Moving from Node.js to Dart

Faisal Abid explores how to take a production API built in Node.js and port it over to Dart.

You will learn about the differences between each platform for server-side APIs, and the challenges you will face when moving away from the Node platform to Dart.

Faisal goes over the advantages of developing in Dart and why it is the best bet for the future of server-side development.

Transcript

2. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN Node.js or Dart Thinking in Dart Debugging Dart Deploying Dart @faisalabid +faisalabidx
3. ABOUT ME Entrepreneur & Engineer Deployed many large scale Node.js API’s Written a handful of Dart web projects for clients Working in healthcare @ LEAGUE, during the day @faisalabid +faisalabidx
4. THE BACKSTORY Market Wolf is a native Android application powered by a Dart API Originally was Node.js Utilizes RethinkDB WebSockets Medium sized API @faisalabid +faisalabidx
5. DIAGRAM OF ARCITECTURE IN NODE @faisalabid +faisalabidx MB Node Node Node
6. LIVE DEMO @faisalabid +faisalabidx
7. WHY SWITCH FROM NODE.JS TO DART? Tooling & debugging support for Node.js is a pain Already using Dart & Polymer for other front-end applications Written too many Node.js projects With that in mind, I began my investigation into Node.js and Dart @faisalabid +faisalabidx
8. NODE.JS & DART @faisalabid +faisalabidx
9. NODE.JS & DART - THE SIMILARITIES Both are great platforms TechEmpower.com/benchmarks/ - Both rate pretty good. Dart is slightly ahead Both are single threaded * and event based Both install and run with a very low memory footprint JIT compiled so they start up very fast and run great @faisalabid +faisalabidx
10. NODE.JS & DART - THE DIFFERENCES Different programming paradigm Node.js’s multiple vm’s compared to Dart’s isolates No “forever” tool to restart Dart servers when they crash. Though easy to build into your application @faisalabid +faisalabidx
11. PROS & CONS OF MOVING TO DART PRO: Better profiling and debugging in Dart PRO: Syntax and language features PRO: Organization of code is better and enforced PRO: Support for all major databases on pub.dartlang.org PRO/CON: Shift in thinking CON: Missing support for esoteric and very new database. But most protocols are JSON based so easy to port it @faisalabid +faisalabidx
12. NOW WHAT? Node.js API written in Express What’s the Express alternative in Dart? @faisalabid +faisalabidx
13. EXPRESS ALTERNATIVE IN DART Redstone Shelf by Google RPC by Google *There are others but these 3 are the gaining popularity* @faisalabid +faisalabidx
14. REDSTONE Actively developed by community Very “express-y” Good community support for middlewares/plugins PostgresSQL Mapper MongoDB Mapper Session Management Static HTML @faisalabid +faisalabidx
15. EXPRESS HELLO WORLD @faisalabid +faisalabidx
16. REDSTONE HELLO WORLD @faisalabid +faisalabidx
17. REDSTONE Dart example is more cleaner Easy to understand @faisalabid +faisalabidx
18. SHELF The base for Redstone Minimal no-frills component set to build a custom API framework Use middleware for routing Redstone’s middlewares come from Shelf. Both are the same Simple API @faisalabid +faisalabidx
19. EXPRESS HELLO WORLD @faisalabid +faisalabidx
20. SHELF HELLO WORLD @faisalabid +faisalabidx
21. SHELF Very minimal if you can get away with it Simple API, compared to Express Made by Dart team @faisalabid +faisalabidx
22. RPC The newest of the two Enables you to write RPC style Dart API’s easily Self documenting API Takes advantage of annotations @faisalabid +faisalabidx
23. EXPRESS HELLO WORLD @faisalabid +faisalabidx
24. RPC HELLO WORLD @faisalabid +faisalabidx
25. RPC HELLO WORLD @faisalabid +faisalabidx
