Node as an API shim
- 1. Node.JS The Swiss Army Knife of Web Development: API Shim
- 2. Summary ● Frontend Development – In the Past – Today ● Node.js as an API shim – The IE7 problem it solves – The frontend-backend coupling problem – Solution ● Node.js is everywhere – The new Perl – Swiss army knife of web development – One step away from deployment
- 3. In The Past ● Java for minifying CSS files ● Ruby for compiling SASS into CSS files ● Tightly coupled backend and frontend – Build process – Deployment process – API integration
- 4. Frontend Today ● Node.js is used for frontend builds: – for every step of the build process – for dependency management – for compilation, pre-processing – for minifying and even for macros
- 5. The Situation ● AngularJS Web App ● Frontend build process all using Node.js ● Backend REST API written in Java ● Migrated from Java Server Faces to decouple frontend from backend ● Clients are big banks, financial firms
- 6. The IE problem ● Internet Explorer 7 has a small limit on HTTP requests ● IE7: 2 max simultaneous ● Our client was using IE7
- 7. Frontend/Backend Decoupling ● Relying on backend API changes when there's a backlog of other work. ● Backend Java responsibilities: – Crawl for data from other databases – Index the data – Search the data – Generate reports ● Frontend release schedule tied to backend releases
- 8. Node.js as an API Shim ● Solution was Node.js api server shim ● Bundled 4+ requests data into one request ● Using expressjs (already used for local development) ● Only required a frontend web app deployment :-)
- 9. API Shims To Sneak Node In ● Make APIs cleaner than they usually would be without modifying your frontend code ● Re-use API methods to reduce the # of requests ● Prototype new functionality quickly and then backport to the backend
- 10. Advantages of Node.js ● Same language as the web browser scripting language ● Asynchronous by default ● Process-oriented vs thread-oriented ● Fast compared to other dynamic languages
- 11. Node.js is the new Perl ● Text processing was a big part of web development, especially for system administration ● Perl was fast, flexible and supported crazy regular expressions ● Web dev and devops requires inter-operation with speed and scalability. ● Node.js is fast, flexible and supports crazy asynchronous expressions
- 12. Most important fact about Node.js ● You do not need permission to use it ● Chances are it's already used for building and deploying your frontend web app ● It's already installed, you're already downloading packages for it ● You can write small command line scripts ● JSON is the language of APIs
- 13. Thanks! ● Check out my blogs – http://neverfriday.com/ – http://sourcecontribute.com/ ● Twitter: @src_contribute