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.
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Update: When I first started with this question I was basically struggling to understand what I needed to do in order to make my frontend interact with the backend.
To answer my own question in case new guys come in:
If you use ejs, you are using server side rendering, meanwhile if you work your frontend separated your backend, you'll mostly be working with APIs.
First learn Node. Than work your way through on how APIs work. After feeling comfortable, start learning React.
Yes its normal. Just start building a project or else you'll stay in that tutorial hell.
So I have basic knowledge about React, intermediate level on javascript... and now I have taken a node with mongodb course. So I know that, i'll be feeding my tutorial hell if I do not put all those together and start building something from scratch. But till now, I have only rendered the EJS files and know how to setup everything from the ejs view point.
So now I feel quite lost as if someone gave me a puzzle with missing pieces.
I know some of you guys have taken this road so I have a couple of questions, even though some sound quite stupid:
How can node code be affected introducing reactJs, because I am currently using res.render('ejsViewFile')?
When you guys first learned this approach for using the MERN Stack, how did you learn to connect both of them? I find a lot of tutorials... but they confuse me even more.
Is this normal... me feeling like I have learned absolutely NOTHING?
It's great to see such type of questions.
I have also developed web application in which I have to just use the node JS and react with multiple microservices.
so I am also going through from such tutorials on udemy and other tutorials that are available on the website.
I found out that you can use react JS as a front UI and you can use node JS for backend if you don't want to use spring boot for your microservices it is just fine.
So basically I have developed rest API in node JS and using axios and promise I am calling that API from my react applications so I think in that way you can connect both of the applications.
in most of the applications I have seen that node JS is used for security purposes in the following purposes and then node JS is connected to a microservice it is just kind of adding another layer over your application.
I prefer lead can tell you that you can go through the udemy courses of react JS and it will show you how you can create a rest API on the node JS.
React for UI
Nodejs: api gateway or backend. You wish
Java : microservices, rest apis
I have a question already search on google but not find a good answer.
What is the job of nodejs & ExpressJS in mean stack development ? Like is it some thing like php to create api and angular will call it ? Or something else
You're exactly right, Node.js is used in MEAN stack to create backend code and APIs that are called from a frontend Angular app.
Angular is the way to create an SPA (Single Page Application).
Wikipedia:
A single-page application (SPA) is a web application or web site that
interacts with the user by dynamically rewriting the current page
rather than loading entire new pages from a server.
ExpressJS
What is Express.js. Express is a fast, assertive, essential and
moderate web framework of Node.js. You can assume express as a layer
built on the top of the Node.js that helps manage a server and routes.
It provides a robust set of features to develop web and mobile applications.
So on top of node-js which is your server side application where you can build your apis that your angular SPA will consume, you have Express JS which is a ready solution to help you.
This way, you will not need to solve problems like routing which have already been solved by the framework in an "optimal" or at least commonly agreed "good enough" way.
There is an excellent answer on express js in stackoverflow here
Yes, you right it is like so. NodeJs is used to create a server, then APIs and Angular call those API from the Front-End.
Detailed Description:
What is NodeJs
You can create a server using NodeJs where you will have a bunch of APIs.
These APIs can be called from an Angular app.
Official Definition: Node.js is a runtime environment that executes JavaScript code outside of a browser. Outside of a browser means Server.
What is ExpressJs
ExpressJS is a prebuilt NodeJS framework that can help you in creating server-side web applications faster and smarter.
Note: It is not necessary to use ExpressJs if you are using NodeJs.
What is Angular
Angular is a framework for building Single Page Application(SAP) web
applications.
SAP means your site does not reload the page when you move from one page to another.
Your Angular app calls NodeJs API.
Angular is a library for building Single Page Applications which (typically) run inside a web browser.
Node.js is a way of running software written in JavaScript outside of a browser. It has many uses.
Software written to run under Node.js — that is strictly relevant to the topics you are asking about — includes:
Build tools used with Angular (converting code is written in ways optimal for developers to edit and debug to ways optimal for delivering to and running in a browser).
Other helper tools for software development (such as #angular/cli which creates a skeleton set of code for an Angular project)
HTTP servers used to provide web services (a type of API) for client applications (which may be written in Angular) to access
Express.js is a library for Node.js which provides prewritten solutions for many of the tasks an HTTP server needs to perform.
You can write many kinds of software in Node.js. I have some code lurking around that loops over all the images in a directory and spits out a PDF of them. It doesn't even go near the Internet.
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
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
I am interested in develop a rt module for my website with socketstream + node.js. I am only interested in do the server side in socketstream, not the client side. How can I access the socketstream from a normal php/html app, wich js i have to include ? I am mainly interested in rpc, pub/sub and authentication/session.
I would not recommend doing this, as it is unorthodox.
That said, I do recall that someone wanted to use an early version of SocketStream from within their application, which was built on the .net platform. It turned out that they got it to work by embedding the SocketStream app's web page inside of an iframe.
Check out to this framework:
http://www.socketstream.org/
Comes with a lot of examples and it's easy to use.