WHAT IS AZURE APP SERVICE
Azure is an extensive set of cloud services, which developers and IT pros use for building, deploying and managing apps via a global network of data centers. Azure web app is the only consistent hybrid cloud. Any developer could create and deploy wherever he or she wants with Azure. Microsoft is committed to enabling good experiences for developers who are building and running Node.js applications on the Azure platform.
The App Service include the web application plus mobile app capabilities that were previously delivered separately as Azure Websites + Azure Mobile Services. Also, it includes powerful new Logic/Workflow App as well as API app capabilities, together with in-built connectors, which make it super easy to make logic workflows, which integrate with dozens of popular SaaS and on-premises apps, such as SalesForce, Office 365, OneDrive, Dynamics, DropBox, Box, Twitter, Twilio, Facebook, Marketo and a whole lot more. All the features could be used together at a low price. As a matter of act, the new Azure application service is exactly the same price as the previous websites offering.
THE NODE.JS SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT KIT
The Node.js Hits 1.0 software development kit lets developers gather a huge swath of data regarding their apps, from performance metrics to tracking dependency to console logging. The same as other software development kits for other languages, by default the Node version keeps track of HTTP requests, unhandled exceptions and system metrics. Developers could track their own custom telemetry manually.
Although much of the 1.0 release is performance and stability improvements, it does offer more Application Map functionality out of the box. Today, dependencies such as MongoDB, Redis and PostgreSQL could be include in the Application Map automatically. Moreover, the release adds automatic instrumentation support for the popular Winston logging framework. There were some breaking changes, mostly related to type renaming and function. The software development kit is an open source project on GitHub.
GOOD NEWS FOR DEVELOPERS
There's good news for developers on Microsoft’s Azure cloud and those who need a stable release before deploying to production. Recently, the Node.js community warmed to Microsoft and their services and software as they continue contributing to open source. App insights became available generally in November 2016 and the addition of full Node.js full support closes a huge gap in their product offering.
The Azure Application insights monitor the backend services as well as components after deployment. This helps a developer discover and quickly diagnose performance and other issues as well. The Application Insights for Node.JS services could be used that are hosted in the datacenter, in web apps and Azure VMS and even in other public clouds.
For receiving, storing and exploring the monitoring data, it is a good idea to include the software development kit in the code, and set up a corresponding Application Insights resource in Azure. The software development kit ends data to that resources for more exploration and further analysis. The Node.js SDK could monitor incoming and outgoing HTTP requests automatically, and some system metrics. Starting with version 0.20, the software development kit could also monitor several common third-party packages, such as MySQL, MongoDB and Redis. All events which are related to incoming HTTP requests are correlated for quicker troubleshooting. A developer could use the TelemetryClient API to manually monitor and instrument more aspects of the application and system.
WHY NODE.JS IS VERY POPULAR
Node.js is an amazing phenomenon to recently hit the web development scene. A lot of things could be said why it has become very popular. The following is a list of the various aspects of Node.js, which contributed to its success.
- It is fast. Being built on the V8 VM in Google Chrome, Node.JS provides extreme performance than similar VMs used in Python or Ruby. In benchmarks, V8 is outdoing CPythong by a factor of ten. The Micro bench marks may not always tell the entire story, but it’s a clear indicator of how fast it is. With difference such as this, performance becomes a feature.
- Web centric. Based on V8 and JavaScript, node.js inherently has attracted mainly web developers. In the Python Paradox spirit, it also has come to attract very talented developers. Many of whom are responsible for interesting innovations within the web development community lately.
- JavaScript all the way. JavaScript truly has become the ubiquitous language of the web. All who are doing web development, with or without node.js know JavaScript. This not only helps drive adoption, but it also makes it easier for reuse of code between front-end and back-end. However, a more important point is that it helps reduce the cognitive load that a web developer has these days.
- Always asynchronous. All I/O performed in Node is through design asynchronous. This is a very deliberate decision made by the author of node.js since it is a very opinionated platform. JavaScript has a long history of being used in event-driven environments, since its syntax, fits the development paradigm well. As 100 percent asynchronous with just one true way of doing I/O also provides other benefits.
- Active development. Node.js is a young project that has not even reached 1.0 yet. Moreover, the APIs are being stabilized continuously. This of course has both benefits and drawbacks. However, with a fast moving web development community, it has the potential of being favorable to people since decisions and features could be made faster.
- Non-fragmented community. The biggest reason probably why node.js and its event-driven programming style has become very popular is the fact that there is only one way of doing I/O. This has huge implications on the community since it could be centered on a single I/O API.
The Azure app insights of the new Node.js 1.0 software development kit enables web developers to acquire tremendous data about their applications. The SDK has become very popular among web developers these days. Microsoft has once again created a system or framework that streamlines the web development process, making the task easier and simpler for web development service providers.