Best Practices for Node.js Application Architecture
Node.js is a highly popular framework for building server-side applications in JavaScript. It’s often used for API development and back-end systems integration, but it’s also well suited for building client-side web apps.
In this article, we’ll explore some best practices to help you create cleaner Node.js applications architecture so that your code will be easier to maintain and modify in the future.
1- Incorporate the publisher-subscriber model
One of the most important architectural concepts to build into a Node.js app is the publisher-subscriber model. In short, it’s a way for two things (in this case, publishers and subscribers) to communicate with each other without having one depend on the other.
For example, let’s say you have an API that sends out notifications when someone logs in or out of your website. You could write code that listens for these events and takes action accordingly by sending out emails or updating database records.
However, if you use a pub-sub pattern instead, then your API becomes more flexible: Instead of having code that needs to be updated every time there’s an event, any part of your application can subscribe (or listen) for new events just by registering with the publisher using its API.
The beauty here is that you don’t have to write any additional logic when changes happen; instead, it’s handled by whoever subscribed themselves.
2- Adopt a layered approach
Layers in an application can help you divide your code into separate components that work together. They can also provide an organizational structure for your code, making it easier to find what you’re looking for and maintain.
To use layers effectively:
- Divide functionality into discrete components. Think of each layer as a separate component that provides a service or performs some task. For example, one layer could be responsible for rendering HTML templates and another could handle displaying data from the database in JSON format on the client side.
- Organize by functionality or data type. You should aim to organize code by functionality rather than simply by file location within the project folder hierarchy; this makes it easier to understand how things work together when someone new joins your team or when you revisit old code later on down the road.
3- Use dependency injection
A dependency injection is a technique in which one object provides services to another object. The service is provided when the client needs it, rather than being hardcoded into the client.
Dependency injection addresses two problems:
- Dependencies can be passed along with an object, instead of having to be hard-coded into the class definition. This makes your code more flexible and adaptable: if you want to use a different implementation for some part of your application (for example, you may want to change from MySQL database access to Oracle database access), all you need to do is change one line where you pass in an instance of your DataManager class; all other references remain unchanged.
- Replacing old implementations with new ones becomes easier because instead of changing many lines throughout your application logic codebase at once, it requires only changing one line where you pass in an instance of your DataManager class.
4- Utilize third-party solutions
Whether you’re building a new project or working on an existing one, consider incorporating some of these standard practices into your workflow.
- Use npm packages: The Node.js community has created a large number of open-source libraries that can help you solve common problems with ease. When creating a new app, consider starting with one of the popular frameworks like Express or Sails, which have built-in libraries for basic tasks such as routing and authentication.
- Use a microservice architecture: A microservice architecture is made up of small individual services that are decoupled from each other so they can be scaled independently without affecting others in the system. This approach allows for rapid feature development and deployment while maintaining stability in production environments because there is no single point of failure within an application’s infrastructure (i.e., if one service goes down it won’t cause other parts to fail).
5- Apply a uniform folder structure
The folder structure is one of the most important parts of an application. It helps you to understand how your application works, and it makes it easy to find stuff. The most common way to organize your files is by first organizing them by type:
- Files that are part of your application logic (e.g., controllers and models) should be in a directory called “app”.
- Files related to configuration (e.g., config files) should be in a directory called “config”.
- Files related to deployment should go under “deployment”. This includes scripts needed for running integration tests locally, uploading artifacts to the repository hosting service, etc.
6- Use linters, formatters, style guide, and comments for clean coding
Clean coding is essential for maintaining a high quality codebase over time. Clean code is self-documenting so that it can be maintained easily by other developers without having to resort to reading lengthy documentation or comments. The following are some examples of how you can achieve clean code:
- Use linters and formatters such as ESLint (for linting) and Prettier (for formatting).
- Adopt coding standards that suit your project’s particular needs using a style guide such as Airbnb JavaScript Style Guide.
For example, if you are using an object-oriented programming language like Java or C++ then there should be one class per file rule followed by naming conventions etc., while if you are using a functional programming language like JavaScript then prefer idiomatic patterns instead of hard rules regarding how methods should be named etc., because idiomatic patterns vary from project to project based on its context rather than being adopted universally throughout all projects written in any one programming language.
7- Rectify errors with unit testing, logging, and error-handling
Error handling is an important part of software development and should be a key consideration when architecting your Node.js application. How you handle errors can make or break your application’s performance, scalability, and reliability.
There are several ways to handle errors in Node.js applications:
- Use try/catch blocks to catch exceptions thrown by other modules
- Use asynchronous error handling techniques like callbacks or promises
- Log messages about unexpected occurrences in the app’s codebase.
8- Practice writing asynchronous code
Writing asynchronous code is a best practice that allows you to handle a large number of requests at one time. Asynchronous programming involves writing your code in a way that doesn’t block the thread while waiting for an event or response from another source. This means the browser isn’t waiting around for the server to respond, so it can do other things while waiting.
Asynchronous code has several benefits:
It allows your application to handle more requests at once by not tying up all of its threads in one request. Instead, it uses multiple threads so that each one can handle multiple requests simultaneously instead of just one at a time (known as synchronous).
This makes your app faster overall because it’s parallelizing across many CPUs and cores on both sides — the client side (web browser) and server side (NodeJS instance). The client-side part should never be blocking anyway since we need real-time data updates from our web service without having to keep refreshing pages every few seconds!
Conclusion
To sum up, it’s important to remember that these are just guidelines and best practices. There are no hard-and-fast rules in software development. So feel free to experiment with what works best for you and your team!
That said, I hope this article has given you some new ideas about how Node.js can help make your applications more scalable and efficient — as well as how to structure them for maximum productivity.