Tag: node.js

I’m so mad!!! My response to the fork of node.js to io.js!

I’m so mad!!!

No, actually I’m not. This is cool.

It’s so confusing! No, it’s actually not. Use your learnings and read this Node Forward and read Max’s @maxogden “What you need to know.” gist.

It’ll be so hard to test this and test with node.js. Not really, again, read the threads there are a million different ways that you’ll be able to setup a clean build against either while keeping both around on your dev machine. Again, repeating myself, this is cool.

Summary for Devs: This is cool. It’s not going to wreck your projects. Just read up on it and it’ll all be a most excellent journey.

Summary for Decision Makers: Read @eranhammer‘s blog post here. TLDR; is, don’t second guess your decision to go with Node.js, don’t flip out about a Node.js or io.js investment, this isn’t anything more than a healthy ecosystem at work. It’ll be cool.

Getting in Some Code Stylings, Looking Good for the Code Dance

In every language there are opinions about how to format code. With JavaScript, the community abounds with opinions about how the code should look, how variables are declared, whether there should be semi-colons to end each statement, spaces before or after parenthesis, and more than I care to list in a simply worded paragraph like this. Recently the team at Deconstructed sat down to determine what our ongoing code style format would be and how we can enforce it.

The first thing we did was figure out what we could use for enforcement of the coding style. Milan (@milanloveless) quickly discovered node-jscs per suggestion from Adam Ulvi (@s5fs). He implemented that code as follows.

Continue reading “Getting in Some Code Stylings, Looking Good for the Code Dance” →

More on Using the Nools DSL and Engine…

Nools Objects

In the helloworld.nools object there is a single object defined called Message. This object has two elements defined; the text property and the constructor. The specific object definition is shown below.

[code language=”javascript”]
define Message {
text : ”,
constructor : function(message){
this.text = message;
}
}
[/code]

This object can now be referred to by name throughout the nools file. The other way to reference this object is to call the getDefined function from the flow object that is being used in code processing the business rules. In the nools language any javascript has can be put inside the define blog. By defining the constructor as shown, it overrides the default constructor behavior. Continue reading “More on Using the Nools DSL and Engine…” →

Learning “nools” Rules Engine

Recently I sat down to work up a solution around a rules engine. There were a few things I noticed right off.

  1. When there is a request to implement or build a rules engine it is very often (I’m guessing a solid 40-60% of the time) reasoned that there is a need solely based on a lack of understanding around what the problem space is that actually needs a solution. The simple assumption, is 40-60% of the time somebody says “let’s implement a rules engine to solve these unknown problems” really translates to “we really don’t know much about this domain so let’s implement something arbitrary as a stop gap”.
  2. Implementing a business rules engine can quickly become a “support the user” scenario for the developers that implement the rules engine. This is a situation in which the developers actually have to help the people writing the rules to be processed. This is not an ideal situation at all, generally developers supporting users writing rules is a quick way to ensure burn out, misappropriation of skills and turnover.
  3. Many developers will, without hesitation, spout out “are you sure you want to implement a rules engine?” and then follow that up with “let’s discuss your actual problem” with that leading to “are you sure you want to implement a rules engine?”. Other developers upon hearing that one will implement a rules engine immediately respond with, “shit, I’m out.”

At this point I realized I had X, Y and Z reason to use it and would just have to persevere with all of the threats that are inclusive of implementing a rules engine. Sometimes one just has to step into the realm of scary and get it done.

So here’s what I dug up. I’m really not sure about the name of this project, as it appears to be some sort of odd usage, so whatever, but it is indeed called nools (github repo). Nools is a business rules engine based on the Rete Algorithm, something that is helpful to read up on when implementing. The main deployment for nools is to a Node.js server, but I’ve read that it is prospectively deployable in most browsers too.
Continue reading “Learning “nools” Rules Engine” →

Framework: Strongloop’s Loopback

Recently I did a series for New Relic on three frameworks, both for APIs and web apps. I titled it “Evaluating Node.js Frameworks: hapi.js, Restify, and Geddy” and it is available via the New Relic Blog. To check out those frameworks give that blog entry a read, then below I’ve added one more framework to the list, Strongloop’s Loopback.

Strength: Very feature-rich generation of models, data structures and related enterprise-type needs. Solid enterprise-style API framework library.
Weakness: Complexity could be cumbersome unless it is needed. Not an immediate first choice for a startup going after lean and clean.
Great for: Enterprise API Services.

When I dove into StrongLoop, I immediately got the feel that I was using a fairly polished package of software. When installing with ‘sudo npm install -g strongloop’ I could easily see the other packages that are installed. But instead of the normal Node.js display of additional dependencies that are installed, the StrongLoop install displayed a number of additional options with a shiny ASCII logo.
Continue reading “Framework: Strongloop’s Loopback” →