Trying to understand using node.js for a web applications.
Are there basically 2 major uses cases, i.e.:
The entire system is written in node, so you have functions for login, logout, password recover, and whatever else the web app does. All of this is written in javascript?
You use node.js only for sending the client updates, to have a real-time effect on the app. But the rest of the application is written in e.g. rails or django
Please tell me if I understand this correctly:
In terms of other technologies used with node.js, you tend to see people using node.js as the backend server, socket.io on the client side to establish a cross-browser long running ajax call library, and then you might use backbone.js for your client mvc pattern.
Is this right?
Basically speaking, it is just a tool to run javascript code server side. What you do with it is up to you. Many are using it as a complementary system since it's relatively new, but it's perfectly possible to run an standalone app with node.js.
It's said to be particularly good at handling concurrent connections, which is why it is often recommended to handle real-time jobs within an app, but there is no "obligation" so to speak to use it for this specific use case, it's just one thing you can do.
As with everything, the best way to understand it is to use it, so don't be afraid to play around with it.
Use case for Node js as we are using in our Application
Skype like voice & video chat on chrome browser using node js
Related
Use case
I've got an existing project developed in C# using WinForms with custom controls for the GUI. We are amazed by the approach to write GUIs using HTML/CSS/JS and we are looking for the best way to write a GUI for our desktop application using the above mentioned languages. We only need to support Windows devices.
My worries:
It doesn't take long to come across recommendations using electron-edge. While I am not so worried to get everything working, I am worried about:
Debugging my C# code (I still want to be able to start my whole application right from VS and debug it look I am used to it). I read that I would need to attach to the node.js application in order to debug my C# code afterwards. Since the whole program language is written in C# that sounds like a pain?
As far as I got edge will let it run as just one process. Can I consider the electron application as an own thread which would still run while my C# code is stuck somewhere?
My option:
I am still positive I want to write my desktop GUI with HTML/CSS/JS. What I considered instead of using electron-edge is writing an own electron application which does communicate with my C# backend using named pipes. I wonder if there are larger roadblocks why I wouldn't want to do this and use electron-edge instead?
My question:
I would like to get feedback for my two concerns mentioned above and I also would like to get input about my option to create the GUI as own electron process, so that I have two processes (GUI+Backend) when someone runs my application.
Electron.NET may be a option for you. You can write c# code with electron.
You can do it in many ways
1) COM. Create C# COM DLL. Create wrapper functions for the DLL using N-API (Native node module) or use FFI. You can access the functions from JS.
2) Create a .Net web server and include your functions as REST endpoints. From UI make http request to communicate (Clear separation of UI & BEnd)
You can checkout my github repo for a few alternatives to electron.
I think a most import question would be how your frontend interacts with the backend? Is there any notifications need push to the frontend?
WebSocket could be a good option for two ends communication.
First off, I am not asking for any code or anything like that.
all I need is some advise.
I'm creating a roulette game and everything in my roulette game is based on jQuery.
however, as we all know, jQuery is client side so I was thinking about using AJAX to send some details back to server and from the server to the users browser so I can make this roulette game work in "multiplayer" fashion... But the issue is that I don't think its possible to send the roulette's wheel animation to the server and back to users browser so I am a bit confused about this!
In my research I came across some information (old ones) about using node.js and jquery together! I don't know if this is possible or how easy it would be to use my jquery code in node.js as I have never used node.js before..
so the question that i have is:
based on the information i provided above and my requirements, what are my options?
can I use AJAX to achieve what i am trying to do and if so, a bit
information would be great.
if AJAX is out of question, is it possible to use my jquery code in
node.js to achieve what I am trying to do?
ANY ADVISE WOULD BE APPRECIATED.
P.S. I don't want to use HTML5 as 1st I don't know much about HTML5 and also, some devices, browsers do not support it.
Thanks
The best way is to use websockets to ensure real time communication. One of the best alternatives for implementing that could be using a server under node.js. Have a look to this video from Code School node.js tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtDK4jf4RS0 where is ilustrated how to implement a real time chat. Your problem is based on the same.
There are three parts to a multiplayer game displayed in a browser:
client-side display,
server-side data management,
client-server communication.
If you're already set on your display technology (jQuery), then you're probably going to use $.ajax() for client-server communication. However, technologies used for server-side data management are completely up to you and they don't necessarily have any connection to the technologies used for display and communication (meaning the traditional communication initiated by client).
Basically, use any kind of server technology stack you like. Node.js might do just fine but there are many other viable alternatives. They just need to support communication with the client.
So, to be absolutely clear, your question doesn't really make sense. You might use jQuery in the client and Node.js on the server, but they will never really "work together". They will manage completely separate parts of your application and connect through protocols not specific to either of them.
As for the animation, the animation itself is solely a client-side problem. If you want to "synchronize the animation" across multiple clients, you can let the clients communicate with the server, but they only ever need to send/receive plain data. Then you adjust the client-side animation based on the received data.
As another poster points out, websockets are a better fit for this than regular client-initiated HTTP requests. Not because of "the animation", but because you want all the clients to receive the information about the start of betting at the same time.
I am also developing a MMO game using javascript only. Firstly, there are two different types of javascript here. Usual client side javascript (the one you already know) and the server side javascript (i.e. Node.js).
You will need to develop both client and server before connecting them with jQuery's Ajax. So you need to study Node.js before designing overall architecture of your game.
I read many Node.js tutorials and watched many youtube tutorial videos but I was still confused, before I really sat down and read a good textbook that explained from basics, one like below. Try to get hold of it from your local library.
