Dispatches from the grey area between correct and working
Touted as Node.js's best feature, streams are also one of the hardest to comprehend. Some of the mystique that surrounds streams is the lack of good documentation; there are plenty of online examples that show how to use pre-built stream objects (like and http request) but less on how to create custom stream objects that work within an application.
Read moreInspired by sequelize.js's module pattern, learn how to prevent circular dependencies but still have access to a modules exports.
Read moreQuick and dirty MySQL hacks: Check one tables entries against a join table, user a subquery in a where, check if an entry exists without actually checking, make a quick array with group_concat
Read moreOne frustrating part of learning how to use node is implementing JavaScript style OOP. I don't mean that Node's JavaScript engine is different than a browsers with respect to objects. What I'm talking about is understanding how to use objects in an asynchronous environment.
Read moreI'm in the process of rewiring the backend for Ethernet Bucket using Express. If you don't know what express is, here's a good primer. The goal today is to write something that can take blog entries in MongoDB (that part not covered) and turn them into web pages.
Read moreWith a little work, node can be used as a complete web server, but it's probably something you shouldn't do. Node's speed is limited when it comes to traditional web-server applications because it runs inside an interpreter (like all javascript) and just wont be as as fast at things like reading from disk.
Read moreA good jumping-off-point when writing your node server is to use a handler function to route all HTTP requests to their proper functions. If you write functions that are specific to a url such as providing a web service that reads from a database and then writes back XML or JSON you can use an if-else block or a switch block to route the request to the function.
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