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NodeJS is a server-side platform that’s built on the JavaScript Engine (V8 Engine) of Google Chrome. It’s an open-source, cross-platform runtime environment for JavaScript code execution outside the browser. The platform, being event-driven, works on a non-blocking I/O model, making it lightweight and effective in building web applications.

With the platform, you could simultaneously run code on the client and server side, hastening the development process. The growing popularity of the platform also has produced a range of open source projects and tools to help NodeJS development service providers work with the environment.

The Pros and Drawbacks of NodeJS

The Pros

1. Makes use of the easy to learn JavaScript.
2. Has seamless support for JSON.
3. Shares the same codebase with the server and the client side.
4. Has an active development community, with plenty of code examples.

The Drawbacks

1. Dealing with relational databases is very difficult.
2. Heavy computation tasks and performance bottlenecks.
3. Callback difficulty.

Much the same as skilled artisans, experienced NodeJS developers rely on a set of tools to help get the job done efficiently and effectively. Nevertheless, trying to choose the right tools could be a daunting task, especially with so many choices available.

This is also the case with NodeJS, which is renowned for its vibrant community, which contributes tools and code for others to use, adding considerable value to apps of the new generation. To help with your choice, check out the open source projects to keep tabs on.

The Top Open Source Projects of NodeJS

1. Cytoscape.js

A graph theory library written in JavaScript that’s open source. It could be used for visualization and graph analysis. It lets you display and manipulate interactive, rich graphs easily.

It includes all out-of-the-box gestures, which include box selection, panning, pinch-to-zoom, and so on. It has graph analysis as well, and its library contains a lot of useful graph theory functions. Cytoscape could be readily used on NodeJS to perform graph analysis in a web server or in the terminal.

For those interested in data and science, the project is a good choice. It has a wonderful contribution guide, documents, and a roadmap.

2. SheetJS

A NodeJS library which allows you to manipulate spreadsheets in Excel. It allows you to do a lot of things with Excel, like building exporting workbooks from scratch and converting HTML tables, JSON arrays into xlsx files that are downloadable. The tool has two versions, the Community and the Pro with extended features.

It has a big community library, well-documented contributing guide, and comprehensive documentation. It is a dream library overall, and works amazingly.

3. ESlint

A linting coding tool that’s widely used in most NodeJS development. Meaning that it does a static code analysis, and finds patterns, errors, and lines that do not fit the conventional style guidelines. This adds extra checking that the code works before it’s being executed.

The tool comes with a default rules set, but you could change them whenever you want. Big names using ESLint include Facebook, PayPal and more. For web developers, this tool is essential since it helps fix problems even before they occur.

With an extensive contributing guide and documentation, and a big community and even sponsors enthusiastic in the development of this tool, it sure is a great option for you.

4. Axios

One of the most popular GitHub projects, which makes use of NodeJS. It’s a promise-based HTTP client for NodeJS and the browser. It could help you do the following:

• Make HTTP requests from NodeJS
• Supports the Promise API
• Create XMLHttpRequests from a browser
• Transform response data and request
• Intercept request and response
• Cancel requests

5. Express.js

One of NodeJS’ trending modular open-source projects. It offers immense value because it makes an efficient HTTP request, even when working with JavaScript, a server-side language, and out-of-browser. Express furthermore is a non-opinionated framework.

It’s helpful in accomplishing tasks related to speed and app security. Often associated with MEAN, meaning, MongoDB, Express, Angular, and NodeJS stack for building web apps. Some noteworthy features include:

• Different extensions and plugins support
• URL-based routing mechanism that uses HTTP methods
• Seamless database integration

The tool has a very strong website with plenty of examples and the documentation is translated into various languages. The community additionally is very robust and ready to help. For NodeJS developers with experience, it’s a great choice to contribute.

6. PDFKit

An extremely useful PDF generation library for nodes, which help in building and downloading complex PDFs. It supports text, font embedding, annotations, vector graphics, and so on. The project however has no extensive documentation and contribution guideline, which makes you guess on how to contribute to it.

7. Socket.IO

Enables bi-directional, real-time, and event-based communication. It works on every browser, device, or platform, with equal focus on speed and reliability. The basic chat app is a popular way of demonstrating a two-way communication that the tool provides.

When a new message is received by a server, it sends to the client and notifies them, bypassing the need to send requests between the client and the server.

Noteworthy features:

• Binary streaming
• Instant chat and messaging
• Analytics in real-time
• Document collaboration

8. Strapi

A headless, open-source content management system, which is a backend-only system that functions with the use of RESTful APIs. The aim of this tool is to get and deliver content structurally across any device.

It provides plenty of features, which include an in-built email system, file upload, auto-generated documentation, and JSON Web Token authentication. The content structure furthermore is built via Strapi, which is very flexible. It lets you create and reuse content groups and customizable APIs.

9. Nest

A progressive framework of NodeJS for creating reliable, efficient, and scalable server-side apps. It makes use of TypeScript, combining functional and object-oriented programming elements. It uses Express under the hood, yet provides compatibility with a wide array of libraries too.

The tool provides you true flexibility by letting you use any other libraries, thanks to its modular architecture. Moreover, Nest is very useful and mature, and has great documentation and contribution guide.

10. Date-fns

Provides the most extensive yet consistent and simple set of tools to manipulate JavaScript dates in NodeJS and a browser. It works well with modern module bundlers, like Browserify, webpack, or Rollup. The tool is created with the use of pure functions, and returns a new data instance all the time, instead of changed the past ones.

With amazing community support, the tool has dozens of locales. Each function has a detailed description, along with examples. Documentation could be accessed online and offline.

The community is truly supportive and robust. It is well worth investing your time in this small yet helpful library.

Why NodeJS on an Enterprise Level?

All programming languages could provide various reasons to choose them over others. With NodeJS however, it was crafted for at-scale apps. The modern tooling, and the embrace of a forward-looking manner of developing complex apps make it stand out among the rest.

Scalability and Performance

Built on the Chrome V8 runtime and written in C++, it is ultra-fast. Both Node and V8 are updated often, with security patches, performance boosters, and support for modern JS features. Using JavaScript also means that JSON data transformation—the most common web data interchange format is by default fast.

Node’s event-driven, single-threaded architecture enables it to handle several simultaneous connections with efficiency. The most popular web platforms create more thread for each and every new request, using RAM the entire time it takes to process it. Node.js on the other hand, operates on one thread, delegating tasks like database operations as soon as possible.

This makes it possible for it to handle thousands of concurrent connections. NodeJS furthermore, embraces app scalability, with robust features like Cluster module enabling load balancing over numerous CPU cores. Sturdy tools, like the PM2 process manager, makes monitoring, optimizing, and deploying Node apps easier.

Now, NodeJS is proving its worth as a game-changer, as developers could write JavaScript client-side and server-side coding. Thus, sending and synchronizing data automatically between these points is easy, which helps developers save time.

Conclusion

Good programming could help create a project exactly the way that you want to. In NodeJS, there are so many open-source projects, like the ones mentioned above that could help you in your search to develop apps that are exceptional. The ten open source projects are among the top ones you should keep tabs on.

It is our hope that you find some interesting NodeJS projects to try, or to contribute to actively. Although it could be overwhelming to look at all these projects, either from the amount of information you have to process, or from all the new ideas scurrying in your head on how to utilize them, the projects available make the world as your sandbox.

With services from an NodeJS development company, you could make the most of the robust features of the technology to realize your goals in web development.