NodeJS

Whoami
Giovanni Lela
CTO@LinkMe
cofounder@MeanMilan
@lambrojos
http://github.com/lambrojos

Logistics
● Text editor
● node.js >= 0.10.*
● npm
● nodeschool.io

Brief history of server side js
Pre-nodejs
● Netscape enterprise server (1994)
● IIS (1996)
Not very successful

Enter node.js
● Ryan Dahl creates node.js to easily give sites
push capabilities
● 2009 - Birth of node.js
● Joyent takes control

Hype, dissatisfaction, forks
In the following years node gains substantial
traction.
But in 2014 project stagnation leads to a fork - io.js
What now?

Node.js foundation
Node is currently sponsored by the node.js
foundation, with some big names being listed in the
sponsors.
The node.js foundation itself is hosted by the linux
foundation.
Technical decisions are made by the Tecnical Steering
Commitee

Why node.js matters
It can handle a lot of concurrent I/O operations.
This is because of non-blocking I/O and javascript
own nature.

Blocking I/O analogy
Suppose you own a fast-food restaurant:
● the cashier takes the order than waits for the food
to be ready before doing anything else
● if you want to serve more customers you need
more cashiers
● this is “classical” multi-threaded parallel execution

Non blocking I/O analogy
- As soon as you place your order, it’s sent off for
someone to fulfill while the cashier is still
taking your payment.
- When you are done paying, you have to step
aside because the cashier is already looking to
service the next customer.
- When your order is complete, you will be called
back

In real life
- the node server receives a request for /about.
html
- while node waits for the filesystem to get the
file, the server thread services the next
- when the file is ready a callback function call is
inserted in the server thread message queue -
can be seen as a todo list

Everything runs in parallel, except your code
source: http://localhost:9000/images/event-loop.jpg

Event loops
There are event loop implementations for many
languages in platform. But in node.js the event
loop is the platform

What not to do in the event loop
Everything that is CPU- intensive:
● image / video processing
● heavy number crunching
● compressing files
● actually everything involving complex
algorithms
(Hower you can write native extensions)

What do - remote APIs
● REST/JSON Api
● quite fun to use node with non relational DB
● lots of stable and mature frameworks:
○ Express
○ Hapi
○ Sails.js
○ Loopback
○ ...

Javascript everywhere
● also your frontend can be in javascript
● the barriers between the front and the back
end look thinner - Isomorphism
● Shared rendering
● Shared models

Real time web apps
That what it was born for
● Frameworks:
○ Primus
○ Socket IO
○ Meteor
● It can also be integrated inside an existing web
stack

IoT applications
● Hardware
○ Arduino
○ Rasperry PI
○ ..
● Frameworks
○ johnny five (robotics)
○ node-red (visual integration)
○ ...

Desktop applications
Electron by github is a framework for building
desktop apps. Applications built on Electron
include:
● Atom
● Slack clients
● Visual studio code
● Kitematic (docker)

Differences from the browser
● No DOM
● No browser globals such as window, document
● No browser inconsistencies - you just have the
v8
● ES5 supported - no ugly hacks and polyfills
● ES6 getting supported

Something you don’t have in the browser
● control over the process
● streams
● dependency management
● lots of callbacks

Process
It is a global variable it allow us to interct with
the OS
● process.exit(code)
● process.env.[env variable name]
● process.argv - read command line
parameters
$ node argv.js one two three four
myArgs: [ 'one', 'two', 'three',
'four' ]

Node streams
● They emit events which represent I/O
operations
● They can be readable, writable or both (duplex)

Node streams: example
var readable = getReadableStreamSomehow();
readable.on('data', function(chunk) {
console.log('got %d bytes of data', chunk.
length);
});
readable.on('end', function() {
console.log('there will be no more
data.');
});

Combining streams w/ pipe
var fs = require('fs');
var readableStream = fs.
createReadStream('file1.txt');
var writableStream = fs.
createWriteStream('file2.txt');
readableStream.pipe
(writableStream);

Modules
Modules are managed with common.js
exports.getGreetings = function() {
return 'Hello World';
};
//example.js
var hello = require('./hello.js');
var greetings = hello.getGreetings();

Module management: NPM
Common js modules are installed with npm
● npm install
● npm uninstall
● npm updatea
Modules can be installed globally (applications),
or locally to your applications (dependencies).

