Node JS Best Practices: A Guide For Node JS Developers

Nodejs is a platform built on Chrome’s JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications. It allows developers to write fast and parallel code that runs on all popular platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X). NodeJS Best Practices uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices. Thanks to NodeJ’s best practices, it makes ideal for data streaming applications that consume lots of data via web services or APIs and produce output to be read by another Node.js application.

Node.js is used by many companies including Netflix, PayPal, Trello, Uber, and Twitter to build real-time web apps that power everything from games to financial services websites. In this post, we will cover seven Node.JS best practices every Node developer should follow to make the Nodejs application development process easy.

Importance Of NodeJS Best Practices

Nodejs Best Practices is a collection of practical guidelines for developers who make use of NodeJs. These guidelines help you to develop and maintain your node js applications. It covers the fundamental concepts of software architecture and is compatible with many languages besides node.js.

These guidelines help a developer to code NodeJS apps smoothly thereby increasing the effectiveness of developers and crunching the development time to some extent.

Top NodeJS Best Practices To Follow  

Below are the NodeJS best practices you should implement in your next project.

#1 Begin Your New Node.JS Project With npm init

The npm init command is a command-line tool that helps you get started with Node.js. It is used to install the required packages for your project and also to create a package.json file for your project. that is used to store your dependencies. This is the default installation method and creates a directory called node_modules in your project’s root directory.

The installed package is called npm-package-name. You can change the name with anything but make sure it is unique. You can also provide a description but that is not compulsory.

#2 Setup .npmrc

The .npmrc file ensures that npm install always updates the package.json and forces the version of the already installed dependency to be an exact match.

$nkdir, my-new-project
cd my-new-project/
$non init
This utility will walk you through
It only covers the most common items,
package, json file
tries to guess sensible defaults.
See
pm help json for definttive documentation on these flelds
and exactly what they do
• Use
*npm install ”
afterwards to install a package and
save it as a dependency in the package. json file.
Press ^C at any time to quit.
package nane: (ny-new-project) enprowess
version: (1.0.0)
description: our project descriptions
entry point: (index.js) main. js
test command: node main. js
git repository:
keywords:
author: enprowess
license: (ISC)
About to write to. /home/quresht/my-new-project/package.json:
*nane”:
“enprowess”
“version”:
– “1.0.0′
“description”:
“our project descriptions”
“main”:
“main. js”
“scripts”: (
“test”
“node matn. js”
).
“author”: “enprowess”
“License”
“ISC
Is this ok? (yes) y
$

Add a scripts property and object to your package.json with a start key.
Introduce a script property and object to your package.json with a start key.

$cat package. json
{
“name”:
“enprowess”
“version”:
“1.0.0”
“description”:
“our project cascriptions”
“main”
“main.js”
“scripts”: [
“test”:
“node main.js”
].
“author”:
“license”:
“Enprowess”
}
$

When you execute npm start, npm will load myapp.js with all the other dependencies node_modules/.bin on $PATH and don’t install the NPM globally.

#3 Separate Express ‘app’ and ‘server’

One of the most common mistakes of NodeJS developers is that they define the whole express application process on large files. Instead of that, developers should separate the ‘express’ definition into at least two different files.

The first file is for the API declaration (app.js) and others are designated for network concerns.

#4 Check For The Dead Code

A code that does not execute is known as dead code. It is difficult for a novice developer to find and track the dead code, this skill comes with experience. It is mandatory to remove such code because it may cause havoc in the overall functioning of the application.

You can also use third-party tools to identify, test, and remove the dead code which will make the process faster. Some tools take more time to check the code so select the tool cautiously.

#5 Stick To Style Guides

A style guide is an internal document where developers provide details of their code. Developers use this document to help them avoid potential problems with their code. or to understand how other developers are writing code. A style guide can also be used to define the look and feel of a website or application. A typical style guide uses a set of standards that developers follow when writing code, and gives them a sense of consistency in their work.

If the style guide is followed properly then there will be no need for reworking the setting of the UI. It is highly recommended to use it because it saves a lot of time for NodeJS developers.

Utilize the following tools to check whether the style guide is properly implemented or not:

• Prettier
• ESLint
• Automate Format and Lint on Save
• With Husky and Lint-staged Combined
• Lint-staged
• Husky
• EditorConfig

#6 Compress Files With Gzip

Gzip is a compression algorithm that is used to compress data. It reduces the size of files by reducing the amount of data that needs to be transferred over the network.

It has a very efficient compression algorithm that is used to compress files and keep their sizes small. These files use less memory than other popular compression algorithms. This means that you can save space by not having to keep large files on your hard drive or even in your memory.

#7 Test The NodeJS Code Frequently

Whether it is development or testing, all the process together makes up a full-fledged NodeJS application. The testing enables you to check if coding is working fine or not, if not then fix it immediately.

It is essential to do it frequently during the development phase otherwise in the end it may get cluttered. This will delay your schedule and you may lose the client due to the same.

We recommend you document the testing procedure and the reported bugs for your reference.

There are exclusive testing libraries you can make use of, which are as follows:

• Chai
• Mocha
• Supertest

Over To You

This was all about NodeJS Best Practices that a developer should follow. We are very sure that after following these best practices the Nodejs application process will be streamlined, uncluttered, and simplified. This leads to lowering development time and increases your effectiveness. If you are looking for expert NodeJS developers then look no further because EnProwess has a team of pre-vetted NodeJS developers to cater to your requirements

prowess is an offshore app/web development company that is on a mission to solve business challenges with innovative tech solutions. We help start-ups, SMEs, and young entrepreneurs with their tech requirements. For more information, kindly visit our website.