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At the Forge - Node.JS

Issue 205

From Issue #205
May 2011

Jul 31, 2011  By Reuven M. Lerner
 in
Want to write high-performance network server applications? Node.JS uses JavaScript to do exactly that.

Listing 2. index.ejs


<html>
<head>
<title>Title!</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Body!</p>
<p>From param: <%= param %></p>
</body>
</html>

Actually, that's not entirely true. Express looks for a layout, much as Rails templates do, and if it doesn't find a layout, it'll throw an exception. You could create a layout, but it's easier just to modify the express application's configuration. Do that by setting parameters inside app.set: 

app.set('view options', {
  layout: false
    });

Once that is added, your template is rendered just fine.

Conclusion

Node.JS already has started to affect the way that people write Web applications and even how they think about writing Web applications. Some sites (such as GitHub) have moved toward Node.JS for specific, high-performance tasks. Others are looking to change over completely. I don't think I'll be using Node.JS for a Web application any time soon, but I can think of several other ways it would be useful. Node.JS already has had a huge impact on the world of Web developers, and it appears poised to continue to hold this position of leadership for some time to come. Certainly, the days when I scoffed at the notion of server-side JavaScript have long gone.

Resources

The home page for Node.JS is nodejs.org. The home page for the npm package manager is npmjs.org, And the home page for express is expressjs.com.

Node.JS is not the first event-driven Web application engine. If you're interested in learning more about similar projects in other languages, look at Twisted Python (twistedmatrix.com) and EventMachine for Ruby (rubyeventmachine.com). A full introduction to the world of event-driven network programming, using Twisted, is at krondo.com. Click on the “Twisted introduction” link to get started.

You can get some specific pointers and tutorials on Node.JS via several sites, such as dailyjs.com and howtonode.org.

Finally, you can learn more about the CommonJS standard at www.commonjs.org.

Reuven M. Lerner is a longtime Web developer, architect and trainer. He is a PhD candidate in learning sciences at Northwestern University, researching the design and analysis of collaborative on-line communities. Reuven lives with his wife and three children in Modi'in, Israel.

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