This document describes a Node.js application, including the concepts used, modules incorporated, extracted modules, dependency management using ndistro, design decisions, and hosting options. CommonJS and linting were used as concepts. Popular modules included connect, express, ejs, mongoose, and log4js. Modules were extracted for daemon functionality, properties parsing, and models. Ndistro was used to manage dependencies by downloading modules from GitHub. The application structure and bootstrap process were part of the design. Joyent and Heroku were mentioned as hosting platforms.

1. A NODE.JS APPLICATION
Robbie Clutton

2. NOT ANOTHER NODE.JS
HELLO WORLD
• An application built to run on node.js
• Concepts
• Modules used for the application
• Modules extracted from the application
• How dependencies of modules was managed
• Design decisions made during development
• Hosting

3. NOT ANOTHER NODE.JS
HELLO WORLD
• An application built to run on node.js
• Concepts
• Modules used for the application
• Modules extracted from the application
• How dependencies of modules was managed
• Design decisions made during development
• Hosting

4. CONCEPTS
• CommonJS (http://www.commonjs.org)
• Lint (http://www.javascriptlint.com/)

5. NOT ANOTHER NODE.JS
HELLO WORLD
• An application built to run on node.js
• Concepts
• Modules used for the application
• Modules extracted from the application
• How dependencies of modules was managed
• Design decisions made during development
• Hosting

6. TOOLBOX
• nodejs - server side javascript vm (http://nodejs.org/)
• connect - middleware (http://github.com/senchalabs/connect)
• express - sinatra like routing (http://expressjs.com/)
• ndistro - dependencies (http://github.com/visionmedia/ndistro)
• ejs - view templates (http://github.com/visionmedia/ejs)
• mongoose- mongodb driver(http://github.com/LearnBoost/
mongoose)
• log4js - logging (http://github.com/csausdev/log4js-node)

7. CONNECT
• Middleware framework
• Allowsfilters to be added to HTTP processing (e.g. logging,
authentication)

8. CONNECT EXAMPLE
var server = Connect.createServer(
Connect.logger(),
function(req, res) {
res.writeHead(200, {
'Content-Type': 'text/plain'
});
res.end('Hello World');
}
);

9. EXPRESS JS
var app = require('express').createServer();
app.get('/', function(req, res){
res.send('hello world');
});
app.listen(3000);

10. EJS
res.render('show_username.ejs', {
locals:{user:user}
});
<% if (user) { %>
<h2><%= user.name %></h2>
<% } %>

11. MONGOOSE
var mongoose = require('../modules/mongoose/mongoose').Mongoose;
var db = mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost/tapas');
mongoose.model('User', {
'properties': ['username', 'password', 'first', 'last', ...],
'indexes': ['first', 'last', [{'username':1},{unique: true}]],
'methods': {
save: function(fn){
this.updated_at = new Date();
this.__super__(fn);
}
}
});
module.exports = db.model('User');

12. LOG4JS
var log4js = require('log4js');
log4js.addAppender(log4js.fileAppender('log/app.log'), 'controller.client');
var logger = log4js.getLogger('controller.client');
logger.setLevel('DEBUG');
logger.debug(‘hello, world’);
[2010-09-28 19:50:24.816] [DEBUG] controller.user - hello, world

13. NOT ANOTHER NODE.JS
HELLO WORLD
• An application built to run on node.js
• Concepts
• Modules used for the application
• Modules extracted from the application
• How dependencies of modules was managed
• Design decisions made during development
• Hosting

14. EXTRACTED MODULES
• node-daemon - a module for start-stop functionality without
the need for init.d scripts (http://github.com/theteam/node-
daemon)
• node-properties - a module for reading JSON property files
using override pattern borrowed from Ant (http://github.com/
theteam/node-properties)
• tapas-models
- a module for common data entities with
mongodb wrappers - (http://github.com/theteam/tapas-
models)

15. NOT ANOTHER NODE.JS
HELLO WORLD
• An application built to run on node.js
• Concepts
• Modules used for the application
• Modules extracted from the application
• How dependencies of modules was managed
• Design decisions made during development
• Hosting

16. NDISTRO
• Bash script that creates distributions from github for node
binaries and modules
• Because it’s bash, it can easily be extended
• Hash simple syntax
• If
modules are configured nicely, will symlink modules onto
node execution path

17. NDISTRO EXAMPLE
node 0.2.0
module senchalabs connect
module visionmedia express 1.0.0beta2
module visionmedia ejs
./bin/node
./modules/senchalabs/connect
./modules/visionmedia/express
./modules/visionmedia/ejs
./lib/node/connect
./lib/node/express
./lib/node/ejs

18. NOT ANOTHER NODE.JS
HELLO WORLD
• An application built to run on node.js
• Concepts
• Modules used for the application
• Modules extracted from the application
• How dependencies of modules was managed
• Design decisions made during development
• Hosting

19. DESIGN DECISIONS
• Included everything from:
• directory structure
• bootstrap and running the application

20. NOT ANOTHER NODE.JS
HELLO WORLD
• An application built to run on node.js
• Concepts
• Modules used for the application
• Modules extracted from the application
• How dependencies of modules was managed
• Design decisions made during development
• Hosting

21. HOSTING
• Joyent (https://no.de/)
• Heroku (http://heroku.com/)