Dependency management
Your application dependencies and their version
are listed in the package.json files.
It can store other informations such as version,
author, scripts to be executed during the
application lifecycle.

Node-style callbacks
a.k.a. Error-first callbacks a.k.a.
Nodebacks
function callback (err,
data) { /* ... */ }
Beware of callback hell!

Node.js as a Web server app platform
Node’s asynchronous naturemakes it an ideal
platform for web server side development:
● High I/O throughput
● Efficient and easy management of concurrent
requests
● Shares language and some tooling with the client
side
● LOTS of open source libraries and modules

Frameworks?
Node’s own http module is a bit low level.
We want to be able to avoid boilerplate while
retaining flexibility
Many, many choices

Hapi
● stable
● well documented
● well maintened
● modular
● is a good mix between flexibility and structure
● good plugin ecosystem

How did it start?
Hapi short for HTTP API, or so they say
Developed in Walmart Labs by a guy Named Eran
Hammer
Eran Hammer also authored OAuth

What does it do?
● Routes
● Caching
● Sessions
● Logging
● Authentication
● Plugins

Philosophy
● Configuration over code
● Three Rs:
○ Reusability - plugins, handlers
○ Reduce errors - strong validation, 100% test coverage
○ Reflection - the applications knows it’s own structure .
this makes generating documentation easier

Show me the code - routes
var Hapi = require('hapi');
var server = new Hapi.Server('localhost', 8000);
server.route({
method: 'GET',
path: '/hello/{name}',
handler: function (request, reply) {
reply('hello world');
}
});
server.start();

Config objects
The route object alse accepts a config object
which controls every aspect of the request’s
lifecycle such as validation, authentication,
caching
Its properties may depend on the plugins installed

Config example
{
config: {
handler: handlers.mapUsername,
description: 'Get todo',
notes: 'Returns a todo item by the id passed in the path',
tags: ['api'],
validate: {
params: {
username: Joi.number()
.required()
.description('the id for the todo item'),
}
}
[...]

Adding functionality with plugins
Almost every feature in hapi is isolated in a plugin.
Even core features are registred as a plugin:
● static content (inert)
● validation (joi)
● errors (Boom)
● monitoring (Good)
● … MANY more

Using plugins
server.register([
Inert,
Vision,
{
register: HapiSwagger,
options: swaggerOptions
}],
function (err) {
server.start(function(){
});
});

Writing plugins
exports.register = function (server, options, next) {
server.route({
method: 'GET',
path: '/test',
handler: function (request, reply) {
reply('test passed');
}
});
next();
};

So everything must be a Hapi plugin?
No, of course, you can use any module as long as
its framework agnostic.

Most used plugins - Inert
● Download files with reply.file(path)
● Can expose files or whole directories
server.route({
method: 'GET',
path: '/{param*}', //multi segment parameter
handler: {
directory: {
path: 'public',
listing: true
}
}
});

Template rendering - Vision
var handler = function (request, reply) {
reply.view('basic/index,html', {
title: getTitle()
...
});
};
//basic/index.html
<html>
<head>
<title>{{title}}</title>
..

Template helpers
Providing template helpers is easy
// this is the server.view config obj
{
views: {
helpersPath: 'helpers’ // path to the helpers dir
}
};
// helpers/helper.js - only one function per file!
module.exports = function(context){
// context contains the same data available to the template
return whatever(context.myvar);
}

Template helper view
<html>
<head><title>Help</title></head>
<body>
{{myhelper}} 
</body>
</html>

Validate with Joi
● Joi is a generic validation framework
● It works by createing schemas and validating
objects against it
● It just validates the object format it does not
peform things such as database validation
● It is so powerful that documentation can be
generated from Joi schemas!

