs is not ungrounded.
nw.js (formerly node-webkit) is basically a Chromium browser with intergrated node.js engine. So if you develop a web-application using node.js (and any of its frameworks) then you will be able to reuse it in nw.js fairly easy.
I'm assigned to develop web-based GIS, but I'm new with web programming. So, Where I can get an insight to start develop web-based GIS?
thank you before
regards!
You have to know about the 2 main components for web programming: front-end and back-end.
Front-end, is how the results/graphics are going to be displayed in the client (pad, monitor).
The most common tools are the javascript libraries like ArcGIS API for JavaScript, or OpenLayers.
For front-end you need to learn about html, css and javascript.
Back-end, is how you will manage the architecture (models-databases) of your project. There are many technologies to choose, for example, Java (J2EE) or .NET. For geodatabases there are systems like SQL server or PostGIS. Back-end is normally placed in the server.
In GIS you would also need a web mapping server (for sharing data, for instance), you can use GeoServer or ArcGIS for Server (commercial).
In my experience, I like to use django as back-end, this is a framework for web development using python (There are also many libraries for GIS using python which you can integrate). With django you can use a model-view-template controller to manage data to the web pages in a simple and fast way. Django has also a module called geodjango, to manage geodatabases, but not strong as GeoServer.
Start with "Requirements". To understand what requirements is, please start with a book on software engineering.
Once you have the requirements, you need to "Design" - what tools/technologies/languages to use. If you are just beginning programming, you typically get a senior to do the design
Then you get to a task, such as rendering google maps on a web page, that can be answered in something like stackoverflow.
I'm planning to build a hybrid mobile app,
I have already progressed pretty well with the server-side using Express 3, and PAssport for authentication.
Now I need to make a decision on what framework or library to use for the clinet-side.
I was wondering if I could get some recommendations and perhaps pros and cons of going with frameworks like
Sencha Touch, JQuery Mobile, Phonegap....
and if there is anyother ones that you think it's worth considering please mention them here,
Thanks for any pointers or advice
JQuery Mobile and Sencha Touch are JavaScript libraries that will let you create an HTML5 application that looks like a native application. Cordova/Phonegap lets you wrap your HTML5 app in native code and provides a common JavaScript API that gives you access to native functionality, like taking a picture with the camera or getting the users Contacts. Another benefit of using Cordova is that it creates native applications for you using the same HTML5 app, so you can publish these files to App stores and increase your distribution. With a JQuery/Sencha Touch only app, you can't distribute on app stores because your hybrid app is simply a website (so, I guess it'd only be a mobile app.)
There are hundreds of blog posts comparing different JavaScript frameworks like Sencha vs jQuery vs Dojo, so you should just go off and do some of that reading. Personally I would suggest Dojo as I think it is the most powerful and enterprise ready framework, but it can have a steep learning curve. One thing I like about Dojo though is the build system, you can pick and choose the modules you want so that you don't have to end up including an enormous .js file like JQuery. I have no idea if jQuery can do this, but a lot of user apps I have seen that use Cordova and JQuery end up including all of jQuery and then jQuery mobile.
If you want to access native device features and/or package the web app as a native app and distribute it on the stores, you should use one of those JavaScript frameworks in combinations with Cordova. (Cordova is the new name for PhoneGap.) Phonegap/Cordova is not really used to build mobile web apps, it's used to extend the capabilities of mobile web apps and allow them to access native device functionality in a completely cross platform way.
Ionic is a new framework available for making hybrid apps that I am liking a lot so far. The framework is built with Sass and AngularJS on top of PhoneGap. Ionic just handles the front end so you still build your app with PhoneGap. I found that since it uses AngularJS your javascript code ends up being a lot cleaner and you will save development time making your app slick compared to what you would have to write with jQuery. It also has some beautiful UI elements. The ionic team has done a lot of speed optimizations with the framework so your app will feel more native than your typical hybrid app built purely with PhoneGap. The framework is still in alpha but I have been impressed with it.
After years of PHP/MySQL development on the server-side, I'm trying to explore new technologies for building modern web applications.
I'm trying to make an order between all the JavaScript stuff and, if I have understood well, a valid solution can be node.js on the server-side, express.js to handle routing and, for example, ember.js and/or knockout.js to handle client-side with MVC/MVVM, binding, observers. Is it a valid architecture?
I built a pretty straightfoward website at the following github location
https://github.com/bwship/neptunejs
It uses node for the server side and ember for the clientside. It is also using Parse.com for it's data and api layer. But, the general idea should all be layed out for you there, including what I feel is a pretty solid folder and file structure.
Let me know if you have any questions. I came from an ASP.NET background, and have just completely fallen in love with client-side MVC.