Today, mobile applications such as social networks, chats, and online games are growing and more popular than ever. One of the most powerful real-time service platforms is NodeJs.  So what strengths and weaknesses does it have? Is Node.js the right technology platform for you? In this article, we will dive into the Mobile App Development Node.js review. Let’s explore right now.

Overview of Node.js

Before diving into the Mobile App Development Node.js review, let’s briefly understand the concept of Node.js.

What is Node.js?

Node.js is a platform-independent development built on top of Chrome’s Javascript Runtime. Thanks to it, we can set up network applications quickly and easily. Node.js has been built and developed since 2009, sponsored by Joyent company, based in California, USA. 

The V8 Javascript engine is the foundation of Node.js. V8 is the heart of Node.js for executing JavaScript codes and making it possible for Node.js to build efficient mobile applications.

The core part of Node.js is written mostly in C++, so it gives high processing speed and performance. Node.js creates applications with fast processing speed, real-time. Node.js applies to products with high traffic, needs to scale quickly, need to innovate technology or create Startup projects as quickly as possible.

Unique features of Node.js

• Asynchronous: All Node.js APIs are asynchronous. They are mainly based on Node.js Server and it usually waits for results from this server. Thanks to the migration of the server to subsequent API calls and Node.js’ event notification mechanism, developers will get the results from the server to get a response from the calls. Call the API first.

• Fast performance: NodeJ is built based on the V8 Javascript Engine platform, so the program execution is very fast.

• Using a single-threaded model but highly scalable: Node.js uses a single-threaded model with event looping. Servers respond favorably using this single-threaded model. On the other hand, it allows the server to be highly scalable. That is in contrast to traditional servers that create limited threads to process requests. Node.js uses a single-threaded program and similar programs. Those can serve a much larger number of requests than conventional servers like Apache HTTP Server.
• No padding: Node.js does not buffer any data and these applications are mainly data output.
• Licensed: MIT License has granted a prestigious license to Node.js.

In addition, Node.js can also:

• Supports performing file operations such as creating, opening, closing, reading, writing, deleting while accessing the server.
• Create content for dynamic mobile apps.
• Collect data on demand.
• Query, add, delete, edit data in the database system MongoDB, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

What is NPM?

When it comes to Mobile App Development Node.js, we can’t help but mention NPM. NPM (Node Package Manager) is a tool for creating and managing libraries for Node.js. When you install Node.js, NPM is also installed.

There is a slight comparison, NPM is like Gradle, Maven in Android. All libraries and modules will be centrally managed in one place.

The libraries will be uploaded to an intermediate server. Now our project will not need to be copied manually. Instead, NPM will automatically download from the server to your project. As of the time of writing, NPM has around 210,000 modules, spoiled for choice for your project.

Outstanding advantages and disadvantages of Mobile App Development Node.js

The main pros of Node.js

Here are the advantages that make businesses choose mobile app development node.js .

• Compact JSON APIs

Because lightweight REST/JSON APIs are what makes Node.js shine. With the event-driven, non-blocking I/O (Input/Output) mechanism and the combined model with Javascript, it is a great choice for JSON-based Web services.

• Performance is quite stable

That is particularly necessary for all languages. Node.js is no exception. Web platform with five major browser providers: Mozilla, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Opera. With the backing of Google’s V8 JavaScript Engine and Event-driven non-blocking I/O, it can handle hundreds of thousands of concurrent connections. But the server configuration for Node.js is very modest. You can save up to 4 times compared to conventional investment with double the efficiency.

• Apps on one page

If you are going to write a single-page application like Gmail, Mobile App Development Node.js will be a good choice for you. With the ability to handle many Requests and fast response time, you can consider it. If the applications you intend to write do not want to reload the page, you should choose Node.js. The reason is that it includes many requests from users that need a fast operation to show professionalism.

• Shelling tool UNIX

Node.js will take full advantage of Unix to work. Node.js can process thousands of Processes and return a thread, making the performance to be the maximum and the best.

• Streaming Data

Web sites normally send HTTP requests and receive responses. Suppose when you need to process a very large data stream, Node.js will build proxies that partition the data streams to ensure maximum operation for other data streams.

• Real Web Apps

Let’s say you want to build a mobile application like chat, feed, and Facebook, Twitter is typical of the real Web. Node.js does this pretty well.

So how long does it take us to master Node.js?

The main cons of Node.js

• Resource-heavy apps

If you need to handle CPU-intensive applications such as decoding encryption, encoding video, converting files, or similar applications, then Node.js is not recommended.

The reason is that Node.js is written in C++ and Javascript. Developers will need to go through an additional Node.js compiler. This process will take a little more time. In this case, you need to integrate them. It is important that you write a C++ Addon to integrate with Node.js for maximum performance.

• Node.js competitiveness with other platforms

Whether programming platforms ​​like Node.js, PHP, Ruby, Python. NET. No matter how different, the last thing is to develop mobile applications. Node.js life span is not too long. So don’t expect Node.js to be superior to PHP, Ruby, and Python at this point. However, with Node.js you can have one application as expected, that’s for sure!

Programming languages ​​that have been around for a long time have quite a few advantages ahead. They are a perennial community, framework, cms, and open source. If you or your business are new to Node.js, it may not be suitable for you. Older programming languages ​​like Ruby on Rails, ASP.NET, or Python will suit you better.

• Quite hard to learn and understand

You are experienced with programming languages ​​to develop projects. You know Node.js through news, press, friends. You decide to build the project using Node.js. When there is a problem, the risk of building a project with Node.js at the same time will make you disappointed. This language is quite hard to learn. However, if you invest your time and focus in learning this language, you will find it very useful.

Usually, it will take 3 – 6 months for teamwork (3 – 5 people). Personally, it will take 4 to 8 months to master Node.js.

With the popularity of Node.js in mobile application design today, learning about Mobile App Development Node.js is the golden key for businesses to achieve success. With the information we have just provided, we believe that you have a basic understanding of the platform.