How to use not pure-JS (C++) Node.js modules in Cloud9IDE? - node.js

I am developing Node.js application in Cloud9IDE and I problem using module (like node-expat) in Cloud9IDE.
If it was pure-JavaScript module, there shouldn't be problem, but modules that compiles C++ code for interaction with NodeJS...
I wounder if there is possibility to use/run modules that compiles C++ code in Cloud9IDE. May be you have some experience with this?
Thanks for any feedback!
Cheers,
Milan

Right now Cloud9 IDE blocks binary node modules for security reasons. Right now there is now way to use them. We (the cloud9 team) are discussing ways to enable binary modules e.g. by whitelisting trusted ones.

Related

node js - How do I create build for commercial usage?

I am working on node js application and it is now ready to use. I want to make exe of this application so that it can be used for commercial usage.
Up to now I have used enclose module using which I have compiled the code of application but I have found some issues in that (app got crash on idle condition). App is running good without enclose or compiled code.
I have searched on google and found some alternate modules like JXcore, Node webkit and Electron etc. but JX core giving error same as in SO question.
In node web-kit, it's functionality is not looking suitable as we need its executable and some dll's along with our code, which makes our package bulky.
I have also tried jxcore. The main problem with the exe's and with modules that we use is their ability to work with native modules, in my case the Kinect.node module. This module cannot be compiled. We need a workaround to package only this along with our .exe file. Enclose provides this workaround in its inbuilt functionality.
Also looking a response from EncloseJS, which is actually run by just one person who gives further instructions upon purchase. A purchase is needed for commercial usage.
In case of Electron, It is supporting only Electron-based application source code. So If I choose this then I have to modify my application code.
So can any one suggest me what can I do to make exe file from node js code there?
Thank you!
I had the same issue before, the node js application close when running in background. now i am using process manager2 (pm2), it is working fine and if the application is crash due to any other reason it is automatically started again.
I have gotten my answer:
First, reason was DiskDB database, it was not compatible with the node webkit so that is why I was getting error of native modules.
Now I am using sqlite3 module for local database. It is better than DiskDB.
Second, One reason was free version of enclose, Paid version of Enclose JS module ignores the timeout issue which I was getting.
This way I have resolved my question.

What are the trade-offs of writing conventional node modules in ES6 with a babel workflow?

When developing front-end code for the browser, I often use the es2017 preset when transpiling down to a distribution bundle, which allows me all the conveniences of the included transformers. For conventional modules, I usually stick to whatever the required node engine I've specified for that particular module supports.
I would like to start developing these "conventional" modules using babel transformers as well, but I can foresee drawbacks to this, including:
It might inhibit the debugging workflow (more specifically when working with an IDE)
The performance of the module might suffer
What's the current state on this matter - would you say it makes sense to use babel in conventional modules given the aforementioned and other trade-offs? What are the pros/cons for your preferred workflow?
Bonus question: What are some reputable modules and/or module authors out there that are already using this technique? I've seen Facebook do it for their react ecosystem but I guess that makes sense since those are mostly modules for the browser.
It is converted back to vanilla JS (babel does that part).
What you get is that you can utilize Classes which I found useful.
Hopefully with time, browsers will support ES6 and we will not need babel.
The only drawback is that when debugging, you have to produce a source map, but that is temporary, see above.
To answer your second question: I'm using React in one of the websites, and most of the modules I needed (from npm) are using ES6.
I believe that the trade-offs or drawbacks that you mention both do not apply to developing nodejs code using babel as ES7 transpiler. Personally, I find using ES7 features with node tremendously productive.
There is source map support for debugging. I use karma for testing and it comes with excellent source map support (I use IntelliJ but I believe most IDEs will do). You can checkout this REST-API repository on github. It's a nice stack for building nodejs data backend. It uses karma for testing - even comes with code coverage support. It also integrates with pm2 for scaling and availability.
Regarding performance: I think transpiled code has been shown to run faster in many scenarios than the code a developer would write when not having advanced language features available. I will post some links later.

How to share common client-side javascript across NodeJS projects?

I'm a Node n00b starting a couple web app projects using Express, and I've got some common client-side libraries I'd like to share between the two projects. This seems like a very common problem, so there must be several solutions available already.
I come from a java background, and in java, I'd create a separate "common" project and "overlay" common WAR over my project during packaging. This would also allow for r.js optimization during the build process.
My best guess in Node is that I need to create a private NPM module, and map those common files into express via a use() middleware plugin. Is that right?
How, then, can I package both my common and project specific javascript into a minified file using r.js?
Or is source control the answer? Checking out my "common" repository inside each project?
Any help would be most appreciated. Thanks.
This seems like a very common problem, so there must be several solutions available already.
Good news: Yes, this is a common problem. Yes, there are several "solutions".
Bad News: All of the "solutions" are at least partially terrible.
Here's my advice:
1) Individual .js files should be coded as CommonJS modules
2) Groups of related .js files should be made into npm packages
3A) Use them in node via the regular node.js/CommonJS require function and use browserify to use them in the browser
3B) OR use a built tool like grunt to wrap commonjs into AMD format for use with requireJS in the browser
3C) OR consider something like component.io components

