Node.js is a JavaScript runtime built on the Chrome V8 engine, designed to develop scalable network applications.
Scenarios
Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that is both lightweight and efficient, making it ideal for data-intensive real-time applications across distributed devices. Its package manager, npm, is an open-source library ecosystem. Node.js can be applied in various scenarios:
Real-time applications: including online chat and real-time notifications such as socket.io.
Distributed applications: leveraging efficient parallel I/O to process data.
Utilities: ranging from frontend compression and deployment applications such as grunt, to desktop GUI applications.
Game applications: where high levels of real-time interaction and concurrency are needed, such as NetEase's Pomelo framework.
Web rendering applications: enhancing web page rendering performance through stable interfaces.
Consistent frontend and backend programming environments: enabling frontend developers to undertake server-side development, as seen with the MongoDB, Express.js, AngularJS, and Node.js (MEAN) stack.
Deployment
Manually deploy Node.js environment: Manually install multiple versions of Node.js on Linux and Windows operating systems.