Joiful example
var schema = {
username:
Joi.string().alphanum().min(3).max(30).with('birthyear').
required(),
birthyear: Joi.number().integer().min(1900).max(2013)
};
var err = Joi.validate(data, schema, config);
console.log(err ? err : 'Valid!');

Hapi with Joi
server.route({
path: '/user/{id}',
method: 'GET',
handler: (request, reply) => {
reply(getUser(id))
},
config: {
validate: {
params: {
id: joi.number().integer()
}
}
}

Conditional validation
Joi.object({
propertyRequired: Joi.boolean().required(),
property: Joi.string().when('isGuest', {
is: true,
then: Joi.required()
}),
property2: Joi.string().alphanum()
})
.options({ allowUnknown: true })
.without('property', 'property2')

Hapi, Joi and Swagger
Joi validations can be used to generate a swagger
documentation page
This is an excellent example of reflection in action

Errors - Boom
Boom makes easy to generate HTTP errors
Boom.unauthorized([message], [scheme], [attributes])
Boom.forbidden([message], [data])
Boom.notFound([message], [data])
Boom.methodNotAllowed([message], [data])
Boom.notAcceptable([message], [data])
Boom.proxyAuthRequired([message], [data])
Boom.clientTimeout([message], [data])
Boom.conflict([message], [data])

Cookies aka server.state
server.state('session', { //cookie name
path: '/',
encoding: 'base64json',
ttl: 10,
domain: 'localhost'
});
reply('success')
.state(
'session', //cookie name
'session' //cookie value
)

Authorization strategies
Strategies are provided by plugins, and can be
plugged in routes:
server.auth.strategy(
'simple',
'basic',
{ validateFunc: validate }
);

Auth validation function
function (request, username,
password, callback) {
var isValid = username === user.
name && password === user.password;
return callback(null, isValid, {
name: user.name });
};

Time to code!
sudo npm install -g makemehapi
npm install hapi

Why debugging is important
● Javascript is an extremely flexibile and expressive
language
● Maybe a little bit too much
● We need strong tooling support

The console object
● This is our first line of defense
● Was born inside browser developer tools
● Node provides us with a preconfigured console,
exposed as global

Other console methods
● dir: explore objects
● trace: print current stack trace
● time/timend: basic performance profiling

Static analysis
● A lot of errors can be discovered just by
analyzed the source code text.
● The most two common analysis are
typechecking and linting

Linting
● suspiciouse code is flagged by the linter to be
reviewed by the programmer
● you can configure what should be suspicious
● can also be used to enforce coding styles
(useful in teams)

ESLint
● Actually parses your code, instead of just
analyzing text
● Pluggable
● Integrated with most code editors

ESLint example config
{
"env" : {
"node" : true //this determines which globals to expect
},
"rules" : {
"quotes": [2, "double"],
"no-use-before-define": 2
}
}

Logging
● An emitted stream of distinct messages from a
running application
● Ordered in time
● Many applications, from debugging to
performance analysis to security

Structured logs
07/Mar/2004:16:06:51 -"GET request from
/twiki/bin/rdiff/TWiki/NewUserTemplate?rev1=1.3&rev2=1.2 HTTP/1.
1" 200 4523
vs
{“date”: “2004-04-04”, “method”: “GET”, “uri”:”
/twiki/bin/rdiff/TWiki/NewUserTemplate”: header: {
/../
}}

Structured loggers
Structured loggers log objects, not just strings.
We don’t have to restructure strings while
analyzing data
Much easier for parsing

Stack traces
It’s the record of the function calls until a certain point (usually an error).
console.log(e.stack);
Error: Something unexpected has occurred.
at main (c:UsersMeDocumentsMyAppapp.js:9:15)
at Object. (c:UsersMeDocumentsMyAppapp.js:17:1)
at Module._compile (module.js:460:26)
at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:478:10)
at Module.load (module.js:355:32)
at Function.Module._load (module.js:310:12)
at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:501:10)
at startup (node.js:129:16)
at node.js:814:3