Is there a way to compile node.js source files? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Is it possible to create desktop applications with node.js? [duplicate]
(5 answers)
Closed 7 years ago.
Is there a way to compile a node.js application?
I maybe very late but you can use "nexe" module that compile nodejs + your script in one executable: https://github.com/crcn/nexe
EDIT 2021: Nexe's latest release is from 2017 and it appears that development has otherwise slowed, so the more-widely-used alternative from Vercel should also be considered these days: pkg
Node.js runs on top of the V8 Javascript engine, which itself optimizes performance by compiling javascript code into native code... so no reason really for compiling then, is there?
https://developers.google.com/v8/design#mach_code
EncloseJS.
You get a fully functional binary without sources.
Native modules also supported. (must be placed in the same folder)
JavaScript code is transformed into native code at compile-time using V8 internal compiler. Hence, your sources are not required to execute the binary, and they are not packaged.
Perfectly optimized native code can be generated only at run-time based on the client's machine. Without that info EncloseJS can generate only "unoptimized" code. It runs about 2x slower than NodeJS.
Also, node.js runtime code is put inside the executable (along with your code) to support node API for your application at run-time.
Use cases:
Make a commercial version of your application without sources.
Make a demo/evaluation/trial version of your app without sources.
Make some kind of self-extracting archive or installer.
Make a closed source GUI application using node-thrust.
No need to install node and npm to deploy the compiled application.
No need to download hundreds of files via npm install to deploy your application. Deploy it as a single independent file.
Put your assets inside the executable to make it even more portable.
Test your app against new node version without installing it.
There was an answer here: Secure distribution of NodeJS applications. Raynos said: V8 allows you to pre-compile JavaScript.
You can use the Closure compiler to compile your javascript.
You can also use CoffeeScript to compile your coffeescript to javascript.
What do you want to achieve with compiling?
The task of compiling arbitrary non-blocking JavaScript down to say, C sounds very daunting.
There really isn't that much speed to be gained by compiling to C or ASM. If you want speed gain offload computation to a C program through a sub process.
Now this may include more than you need (and may not even work for command line applications in a non-graphical environment, I don't know), but there is nw.js.
It's Blink (i.e. Chromium/Webkit) + io.js (i.e. Node.js).
You can use node-webkit-builder to build native executable binaries for Linux, OS X and Windows.
If you want a GUI, that's a huge plus. You can build one with web technologies.
If you don't, specify "node-main" in the package.json (and probably "window": {"show": false} although maybe it works to just have a node-main and not a main)
I haven't tried to use it in exactly this way, just throwing it out there as a possibility. I can say it's certainly not an ideal solution for non-graphical Node.js applications.
javascript does not not have a compiler like for example Java/C(You can compare it more to languages like PHP for example). If you want to write compiled code you should read the section about addons and learn C. Although this is rather complex and I don't think you need to do this but instead just write javascript.

Haxe in the field

I had a fresh look at Haxe again recently and realized that I had overlooked some of its elegance before. But I guess it lacks some visibility among the developers still.
So my question is, does anybody here use it for production? If so, how do you use it? What are the gotchas or difficulties you encounter? Do you recommend it for future projects?
I use Haxe to develop all my Flash applications, and I love it. I develop on Linux and with Emacs,
and I really like how I can make Haxe fit within my preferred development environment. I just use
simple Makefiles that look something like:
project.swf: Project.hx
haxe project.hxml
It's really easy to get started in Haxe, and it's very elegant. I've
had no problems at all using Haxe as compared to using the Adobe Flash
builders, and have developed a bunch of big projects including PanningPedagogy, The Orchive,Cantillion and Audioscapes.
I've released the source code to all of these as GPL on SourceForge, check them out at:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/panning/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/orcaannotator/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/cantillion/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/margridflash/
You might find some useful information in the lists of Projects Using Haxe and People Using Haxe.
My company uses Haxe for production use. For programming swf content is absolutly no problem on the technical side. Using it on the server side is a little bit harder. If you Haxe for PHP you sometimes have some problems with typing (this is more or less a PHP problem). The neko vm is very stable and very very fast but it takes some time to get it running with all you other server software (mysql, apache - mod_rewrite), but once you got it you it is very stable.
We used it for generation swf applications, tried the possibilies of Haxe JS. Also we created socket server for a multiplayer game and start to generate all our webpages with Haxe PHP or neko.
The community is very helpful, the documentation is sometimes a little bit to short.
This is only my opinion and the experiences I made.
For those of us who don't know what Haxe is, it's a programming language for developing web apps. It has multiple compiler targets (Flash, php, JavaScript, and the Neko language's VM)
Welcome to haxe [haxe.org]
Haxe entry on Wikipedia
Haxe are currently gaining more popularity as a cross-platform development (mainly for game development) tools thanks to NME/OpenFL: http://www.openfl.org/
Write once in Haxe and deploy it to Flash, Android, iOS, and more..
HaxeJS is very good for web production, it allows to use all the underlying js modules while giving extra abilities like pre-processor, typed fields, conditional-compilation, classes, haxe libraries, refactoring and auto-completion from IDE etc.. plus its very quick to compile and output ready-to-use js files.
I haven't tried microsoft typescript, but so far I've been using HaxeJS for both client and server (nodejs) on a few production projects and it feels a great choice. The only issue is if i want to share js libraries or npm modules with others, I'll probably need to rewrite the js by hand then.
We used it at a previous internship, for an internal web system. We only compiled to js and I just once compiled some minor code to both js and C#. I can say it worked quite well and many custom widgets were made at the time. Debugging the produced js wasn't that bad either, but it sometimes didn't produce the code you wanted it to (I remember one string comparison issue in js, where the reference was being compared instead of the value). The code was deployed in production and had worked fine for years. I'm pretty sure they still use it today.
That was in 2013, I haven't used it since. One problem I did have was trying to compile code made in version 2.08 using version 2.10. It needed some minor, but non-obvious adjustments. I can't quite comment on more recent releases, but I'd be a bit careful on not breaking large pieces of code by upgrading to new versions of the compiler.
You compile, haxelib run flow run "target" in target you type for example web, and thats all, in your bin, folder you get your files, remember to configure your project.flow file acording to your target and project.

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