My website will perform CRUD operations and will work with MongoDB and Firebase storage+auth.
What are the reasons / advantages to developing a separate Express server instead of integrating everything in my next.js app?
As far as I have seen, it can all be done in my next.js app, but I still see many projects working with a separate server.
Depends on what your app does and how you are hosting it.
Running Next.Js on a standard server will be of little difference whether you are using nextjs's /api or expressjs.
However if you are hosting on serverless (e.g. Vercel), I would recommend using a separate express server if you have alot of CRUD operations because the warming up of serverless is really bad user experience.
Build and Deployment
Next/JS - If you want to edit something on the backend, and push the changes, it will require you to build the entire JS app, and depending on how big is your app, it can take alot of time (especially if alot of static generated pages).
Express - If you running express separately, you can build and deploy front end and backend separately. It's time saving, and you can also better organise your codes frontend/backend.
Choice of deployment
I have a choice to take advantage of Vercel to host my frontend, with static generated pages and some server side generated pages (automatic scaling, caching, CDN etc), and host my backend with a separate cluster of servers.
PS: I moved from single Next.JS app to NextJs+Express
I can think of a few things why they would have a different server from the one NextJS provides:
Familiarity with Express, Koa, etc. All next-connect helps with this
There is an already existing API in PHP, Express, Flask, etc.
It is literally based on what you would want to do, the extra interactions with MongoDB & Firebase would be same on both the technologies, unless you want to isolate respective things separately, I don't see any harm in doing everything together on next.
Given that the idea of using next.js, as per my understanding would be to utilise server side rendering.
I've been using Next.js with Typescript for quite a while now and I, as of now, have found one reason not to include express.js in my project. And the reason is Vercel.
Since I use Vercel for continuous deployment of my projects, and Vercel Not supporting any custom server as of there Docs here, I refrain from using Express or any other custom servers.
I didn't face any problem performing CRUD operations with MongoDB, can't say about firebase.
On Next.js Docs, I found these points to be considered:
A custom server can not be deployed on Vercel, the platform Next.js was made for.
A custom server will remove important performance optimizations, like serverless functions and Automatic Static Optimization.
But at the end of the day it very personal opinion weather to use a custom server or not. It might depend on a very specific use case you might be looking for.
Personally, I try to keep it to just NextJS, but if I have to manage real-time data with Socket.io, I get a separate server because other than WebSockets, serverless functions can do everything else.
Related
I am planning to build a react native application, where at some point i should use a database, which database is suitable for online react native and how will i connect db with my react native code?
Databases should be linked to the server, and not directly to the app for obvious security purposes. An App is just like the front-end part of a website: if it's executed in client-side, it's not safe.
So any back-end framework with a SQL DataBase will do (PHP frameworks like Symfony or Laravel or NodeJS) You will have to get your data with react native's Linking fetch API, by adding a token if you want to limit the access to connected users only.
But good news, if you're not very comfortable setting up a server, you could always choose a server-less solution like Firebase .
I definitely recommend it. You could save a lot of time and end up with a very secure and fast solution to manage your app's data. Just be aware that only a limited number of requests per day are free (but don't worry, it's not that expensive and it gets paying only with a great number of request per day). You will have to learn how to use it by reading the docs though, it might take you a couple of days, but trust me it's not rocket science.
(Disclaimer: I'm not advertising for Firebase, I just enjoyed using it so I recommend it)
I've been mostly a LAMP stack dev but recently I wanted to get into the new stuff like MEAN stacks but all the stuff I'm running into are getting confusing, can someone help me clear it up?
So I've played around with a Node.js server with Express, Jade, and a mySQL DB. So from what I've read, Node operates the backend, Express does the front end rendering and Jade... does front end as well?
Also, for a MEAN stack. Angular does front end right? So what does Express do in that situation and does it need something like Jade?
All this new stuff is so much overload, I'm still reading up on docs about Amber, React, Meteor, Firebase, etc. Is there a site that documents these all together and how they fit together?
Express doesn't do front end. Express is a framework which sits on top of Node.js and makes it easy for you to build websites. Node wasn't originally created to build websites, you see. You can consider Express to be a web framework for Node, just like Flask and Django are for Python. There are other web frameworks for Node too, like Sails and Koa. In the MEAN stack, Express generally does the routing and handles different routes in your application while Angular handles the frontend.
