| Table of Content |
| 1. Overview 2. List of best NPM Packages Express Commander Async Cloudinary Rxjs 3. Conclusion |
Overview
Recently, software engineers found out that they can speed up the development process by eradicating the need to write repeated code in every application often.
Getting started with Node.js is fairly a good decision because the guidelines are outlined, and numerous projects are available on GitHub, waiting to analyze their software architecture. As a standard best practice, Node.js developers are found using thousands of top npm packages to manage various versions of code and code dependencies of the project.
As we all know, the web is loaded with studies, researches, and analyses of the facts. And I don’t want to repeat the same thing, so let’s be creative and admire the NPM’s success with a summary of its 5 top npm packages.
List of best NPM Packages
1. Express
Express offers a server framework for various types of web applications and it is one of the most popular and widely used NPM packages. For building web applications, Express is a standard framework for many web developers. It offers some powerful features such as high coverage, negotiation for content, high performance, faster development process, and much more that make it an excellent choice for web development.
| const express = require(‘express’);const app = express();app.get(‘/’, function (req, res) { res.send(‘Hello World’);});app.listen(3000); |
2. Commander
After Express, Commander.js is another best npm registry that is lightweight and manageable for building Node.js terminal applications. Using a few functions, you can create CLI apps easily and provide numerous excellent features.
| program .option(‘-d, –debug’, ‘output extra debugging’) .option(‘-s, –small’, ‘small pizza size’) .option(‘-p, –pizza-type <type>’, ‘flavour of pizza’); program.parse(process.argv); const options = program.opts();if (options.debug) console.log(options);console.log(‘pizza details:’);if (options.small) console.log(‘- small pizza size’);if (options.pizzaType) console.log(`- ${options.pizzaType}`); |
| $ pizza-options -perror: option ‘-p, –pizza-type <type>’ argument missing$ pizza-options -d -s -p vegetarian{ debug: true, small: true, pizzaType: ‘vegetarian’ }pizza details:- small pizza size- vegetarian$ pizza-options –pizza-type=cheesepizza details:- cheese |
3. Async
Async is a module with the highest utility capacities for serving asynchronous JavaScript.
| // for use with Node-style callbacks…var async = require(“async”); var obj = {dev: “/dev.json”, test: “/test.json”, prod: “/prod.json”};var configs = {}; async.forEachOf(obj, (value, key, callback) => { fs.readFile(__dirname + value, “utf8”, (err, data) => { if (err) return callback(err); try { configs[key] = JSON.parse(data); } catch (e) { return callback(e); } callback(); });}, err => { if (err) console.error(err.message); // configs is now a map of JSON data doSomethingWith(configs);}); |
| var async = require(“async”); // …or ES2017 async functionsasync.mapLimit(urls, 5, async function(url) { const response = await fetch(url) return response.body}, (err, results) => { if (err) throw err // results is now an array of the response bodies console.log(results)}) |
4. Prop-types
Prop-types is another most popular React-related package on our list. It is a small library that is used by developers to create react components and add types to your props.
| import React from ‘react’;import PropTypes from ‘prop-types’; class MyComponent extends React.Component { render() { // … do things with the props }} MyComponent.propTypes = { // You can declare that a prop is a specific JS primitive. By default, these // are all optional. optionalArray: PropTypes.array, optionalBool: PropTypes.bool, optionalFunc: PropTypes.func, optionalNumber: PropTypes.number, optionalObject: PropTypes.object, optionalString: PropTypes.string, optionalSymbol: PropTypes.symbol, // Anything that can be rendered: numbers, strings, elements or an array // (or fragment) containing these types. optionalNode: PropTypes.node, // A React element (ie. <MyComponent />). optionalElement: PropTypes.element, // A React element type (ie. MyComponent). optionalElementType: PropTypes.elementType, // You can also declare that a prop is an instance of a class. This uses // JS’s instanceof operator. optionalMessage: PropTypes.instanceOf(Message), // You can ensure that your prop is limited to specific values by treating // it as an enum. optionalEnum: PropTypes.oneOf([‘News’, ‘Photos’]), // An object that could be one of many types optionalUnion: PropTypes.oneOfType([ PropTypes.string, PropTypes.number, PropTypes.instanceOf(Message) ]), // An array of a certain type optionalArrayOf: PropTypes.arrayOf(PropTypes.number), // An object with property values of a certain type optionalObjectOf: PropTypes.objectOf(PropTypes.number), optionalObjectWithShape: PropTypes.shape({ optionalProperty: PropTypes.string, requiredProperty: PropTypes.number.isRequired }), // An object with warnings on extra properties optionalObjectWithStrictShape: PropTypes.exact({ optionalProperty: PropTypes.string, requiredProperty: PropTypes.number.isRequired }), requiredFunc: PropTypes.func.isRequired, // A value of any data type requiredAny: PropTypes.any.isRequired, customProp: function(props, propName, componentName) { if (!/matchme/.test(props[propName])) { return new Error( ‘Invalid prop `’ + propName + ‘` supplied to’ + ‘ `’ + componentName + ‘`. Validation failed.’ ); } }, customArrayProp: PropTypes.arrayOf(function(propValue, key, componentName, location, propFullName) { if (!/matchme/.test(propValue[key])) { return new Error( ‘Invalid prop `’ + propFullName + ‘` supplied to’ + ‘ `’ + componentName + ‘`. Validation failed.’ ); } })}; |
5. Rxjs
Rxjs is a collection of modular libraries that are used for creating web apps and design event-based programs using discernible gatherings and structures in JavaScript.
| const { range } = require(‘rxjs’);const { map, filter } = require(‘rxjs/operators’);range(1, 200).pipe( filter(x => x % 2 === 1), map(x => x + x)).subscribe(x => console.log(x)); |
That’s it, our list ends here!
Conclusion
In this post, we discussed the most useful npm packages that developers can give a shot. The packages we sort-listed here are widely used by developers as it is effective and help you to solve business challenges.
Do you think we missed out on any important packages that we can add to our list? If so, let us know in the comment section given below.