The problem with async stacktraces
setTimeout(function first() {
setTimeout(function second() {
setTimeout(function third() {
a.b.c;
}, 1);
}, 1)
}, 1)

long stack traces
ReferenceError: a is not defined
at third [as _onTimeout] (/home/zio/stuff/nodeschool/bugclinic/provastack.
js:4:13)
at Timer.listOnTimeout (timers.js:92:15)
This is because we can see only the stack of the message currently processed
by the event loop
With advanced black magic, we are eventually able to get the full stack

Automated Testing
● Automated testing is incredibly cost effective
○ You get a much better understing of your code
○ You get much safer code
○ You are protected from regression
○ Tests are the most formal kind of documentation
○ You save of a LOT of time by letting the machine create
the test environment and executing the test for you
○ .. this could go on for hours

Runners and assertions
A test environment is usually composed by:
- a test runner
- an assertion library
A test is usually composed by 2+1 phase
- setup
- assertion
- teardown (optional)

Tape
We are going to use Tape
- assertion and running in the same library
- both very simple
- outputs TAP strings

Node core debugging
If for some reason you want to get node’s internal debug
message it’s easy, just prepend an env variable.
#prepare to get a lot of output
NODE_DEBUG=cluster,net,http,fs,tls,module,timers
nod node myapp

The debug module
Yo u can use a similar approach in your code with the debug module:
var debug = require('debug')('http'), http=require('http'), name='My App';
debug('booting %s', name);
http.createServer(function(req, res){
debug(req.method + ' ' + req.url);
res.end('hellon');
}).listen(3000, function(){
debug('listening');
});

Tracing vs debugging
Tracing is very specialized kind of debugging:
● It is never a functional requirement
● It is meant for the developer , not the system administrator
● It is commonly used for detecting bottlenecks, memory
leaks and other problem arising during continuous
operations.

Interactive debugging: repl
The mighty Read-Evaluate-Print-Loop
Useful to test small bits of code or playing around with
libraries.
Too long to reproduce actual application in it.. wouldn’t be
cool if you could expose a repl in certain part of your app?
Good news, you totally can!

Replify
var replify = require('replify')
, app = require('http').createServer()
replify('realtime-101', app);

The node debugger
You can start an app with the “debug” flag:
node debug myapp.js
Then the app will be in debug mode and you can:
- set breakpoints in code (debugger;)
- navigate
- execute REPLs at leisure

NPM
Npm is not only a package / dependancy manager.
● It is a HUGE repository
● It’s generic automation tool
● A place to offer / find a job
● and also a company

The site
On the site you can browse packages, search them by keyword
and get a good lot of metrics:
● number of downloads
● github statistics
● even try them out! well played NPM
this is extremely important due to impressive amount of
javascript packages out there
https://www.npmjs.com/package/lodash

Publishing on npm
● npm adduser
● npm publish to publish the package.
● Go to http://npmjs.com/package/<package>.
You can also create private modules.

Versioning
The whole npm ecosystem uses semantic versioning (semver
for friends). A semantic version number is composed by three
integers:
MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH

Semantic versioning
MAJOR is incremented when incompatible API
changes are made
MINOR is incremented when backwards
compatibile feature are added
PATCH is incremented when a bug is fixed

Semver operators
● >, <, >=, <=
● || - OR
● * - gets the most recent - dangerous
● ~ update only patch - ~0.5.0 >=0.5.0 < 0.6.0
● ^ upgrade only minor - ^ 0.5.0 >= 0.5.0 < 1.0.0

package.json
It can be seen as the “manifest” of an application
Contains many metadata used for:
● uniquely identify a package
● establish authorship
● lifecycle management
○ pre - post install scripts
○ main file
○ ...

Dissecting a package.json file
http://browsenpm.org/package.json

Time to code
git clone -b exercise https://github.
com/lambrojos/nodeintro.git
or
https://github.
com/lambrojos/nodeintro/archive/exercise.zip
npm install

Nodemon is a friend
(sudo) npm install -g nodemon
nodemon server.js (you will get errors)
solutions are in the master branch

Troubleshooting
If you get compile errors try adding the --no-
optional flag to npm install

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