Introduction to Node.js

Node.js welcomes you to the world of server side JavaScript!

Today's world offers a bunch of different server side technologies that we could choose from:

• C# (ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC)
• PHP
• Ruby (Ruby on Rails)
• Python
• Java (Spring MVC, JSF, JSP & the kind)

When it comes to JavaScript on the server side, the current trend and popular solution is Node.js.

Being able to build the complete stack on top of JavaScript delights the community.

Node.js has taken the world by storm and these are the people who are using node.

From it's birth to current date, node has grown tremendously and it's one of the largest project being followed. Ya, it's open source and it exists on github. The company joyent currently sponsors this project.

Let's get started with working on Node.js. I shall use windows as my OS to demonstrate the examples.
This will be a series of articles.

What is Node.js?

Download and install Node.

Observe Node directory.

The Node executable

Node Executable options

Environment variables

Install node as a service

First program : console.log

Creating objects & inspecting them : util.inspect

Understanding callback functions & Asynchronous programming.

Understanding the Node execution model : The node event loop explained

Creating an HTTP client : The request module

Working with the OS module

Working with the process module

Creating a HTTP Server : Working with the http Module

Node Inspector

Observing the request and response objects.

Node Modules. What does require mean?

Constructor Functions, Namespaces & Modules.

Module pattern

Why don't we need to require() console and the process modules? : Globals

Streams

Piping

EventEmitter class

What's a class in node?