26. RPC Bit more verbose Very clear API Bonus feature. Generate client side libraries in Java, Python and others Made by the Dart team We went with RPC @faisalabid +faisalabidx
27. WEBSOCKETS Market Wolf pushes data to clients in realtime using WebSockets Dart comes natively with WebSockets @faisalabid +faisalabidx
28. WEBSOCKET EXAMPLE @faisalabid +faisalabidx
29. BUILDING BLOCKS Now all the building blocks were ready Dart comes natively with WebSockets @faisalabid +faisalabidx
30. THINKING IN DART @faisalabid +faisalabidx
31. DIAGRAM OF ARCITECTURE IN NODE @faisalabid +faisalabidx MB Node Node Node
32. DART ARCHITECTURE Easy to replicate Node.js, but we must think in Dart Simplify the architecture by using isolates @faisalabid +faisalabidx
33. ISOLATES Every Dart application runs in an isolate Isolate is an independent worker that runs in its own memory heap Spawn multiple isolate in a VM. Take advantage of multiple cores Isolates communicate to the main isolate via a send and receive port @faisalabid +faisalabidx
34. ISOLATE EXAMPLE @faisalabid +faisalabidx
35. ISOLATES Every Dart application runs in an isolate API to spawn multiple isolates in a VM. Take advantage of multiple cores Isolates communicate to the main isolate via a send and receive port This fit perfectly with our design @faisalabid +faisalabidx
36. DIAGRAM OF ARCHITECTURE IN NODE @faisalabid +faisalabidx MB Node Node Node
37. DIAGRAM OF ARCHITECTURE IN DART @faisalabid +faisalabidx API Stock Fetcher Leader board MAIN
38. THINKING IN DART Isolates are game changers when you develop Imagine spawning isolate to do database operations which don’t need to be returned to the user @faisalabid +faisalabidx
39. DEBUGGING DART @faisalabid +faisalabidx
40. MARKET WOLF OBSERVATORY ISOLATES @faisalabid +faisalabidx
41. MARKET WOLF OBSERVATORY HEAP @faisalabid +faisalabidx
42. DEBUGGING IN DART Debugging & Profiling applications is very simple using Observatory This alone justifies moving to Dart among all other things @faisalabid +faisalabidx
43. DEPLOYING DART TO THE SERVER @faisalabid +faisalabidx
44. DEPLOYING TO SERVER Node.js application used AWS Beanstalk to deploy application Beanstalk lets you deploy your application with a simple terminal command. Amazon handles all the scaling, load balancing and deployment for you Does not explicitly provide support for Dart But implicitly it does @faisalabid +faisalabidx
45. RUNNING DART ON AWS BEANSTALK Beanstalk lets you deploy Docker images Docker is a very very lightweight virtual machine that you can configure in the form of a Dockerfile The Dockerfile describes what will go in your Docker runtime Beanstalk will deploy that image Luckily for us. Google has a base Dart VM Docker image ready for us @faisalabid +faisalabidx
46. DOCKERFILE EXAMPLE @faisalabid +faisalabidx
47. RUNNING DART ON AWS BEANSTALK Now that we have our Dockerfile ready we need to tell Beanstalk about it @faisalabid +faisalabidx
48. DOCKERFILE.AWS.JSON @faisalabid +faisalabidx
49. RUNNING DART ON AWS BEANSTALK Now that we have our Dockerfile ready we need to tell Beanstalk about it Once you have that, all that you need to do is run the Elastic Beanstalk deployment command @faisalabid +faisalabidx eb deploy
50. WAS IT WORTH IT? @faisalabid +faisalabidx
51. WAS IT WORTH IT? Yes. No question about it Dart’s syntax. Language features. Isolates. Observatory all make a strong compelling case to move to Dart Do we find anything missing now that we are moved away from Node.js? Not at all # lines of code shrunk dramatically. Easier to debug, deploy, less dependencies to worry about @faisalabid +faisalabidx
52. MOVING FROM NODE.JS TO DART WAS THE BEST DECISION WE MADE @faisalabid +faisalabidx FOR US, ALL API PROJECTS MOVING FORWARD, WILL BE WRITTEN IN DART
53. THANK YOU @faisalabid +faisalabidx FAISAL.ABID@GMAIL.COM @FAISALABID