Also if you're just starting out with the MEAN stack, then you don't need things like Ember, React, Meteor, Firebase, etc. They're all different things for different purposes and my suggestion would be to not overdo yourself and take things one step at a time.
Here is a short description of what you are searching :
'M' for [MONGODB]
MongoDB is documented oriented database, its very easy to use and works very good with javascript. you insert JSON data and get JSON data in response from it.
'E' for [Express]
Express is Node.js framework with http verb (GET, POST, PUT DELETE) and middleware support.
It supports routing with http and middlewares.
'A' for [Angularjs]
AngularJS is a front-end web framework that nicely hooks up with you nodesjs application. You can consume RESTful services from Backend data sources and build interactive single page applications(SPA) using angularjs.
'N' for [Node.js]
Node.js is a server-side javascript environent based on google's V8 engine. It is purely javascript environment. you can code in javascript and node takes care of it and run on web server.
Regarding [Jade] , it is a templating engine which compiles to HTML plus it is rendered from your server.
So, I've been fiddle:ing with some isomorphic React + Flux lately and have found some concepts quite confusing to be honest. I've been looking into best practices about how to structure isomorphic apps and are looking for advice.
Suppose you are creating a webapp as well as a mobile app backed by the same REST API. Do you bundle your REST API together with the webapp? I've seen people advocating both bundling and having a separate codebase for the REST API.
Any advice or suggested reading is appreciated!
Fluxible (atleast from the examples) does advocate using the service layer inside the application calling it directly from the server and via xhr from the client without duplicating the code
https://github.com/gpbl/isomorphic500/blob/master/src/app.js
This is an example I followed religiously while building the isomorphic app
The idea is very simple. Let's assume you have SPA and a backend wich provides REST API.
SPA (in browser) <====> Backend REST API
in isomorphic case, it is absolutely the same, except you will run your SPA on the server too.
So, it will work like that:
SPA (in browser) <====> Backend REST API
SPA (on server) <====> Backend REST API
If you have a mobile app then it will be:
SPA (in browser) <====> Backend REST API
SPA (on server) <====> Backend REST API
Mobile app <====> Backend REST API
Here is a real isomorphic production application opened by us to the community - https://github.com/WebbyLab/itsquiz-wall . You can just clone it and run.
Here is my post which describes all the ideas behind the app in details.
Let's see if I can help you.
Please keep in mind that Isomorphic Javascript is quite new and it is hard to find clear definitions for every use case.
By definition, if you create a RESTful application you should have a clear separation between server and client:
"A uniform interface separates clients from servers. This separation
of concerns means that, for example, clients are not concerned with
data storage, which remains internal to each server, so that the
portability of client code is improved. Servers are not concerned with
the user interface or user state, so that servers can be simpler and
more scalable. Servers and clients may also be replaced and developed
independently, as long as the interface between them is not altered."
Regarding isomorphic applications, the main benefits are:
Not having a blank page when the user first enter the site (points for UX)
Therefore it is SEO friendly
And you can share one logic between server/client (for example regarding React Components)
This means you should deliver rendered React Components from the server to the client when the user first enters a URL. After that you will keep using your REST API as usual, rendering everything on the client.
If you can, share more details about your case and it will be easier help.
I wouldn't recommend you to bundle the REST API in the browser, as you are limited to using browser-compatible modules in your API, and you won't be able to make any direct database calls.
There's a library that makes it so you can build your APIs in an isomorphic fashion, and re-use it in the client and server without bloating or breaking the bundle. This is what we're currently using in a big single-page application.
It's called Isomorphine, and you can find it here: https://github.com/d-oliveros/isomorphine.
Disclaimer: I'm the author of this library.
As stated in the title,
I don't really understand how Node.js works and above all why it's actually used to run an AngularJS application (e.g. in WebStorm IDE this is the default option when you create an AngJS project).
I've got this doubt since I could run a simple AngularJS app on an Apache web server (within Xampp) without any involvement of NodeJS.
Thank you in advance
Node.js is an application platform. It's good for running your applications on.
Apache HTTPD is a web server. It's good at serving web pages.
They're two very different things, not directly related, and not mutually exclusive.
