Useful NPM packages for NodeJS developer
Node.js can be called a leader in the asynchronous run-time environment framework market. Its platform supports a major portion of enterprises globally that are earning millions of dollars in revenue every year.
Because so much is dependent on Node.js — it has the biggest library of packages that are a support system in the development process of mobile and web applications worldwide.
As a developer, you can benefit from more than a million open-source packages available in the NPM package registry. Well, we can’t talk about a million… But yes, I will discuss the most popular and widely-used NPM Packages.
PM2
Node.js is used for scaling large applications and infrastructure globally. For any Node user — process management is an essential priority. PM2 offers process management for production applications and a load-balancer to help with any possible performance tweaks.
It allows you to keep your applications online indefinitely, giving you the tools to reload them without having to experience any downtime.
You can install PM2 by typing -
npm install pm2 -g
Or
$ yarn add global pm2
Socket.IO
Socket.IO is a library that will help you in building truly real-time, bi-directional communication apps that require real-time content streams between web clients and servers.
What I mean to say is that a bi-directional communication channel between a client and a server means that whenever an event occurs, the server can push messages to clients. The idea is that the server will get it and push it to the concerned connected clients.
Still, confused with all these technical terms?
Let me give you some examples of real-time applications -
Chat apps/instant messengers like WhatsApp, FB messenger, etc., where you do not need to refresh your website/app to receive new messages or push notifications — like when someone tags you in a picture on Instagram or Facebook, you receive a notification instantly. Socket.IO is used at such places for seamless bi-directional connectivity.
It has two parts − a client-side library, and a server-side library — both these components have an identical API.
To download Socket, you can either install the latest release :
$ npm install socket.io
Or to install a specific version:
$ npm install socket.io@<version>
Body-Parser
It is a body parsing middleware specially built for Node.js. With this module you can — parse incoming request bodies in a middleware before your handlers, available under the req.body property.
Body-parser module offers you 4 types of parsers: JSON body parser, Raw body parser, Text body parser, and URL-encoded form body parser.
You can install this module by typing:
npm i body-parser
Chalk
By using Chalk — you’ll enter the world of terminal-related libraries and tools. It is an extremely simple library that is created for one simple purpose and that is styling your terminal strings!
This module helps the users to customize the response messages(console.log) displayed in the terminal with different colors which not only improves the readability but also make it easier to detect warnings and errors.
It comes with an easy-to-use compose API where you just chain and nest the styles you want. It is an insanely popular package with approx. 100 million weekly downloads.
This is how you can install Chalk:
npm i chalk<version>
Passport
Passport is a popular security package & is Express-compatible authentication middleware for Node.js. Its sole purpose is to assist with authenticate requests which is done through a large set of third-party plugins known as strategies.
You can authenticate a request and provide it to Passport which will then connect and let you manage what happens after an authentication call succeeds or fails.
This is how you can install Passport:
npm i passport
JSON Web Token
JWT is an open standard for transferring or exchanging data securely within parties using a JSON object.
With JWT you can maintain sessions on the client-side instead of storing sessions on the server. It is an excellent choice to be passed in HTML and HTTP environments due to its smaller footprint when compared to other types of tokens and also because it is much easier to work with JWT as JSON parsers are standard in most programming languages.
You can install JWT by typing :
npm i jsonwebtoken
As I mentioned in the beginning, there are more than a million Node.js packages. As a Node.js developer, these open-source frameworks will help you improve your skills on delivering professional applications that are lightweight and reliable.
Trust me — using the right combination of packages will propel your app development game to the next level.
If you have any questions related to Node.js, drop me a comment and I will cover that topic in one of my videos along with a mention of your name.
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