Express web application development learn how to develop web applications with the Express framework from scratch by Hage Yaapa
Express is the popular framework that runs on Node.js now. So it's worth getting familiar with Express Framework. Once you understand how express app works (not so difficult), you will see how you can frame your game structure like I did :)
In order for many clients to share same animation, there must a server that synchronizes the game state. Ajax can only link between server-client communication in my understanding. There is no mechanism that connects between clients. The clients ask server what number was the result of roulette roll and show the corresponding animations.
Yes, you can use NodeJS and jQuery together.
NodeJS is server-side, meaning that you set up a server (a lot of people use the Express module, which is easy to use), which serves content to clients asking for it. Your server-side code can be in any language supporting sockets, not just NodeJS. But NodeJS is easy to use if you know JS already.
jQuery is client-side, meaning that it's executed by the user's browser, and may or may not have a server-side component (if it doesn't need it), or it might have one where it sends requests to the server-side code. When it requests a page from the server, it can be static content (like when you request index.html) or dynamic via an AJAX request. Client-side browser code must be HTML/CSS/JS (you can't make Firefox or Chrome interpret C, for example).
I asked this (voted to be too broad) Question while working my way through a starter book on node. Reading this book, I'm sure I'll learn the answer to this later, but I'd be more comfortable if I knew this up front:
My Question: Can I (efficiently) continue using a usual webhost such as iPage or GoDaddy to host my web application, building and hosting the front end in a simple, traditional manner through an Apache web server, and communicate with a separate Node.js server (my application back-end) via AJAX for queries and other things that I can more efficiently process via Node?
More specifically, would this be a bad programming practice in terms of efficiency and organization? In other words, would it be likely that a large scale commercial application would ever be handled via this method?
Yes, you can separate the front-end of your web application and the APIs that power it. In fact, this is a very common configuration, especially for "large scale commercial applications".
Where you draw the separation line between the two specifically depends on what you are doing, how you're doing it, and what your needs are. Also, in terms of hosting, remember that if you're accessing something server-side across the internet, you're adding extra latency to everything. Consider getting off Go Daddy and using another host that gives you more flexibility, such as a VPS provider.
It's ok. Actually, this is how things shoud be done. You have a backend API on a separate server and lots of apps which are using the API. Just go with Nginx server, check this Apache vs Nginx.
Yes you can use node js as a part of some big application. It depends on wich type of interaction you would like to get. Is it comfortable to you to mix technologies? Then node is pretty good thing to work over web. I've finished a part of big nodejs-ruby-php-c-flash application (my part was nodejs) for very large data mounts. This application have different levels of interaction. Sometimes I use 2 languages at one time to create each part of my application the best for task I'm working on. There is applications that initiate, run and destroy mutiple OS instances. So using of multi environmental application not so hard.
I am developing an web application that will use web sockets to dynamically update the website for the user. The idea is to have changes in the back-end engine be dynamically transmitted. In order to do that, I want to use a Node.js server as a link between the web browser and back-end engine. Unfortunately, Node.js/JavaScript does not support SCTP sockets, which is what the back-end engine is using. Can you think of any way around this? It would be a shame if I couldn't use Socket.io and would have to deploy my own Javascript plugin & Java websocket server.
You can write the SCTP part in C or C++ and then write an addon to make it available in Node.js. I am currently trying that for one of my projects using SCTP.
Of cource, this is not super elegant, not very portable and it is some extra work, but if you really want to use Node.js, this is one of the possible ways...
I'm starting a new Facebook canvas application so I can pick the technology I'm going to use. I've always been a fan of the .NET platform so I'm strongly considering it for this app. I think the work done in:
facebooksdk.codeplex.com
looks very promising. But my question is the following:
It's my understanding that when using an app framework like this (or PHP for that matter) with Facebook, whenever we have a call into the API to do some action (say post to the stream), the flow would be the following:
-User initiates request which is direceted to ASP.NET server
-ASP.NET server makes Facebook API call
so a total of three machines are involved.
Why wouldn't one use the Javascript SDK instead?
http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/javascript/FB.api
"Server-side calls are available via the JavaScript SDK that allow you to build rich applications that can make API calls against the Facebook servers directly from the user's browser. This can improve performance in many scenarios, as compared to making all calls from your server. It can also help reduce, or eliminate the need to proxy the requests thru your own servers, freeing them to do other things."
So as I see it, I'd be taking my ASP.NET server out of the equation, reducing the number of machines involved from three to two. My server is under less load and the user (likely) gets fatter performance.
Am I correct that using the Facebook C# SDK, we have this three machine scenario instead of the two machine scenario of the JS API?
Now I do understand that a web server framework like ASP.NET offers great benefits like great development tools, infrastructure for postbacks, etc, but do I have an incomplete picture here? Would it make sense to use the C# framework but still rely on the javascript sdk for most of the FB api calls? When should one use each?
Best,
-Ben
You should absolutely use the Javascript SDK when you can. You are going to get a lot better performance and your app will be more scalable. However, performance isn't always the only consideration. Some things are just easier on the server. Also, a lot of apps do offline (or delayed processing) of user data that doesn't involve direct interaction.
I don't think that there is a right or wrong place to use each SDK, but they definitely both have their place in a well built Facebook app. My advice would just be to use whichever is easier for each task. As your app grows you are going to learn where the bottlenecks are and where you need to really squeeze that extra bit of performance is needed by either moving stuff to the client (Javascript SDK) or moving stuff to be processed in the background (Facebook C# SDK).
Generally, we use the Javascript SDK for some authentication stuff and for most of the stuff with the user interface. The one exception to the UI stuff is when we are really concerned about handling errors. It is a lot easier to handler errors on the server than with the Javascript SDK. Errors I am talking about are things like errors from facebook or just general facebook downtime.
Like I said, in the beginning just use both and do whatever is easier for each task.