Ask HN: In what scenarios use of node.js can be useful?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2210080

by anujkk • 15 years ago

20 21 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I am looking for possible use cases of node.js.

How is it being used right now? Are you using node.js in any of your project? What new can be done using node.js?

chaosmachine• 15 years ago

I use node.js to power my domain name generator:

http://impossibility.org/

It runs queries against a pool of lookup servers and aggregates/returns the results in real time. I'm also using it as a fast, low footprint HTTP server.

dpapathanasiou• 15 years ago

It's useful for streaming large data sets, such as audio or video files.

Here are some examples:

http://debuggable.com/posts/streaming-file-uploads-with-node...

http://blog.new-bamboo.co.uk/2009/12/7/real-time-online-acti...

http://blog.andregoncalves.com/post/1620276144/inaugural-twi...

jdub• 15 years ago

I'm building a streaming HTML5 Twitter client called Denby: http://www.hellodenby.com/

(Although the hosted version is currently in closed alpha, you can check out progress on GitHub.)

If you want something more Tweetie than TweetDeck, check out Streamie: http://streamie.org/

kordless• 15 years ago

Loggly uses it for handling large amounts of web POSTs and translating them into syslog like TCP packers which are sent to our indexers.

Basically it can be treated like a big ol' expensive load balancer, except its not expensive.

rjrodger• 15 years ago

Use node for anything that has a HTML(5) front end. The big win is that you no cognitive disconnect between the client-side and server-side code. The productivity increase is significant.

All the async event goodness (which is great for streaming of course) is just icing on the cake.

hasenj2• 15 years ago

I'm using node for all my new web development.

It has an awesome community, and by that I mean: awesome package manager, awesome packages/libraries, actively maintained and developed.

moe• 15 years ago

How do you handle things like form/model validation?

stdbrouw• 15 years ago

https://github.com/dandean/express-form and https://github.com/caolan/forms are two good options. Out-of-the-box validation for model-based forms is a little bit trickier — there are many persistence options and each has their own way of doing things, which isn't always model-based.

hasenj2• 15 years ago

Node doesn't have "batteries" out of the box.

This is a good thing. All the batteries are provided by the community and made available through the package manager 'npm'

karterk• 15 years ago

The biggest advantage I see from my experience with node.js is that you can code in just one language from the client side to server side. Of course, server side JavaScript is _not_ exactly the same as in client side - but for most part, that does not get in the way and the language basics remain the same.

It also helps that it scales well for the traditional web apps, and currently there is a huge momentum behind it, and an active community working on it.

chapel• 15 years ago

The great thing about node.js is the flexibility it provides. It isn't what Rails is to Ruby or Django is to Python, really it is a way for Javascript to interact with the OS outside of the browser, e.g. on servers. This versatility leads to a ton of options, which many don't even focus on the web. With that in mind, know that using node.js is more than building a web app, it has given us slick tools to do things that in other languages or options would be painful or annoying.

Here is a good list of things that should be done: http://blog.nodejitsu.com/ten-node-apps-that-need-to-exist

I personally have made simple tools with it, like a desktop image uploader, or a cli gist (github) maker. I enjoy how easy it is to connect many different technologies together with very little effort.

anujkk3• 15 years ago

These are some really interesting ideas.

"A browser based real-time multiuser sketchpad" - It made me think if it is possible to develop a collaborative, online, vector graphics design tool. Not a heavy application like Illustrator but something like light version of InkScape that can help in quick and easy graphic design for web such as logos, buttons etc.

jammus2• 15 years ago

I'm using node.js for a personal project: http://boxsocial.fm

The site reads and writes to last.fm in the background and pushes updates to client's browsers while doing so.

I'm sure it would have been possible to write it using some other technology but node.js just made it so easy. Also, writing the entirety of the app in just one language was an additional bonus.

I'm excited about building something bigger with it soon.

anujkk3• 15 years ago

Is this alternative client for last.fm? I wonder how useful developing alternative clients can be apart from learning purposes. I have seen a lot of twitter clients coming up. Do users really care about using these?

jammus2• 15 years ago

To some extent. It copies a user's scrobbles/now playing info to one or more other users' profiles. So if a bunch of you are in the same room listening to music you can all scrobble at the same time.

That said, it was mainly written to get to grips with node. As well as to scratch a personal itch, obviously.

zwadia2• 15 years ago

A little chat, a little soundcloud, a little ge.tt, sophisticated privacy management... and you get http://secretsocial.com ... a node project.

anujkk3• 15 years ago

Nice. I liked the video. Is beta available?

zwadia2• 15 years ago

Thanks Anuj! Very soon. Sign up / Tweet and you'll be invited.

kmccarth• 15 years ago

I just asked a few folks on how they were using node.js, check it out here:

http://bostinnovation.com/2011/01/15/who-is-using-node-js-an...

s_m• 15 years ago

I used node.js to make a drum machine that multiple people can play with at once: http://jambox.us (requires Safari/Chrome)

rgbrgb• 15 years ago

didn't work for me :( - two macbooks running chrome/safari

Ask HN: In what scenarios use of node.js can be useful?

Related Stories