Overcoming Node.js Development Challenges: Expert Tricks For Faster Development

Why was the JavaScript developer sad?

Because he didn’t Node how to Express himself…

Not funny?

Oh, well then, maybe after seeing these statistics, you will find the joke funnier:

Netflix and PayPal reduced their startup time from 40+ minutes to under a minute with Node JS. (Source: Hackernoon)

That is a huge improvement!

Here’s another:

Node JS is pretty darn fast. Tons of studies show that it can increase your application performance by 50%.

No wonder Node.js is the leading choice for start-ups and enterprises.

Before creating your first Node.js application, it’s worth evaluating your requirements and choosing your tech stack wisely.

1. Start by selecting your server framework from over 30 libraries to choose from.
   Not sure how to make the best choice on Node.js server framework? Go with Express and learn it thoroughly.
2. Next, find out whether you’re building a single page app (SPA) or a non-SPA. Facebook is a classic example of an SPA, and Twitter, of a non-SPA.
   SPAs are much easier to grasp for coders who’ve just begun working with Node.js framework.
3. Similar to selecting a server framework, pick a template engine for your app.
   Can’t decide on one? Go with Nunjucks and learn the engine to its fullest.
4. Some Node.js server frameworks (example: Express) will have in-built routers you can use, while others will require you to select one for your app based on your preference.
5. The last big decision you must make is to select your database language. Relational databases or non-relational databases are the two choices you have in this aspect.
6. Once you’ve chosen your stack, it’s a good idea to set up your development environment.
   For this, consider selecting a package manager and a build tool, and refreshing your server and browser automatically.

Expert tricks to overcome Node.js development challenges:

Magnifying the positive aspects can blur out the negative details, which isn’t nice.

Looking on the bright side all the time won’t help fix the negatives.

Let us look a bit into the challenges that developers face while using Node.js so we can find ways to overcome them:

1. Challenge: Difficult to understand and maintain code

The lousy and unstructured nature of this technology is one of its biggest drawbacks which makes your code difficult to understand and update. This is because there are no certain modules and types.

Overcoming the challenge:

This drawback could be easily removed due to the class decorators and OOP principles present. Ensure to introduce yourself to the Node JS structure of doing things. Write clean, ordered, and documented code.

2. Challenge: Carrying out linear I/O programming operations

Due to the Asynchronous programming model that Node.js follows, it becomes a challenge for developers to carry out linear Input/Output programming operations.

3. Challenge: It lacks a proper, stable API

Another big challenge of using this technology is that it lacks a proper stable API, meaning that it keeps changing on a regular basis, resulting in a lack of consistency.

Overcoming the challenge:

When API changes, make changes to the existing codebase and make it compatible with the latest version of the Node.js API.

4. Challenge: Node.js is not recommended for heavy computation

The inability of Node.js to process CPU bound tasks is another huge drawback of the platform. When Node.js receives a CPU bound task and a heavy request comes to the event loop, it sets all the CPU available to process it first, before it answers other queued requests. This leads to an overall delay in the event loop, and therefore to an inefficient computation process.

Overcoming the challenge: Leveraging the experimental feature of Multithreading

Ever since multithreading got introduced in Node.js framework in 2018 as an experimental feature, it allowed to process heavy CPU-bound tasks by leveraging the new feature called “worker threads module”, although there were limitations on the kind of machines it allowed you to use the feature on. Machines with multiple cores can use the feature to leverage additional threads from a thread pool.

5. Challenge: It impacts the quality of code due to the callback hell issue

Callbacks are the functions that run after each task in the queue is finished. The callback hell issue is a situation where callbacks are nested within other callbacks several levels deep, meaning you have lots of callback functions in your code. This makes it difficult for developers to work with the code or even understand or maintain it.

Overcoming the challenge: Following the best coding standards and practices

Since the issue occurs due to poor coding standards and lack of experience with JavaScript and Node.js frameworks in particular, good news is that it’s not difficult to fix. Ensure to keep your code shallow and modularized to keep it readable. Handle every single error (always reserve the first argument for the error) to make the code stable. Using typescript-based frameworks such as SugoiJS which you can use on top of Node JS is a good way to eliminate this drawback and make the codes simpler and more effective.

Jellyfish Technologies is a reputed global software development company that specializes in Node.js development services and can, in fact, accelerate your NodeJS development efficiently.