You are correct that many apps can run anywhere, but some benefits we've seen are:
Simplicity, especially for web developer also developing the server-side code/config/deploy.
Real-time web - easier to add in things like WebSockets and Server Sent Events if you need them.
Context: I'm a beginner programmer, self taught in the hope of making a SPA. I've started with JavaScript, Jquery, PHP and MySQL, and now feel pretty confident with all. I've started with Ember, and am now moving away from having a PHP API to Node. Which has then brought me closer to Meteor... I'm aware I'll need to use Mongo instead, but having an integrated front and back seems to be sensible and have some advantages.
So my question is what are the advantages of having a separate REST backend API (eg Express) rather than an integrated front/back (eg Meteor).
One that springs to mind is that my app will be tablet/pc based, but in future I'll want a different mobile version, so I'd be able to use just use the same API. I'm conscious that the above question is the main concern with this stack question, but perhaps if a meteor developer could clarify whether this is indeed a concern.
Thanks in advance!
well for me you'll get a lot of advantages using a rest API, they are lightweight, extensible and overall reusable.
today it's a trend to use a vertical architecture that means having a RestFul service with a single responsibility, why because it scale better and it's easier to assign a team to an api, so that way you'll be able to manage several teams and apis in a very ordered way. This is probably how Twitter, wunderlist and other companies works, because it's a solution to scale better.
take a look to this talk by Raffi Krikorian he was the head of architecture of Twitter for a while is a little bit old but it worth every minute and to illustrate some of the advantages.
Also you can look at the diagram below, I did while ago it explains the differences between the MVC and API first type of architecture.
I've authored one rest app using angular and rest services and it has been a very nice experience to me there's no way back.
good luck
Meteor doesn't really "integrate" the front (client) and backend (server) as you describe. It still maintains them as two separate layers. The beauty of meteor (aside from the insanely awesome reactivity) is that it uses Javascript everywhere, instead of using JS on the client and some other language on the server, so you can use the same APIs on both the front and backend. Although Meteor does snazzy things like let you write client and server code in the same file, it still requires you to distinguish between the two, and server code is still stored only on the server and client-side code is still served down to the client.
Meteor is still young, but the developers and community are very active, and everything you described can be achieved with it at this point. I've been working with Meteor for about 6 months now, and it hasn't let me down yet. I'm working on a production-level application that also requires exposing a REST API for consumption in mobile apps, which I'm doing quite successfully with Meteor (I just updated a user profile using a REST endpoint from an Android device and watched it change in the Meteor app in realtime. So cool!).
I was using this great package, RestStop2, for building REST APIs in meteor, but it was unfortunately deprecated, so I released an updated version. Check it out for an example of building REST APIs in Meteor. It's available through the Meteor package manager: https://atmospherejs.com/nimble/restivus
So to answer your question, you always want to separate the REST API into it's own layer, but that is entirely possible with Meteor. To make it clear, you would never consume this REST API from within your Meteor app. Meteor uses DDP (not HTTP), which gives you a much more direct connection with your server, so you're doing something wrong if you're accessing data on your Meteor server from a Meteor client via HTTP. Of course, with Meteor, you have the advantage of being able to use existing code from your REST API.
There's a really good write-up that explains some of the considerations of writing a REST API in Meteor: http://www.meteorpedia.com/read/REST_API.
The design of a architecture separated in layers like frontend, backend (Rest Api) and DB, is for obtain a better a scalability, reusability and logic separator of features of the application. For example:
Today make a web applications separated in 3 layer (frontend, backend,
and databases), if tomorrow you wanna do a mobile application you can
develop the application like a extra project in the frontend layer,
but use all the features developed in backend. Then the frontend
application not need servers why run inside every device, but maybe
the load in the backend servers increase, and you only need add 1 more
server in the backend layer.
Its a little example, but is the most common case in this new era of mobile applications.
Remember always this in MVC architectures:
Frontend: Always call services from the backend, render the view, and capture data. Sometimes make a litle logic.
Backend: Receive the request, apply all the business logic, read and write operations in databases, and return a response preferred in json format.
Model: store data, backups, slaves, etc.
PD: If you use meteor in this example you gonna need to make a api Rest to develop the mobile application.