1. Node.js, toy or power tool?
Jax CodeCamp, Oct 2012
Ovidiu Dimulescu
Saturday, October 6, 12

2. Agenda
• What problem?
• How’s Node.js helping?
• Use cases
• Industry support
• Coding in Node.js
• Ecosystem
• Q &A
Saturday, October 6, 12

3. About @odimulescu
• Working on the Web since 1997
• Into startup and engineering cultures
• Speaker at user groups
• Organizer for JaxMUG.com
• Co-Organizer for Jax Big Data meetup
Saturday, October 6, 12

4. Node.js - What’s the problem?
Fast CPUs Spinning wheels
How do we saturate the CPU doing useful work?
Saturday, October 6, 12

5. Node.js - How’s it helping?
• Uses event-driven, non-blocking IO
• Enforces async throughout*
Saturday, October 6, 12

6. Multi-Threaded Servers
*Credit: blog.cloudfoundry.com
Saturday, October 6, 12

7. Node.js - Single Thread, Event-ed
*Credit: blog.cloudfoundry.com
Saturday, October 6, 12

8. Node.js - Concurrency
Node.js Event Loop
Rq1 Rq1
Rq2 Rq2
Green - Request Executing
Red - IO wait
Saturday, October 6, 12

9. Node.js - Concurrency
Thread
Node.js
Higher Concurrency
Same Latency
Saturday, October 6, 12

10. Node.js - Been there, done that
Event Machines
• - Twisted
• - EventMachine
• - Mina, Netty, Atmosphere, vertx.io
• - POE
Others
• Erlang
• Scala / Akka
Saturday, October 6, 12

11. Node.js - But ...
They mix async with sync and the mentality is
towards sync in libraries, drivers etc.
Saturday, October 6, 12

12. Node.js - Use Cases
• Proxy between different data layers
• Soft real-time apps
• Crawlers
• CLI tools
• Quick prototyping
• Lower HW and Operational cost*
Saturday, October 6, 12

13. Node.js - Not best fit
• Culture mismatch
• Uses Javascript
• Requests are CPU intensive
• Apps relies on specific libraries / functionality
• Transactional systems
Saturday, October 6, 12

14. Node.js - Industry Support
Saturday, October 6, 12

15. Node.js - Industry Usage
Saturday, October 6, 12

16. Node.js - Installation
1. Go to nodejs.org
2. Download and run installer
Saturday, October 6, 12

17. Node.js - Installation
1. Go to nodejs.org
2. Download and run installer
What’s included?
node - binary
npm - cli package manager
built-in support for http, net, dns
Saturday, October 6, 12

18. Node.js - Server Installation
1. Regular Installation
2. Make it a service
Windows - NSSM, srvany, etc.
Unix - Distro dependent
3. Front-end WS Integration
IIS 7+ Integration - iisnode
Apache - mod_proxy or mod_rewrite
Nginx - rewrite or proxy
HAProxy, stunnel
Saturday, October 6, 12

19. Node.js - Considerations
Lowest privileges
Unix: drop to non-root via setuid / setguid
Front with a secure Proxy
Enable safeguards
“use strict”
Saturday, October 6, 12

20. Node.js - Hello World
CLI Version - helloworld.js
console.log(“Hello world”);
$ node helloworld.js
Hello World
Web Version
Saturday, October 6, 12

21. Node.js - Hello World
Web - Router Version
Saturday, October 6, 12

22. Node.js - I will call you back
Saturday, October 6, 12

23. Node.js - When, then
Saturday, October 6, 12

24. Node.js - Flow libraries
Serial independent
Runs a series of functions one after the previous function completed
Serial dependent
Runs a series of functions passing previous results into next function
Parallel fashion
Runs a series of function in parallel
Queue
Runs a series of function in parallel up to desired concurrency
Library Choices
Async, Groupie, Step, Q, etc.
Saturday, October 6, 12

25. Node.js - Modules
Module - mymodule.js
Client mymodule_client.js
Saturday, October 6, 12

26. Node.js - Modules
package.json
require(‘mylib’) - Lookup order
1. package.json -> ./lib/mylib.js
2. index.js
3. index.node
Saturday, October 6, 12

27. Node.js - Logging
• console
• log4js
• Winston
• GELF - Graylog Extended Log Format
• Windows Event Log
...
Saturday, October 6, 12

28. Node.js - Debugging
$ npm install node-inspector
$ node --debug-brk myapp.js
$ node --debug myapp.js
debugger listening on port 5858
$ node-inspector
visit http://0.0.0.0:8080/debug?port=5858 to start debugging
Debuggers
WebKit based: Chrome
Eclipse V8 Debugger Plugin, JetBrains WebStorm
Other Tools
v8-profiler, node-profiler
nodetime.com
Saturday, October 6, 12

29. Node.js - Inspector
Saturday, October 6, 12

30. Node.js - Debugging
Saturday, October 6, 12

31. Node.js - DB / ORM
Database Drivers
MS SQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, SQLite,
Redis, CouchDB, Hive, Riak, Cassandra
ORMs
sequelize, persist, LazyBoy, Model, jugglingdb, node-orm
Transactions, Connection Pooling
node-mysql-queues
Saturday, October 6, 12

32. Node.js - Web frameworks
• Derby
• Express
• Flatiron
• Meteor
• Mojito
• Tower
...
Browserify - Node to Browser conversion
Saturday, October 6, 12

33. Node.js - Testing frameworks
• assert - built in
• API Easy
• Cucumber
• httpmock, nock, mockery
• NodeUnit
• Soda
...
Saturday, October 6, 12

34. Node.js - Scaling out
Saturday, October 6, 12

35. Node.js - Scaling out
*Credit: blog.evantahler.com
Saturday, October 6, 12

36. Node.js - Wrapping up
• Reuse existing JavaScript skill and code
• Low resource usage
• Performant VM (Google’s V8)
• Active Community, Lots of resources
• Package Manager
• Enforces Async across
• Quick Prototyping
• Growing Industry support
Saturday, October 6, 12

37. Q &A
Saturday, October 6, 12