A Guide To Develop Real Time Apps With Node.js
Tags: node, realtimeapps, apps
Published: 2020-09-08 07:16:27

We have been using lots of mobile applications to carry out day to day tasks. So building applications that users can interact with in real-time has become a standard for many developers. The applications that today we use whether they are mobile, web or desktop apps have at least one real time feature. Mostly real-time messaging and notifications are the commonly used real-time features that we use in applications. 

#What Do Real Time Applications Do?
As mentioned before, real time applications functions within a time frame the user feels it is occurring in real time. Within real-time applications or real-time computing, the latency is set under a defined value, typically estimated in seconds.

Know the important points to consider while developing real time apps at- What To Consider While Developing Real Time Applications?

#Role Of Node.js In Real-Time Applications-
Node js helps with its non-blocking I/O and event-driven features to the applications where speed and scalability are constant focus. Nodejs gives continuous two-way connections to applications like social media, forums, ad servers, or stock exchange software.

*1. Reusing And Sharing-*
Nodejs supports microservices architecture and it allows developers to reuse the library code package and share it in various projects. It not only saves development time and increases productivity.

*2. Scalable And Rapid-*
As Node Js is javascript based, it executes rapidly like JS. So an application with event loop easily handles multiple client requests.

*3. Event Based Server-*
Real time apps handles a large number of real-time users. Node.js development supports response based on the event-driven server that supports non-blocking functioning.

*4. Proxy Server-*
Node js will be your best choice where intermediary administrations are necessary. To use node.js server as a proxy server, a developer needs to add a code of 20-line, and your application will turn into an ideal fit to support streaming information from numerous sources.

*5. SEO Friendliness-*
The backend rendering by Node.js gives the website more visibility and engagement too. The applications get more speed and user experience as well as a get performance that is required to rank according to SEO prospects defined by Google.

**Building A Real-Time Chatroom With Node.js-**
Here we’ll see how to build a simple chatroom that users can use to communicate  with connected users. With this, multiple users can connect to the chatroom and users can send messages that will be visible to all users connected to the chatroom.

*Features of simple chatroom-*

* Change the username of the user
* Send messages
* Show if another user is currently typing a message

**Application Environment Setup-**
* Create directory
* Run the npm init to set up package.json file.

*Install Dependencies-*
Here we’ll use express, ejs, socket.io and nodemon packages to build app.

Ejs- It is a well known JS template engine
Command to install ejs- npm install express ejs socket.io –save

Nodemon- This package restarts the server every time we make any change to the application code. Due to the use of Nodemon you don’t need to manually stop and start the server every time when you make change. Command to install Nodemon–
npm install nodemon --save-dev
Add a start script to your package.json file to start the application with nodemon. 

"scripts": {
"start": "nodemon app.js",
 },
Use the following command to start app-

npm run start

*Set Up The Application Structure-*
With all the Dependencies that will need for this project installed, build app project structure. For this, you have to create some directories. Get that done so that your app structure look like-
Know more at - [https://solaceinfotech.com/blog/a-guide-to-develop-real-time-apps-with-node-js/]