
Now, it could easily open network connections, store records in databases, or even just read and write files on your hard drive.Įssentially, Node.js introduced JavaScript as a server-side language and provides a regular JavaScript engine, freed from the usual browser sandbox shackles and, instead, pumped up with a standard system library for networking and file access. Contrary to the browser environment, it did not have any more access to a browser window or cookie storage, but what it got instead, was full access to the system resources. NodeJS took Chrome's JavaScript engine and brought it to the server (or better the command line). However that changed when Ryan Dahl introduced NodeJS in 2009. And for more than a decade, JavaScript was really mostly confined to that use case and to the browser. JavaScript was originally meant to add rudimentary scripting abilities to browsers, in order to allow websites to support more custom ways of interactivity with the user, like showing a dialog box or creating additional HTML content on-the-fly.įor this purpose, browsers are providing a runtime environment (with global objects such as document and window) to enable your code to interact with the browser instance and the page itself.

Understanding NodeJS: A brief introduction

This article will explain how the vibrant ecosystem of NodeJS allows you to efficiently scrape the web to meet most of your requirements. Whether it's a web or mobile application, JavaScript now has the right tools. JavaScript has become one of the most popular and widely used languages due to the massive improvements it has seen and the introduction of the runtime known as NodeJS.
