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Th6, 2022

Top 10 Backend Programming Languages

All server-side operations and interactions between the browser and database are referred to as backend development. Servers, databases, communication protocols, operating systems and software stack are the core tools used in backend development.

JavaScript, PHP, Python, Java and Ruby are the known backend programming languages that most backend developers are using nowadays.

A survey of W3Techs claims that PHP is the most used backend language. Around 79.2% of web applications are using PHP as server-side applications.

On the other hand, Stack Overflow’s 2020 Developer Survey shares that JavaScript is the top most used scripting language. Indeed, JavaScript got 69.7%, Python earned 41.6%, and PHP received 25.8% votes from professional developers in this survey.

1. JavaScript

JavaScript (JS) is a lightweight, interpreted, or just-in-time compiled programming language with first-class functions. While it is most well-known as the scripting language for Web pages, many non-browser environments also use it, such as Node.js, Apache CouchDB and Adobe Acrobat. JavaScript is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm, single-threaded, dynamic language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and declarative (e.g. functional programming) styles. Read more about JavaScript.

This section is dedicated to the JavaScript language itself, and not the parts that are specific to Web pages or other host environments. For information about APIs that are specific to Web pages, please see Web APIs and DOM.

The standards for JavaScript are the ECMAScript Language Specification (ECMA-262) and the ECMAScript Internationalization API specification (ECMA-402). The JavaScript documentation throughout MDN is based on the latest draft versions of ECMA-262 and ECMA-402. And in cases where some proposals for new ECMAScript features have already been implemented in browsers, documentation and examples in MDN articles may use some of those new features.

Do not confuse JavaScript with the Java programming language. Both “Java” and “JavaScript” are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle in the U.S. and other countries. However, the two programming languages have very different syntax, semantics, and use.

2. PHP

PHP (originally stood for Personal Home Page, then renamed to Hypertext Preprocessor) is an open-source server-side scripting language, developed in 1994 by Rasmus Lerdorf specifically for the web. What now makes PHP different than, for example, JavaScript is that the code is executed on the server, generating HTML which is then sent to the client. The client receives the results of running that script but doesn’t know what the underlying code was. 

Since its creation, PHP has become extremely popular and successful – almost 80% of websites are built in PHP, including web giants like Wikipedia, Facebook, Yahoo!, Tumblr and many more. PHP is also the language behind the most popular CMS (Content Management Systems) such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, WooCommerce and Shopify. PHP is a universal programming language that allows for building landing pages and simple WordPress websites, but also complex and massively popular web platforms like Facebook. 

PHP is also considered as easy to learn (at least on an entry-level) and, according to StackOverflow’s annual survey, is the most popular programming language of 30% of software developers. 

3. Ruby

Rails, or Ruby on Rails, is an open-source framework written with the Ruby programming language and founded in 2003 by David Heinemeier Hansson.

Ruby on Rails companies don’t have to rewrite every single piece of code in the process of web application development, thus reducing the time spent on basic tasks.

The number of websites built with the framework account for 350,000+ all over the world, and this number is rapidly growing.

Open Source status is the first thing to take into consideration when choosing the right back-end framework. This means Ruby on Rails is free and can be used without any charge.

The past few years have provided us with many success stories of startups that were able to launch a new web project on Ruby on Rails and acquire their first customers — all within a few weeks. Everything is possible thanks to a huge community and the support you can get as a result.

Benefits of Ruby on Rails Framework

  • Ruby on Rails MVC
  • Extensive ecosystem
  • Consistency and clean code
  • DRY
  • High scalability
  • Security
  • Time and cost efficiency
  • RAD
  • Self-documentation
  • Test environment
  • Convention over configuration

4. Python

Python is a general-purpose programming language used in web development to create dynamic websites using frameworks like Flask, Django, and Pyramid. For the most part, Python runs on Google’s Apps Engine.

Unlike Java which is a compiled language, Python is an interpreted language. It is generally slower than the compiled languages. This makes Python lose to Node.js in terms of performance.

Python is not suitable for apps that require high execution speed. This is because of the single flow of code in Python which leads to slow processing of requests. Python web applications are therefore slower.

Python does not support multithreading. Therefore, scalability is not as easy. For Python to have easy scalability, libraries have to be used. However, this does not mean that it can compete with Node.js in terms of scalability.

Python is a full-stack language. It is used in backend development while its frameworks are used in frontend development.

A Python program can be written in MAC OS and the same program can run in Linux, therefore Python is also a cross-stage languague.

Python is a good language for web development as well as desktop development. But unlike Node.js it is not primarily used in mobile app development.

After the introduction of Python, a lot of frameworks and development tools like PyCharm have been created.

The great extensibility of Python and the use of many frameworks have made Python to be such a great backend language that every developer would desire to use.

Python frameworks include:

  1. Django
  2. Flask
  3. Web2Py

Python is not event-driven. To build an event-driven app using Python, you need to install a tool like CPython.

Although Python enables asynchronous programing it is not frequently used like Node.js as it is limited by Global interpreter lock which ensures that only one process executes at a time.

5. Java

Java is highly scalable. Take the case of Java EE. Assuming you have done the right planning and used the right kind of application server, the Java EE can transparently cluster instances. It also allows multiple instances to serve requests.

In Java, separation concerns allow better scaling. When processing or the number of Input-Output (IO) requests increases, you can easily add resources, and redistribute the load. Separation of concerns makes this transparent to the app.

Java components are easily available, making scaling of large web apps easy. The language is flexible, and you need to do less invasive coding to improve scalability. Read more about it in this StackOverflow thread on Java scalability.

One great advantage of Java is “Write Once, Run Everywhere”. We also call this feature ’portability’. You can execute a compiled Java program on all platforms that have a corresponding JVM.

This effectively includes all major platforms, e.g. Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. Read more about the cross-platform feature of Java in this StackOverflow thread titled “Is Java cross-platform”.

You first write your Java program in the “.java” file. Subsequently, you compile it using the Ecplise IDE or ’javac‘, and thereby you create your “.class” files. While it isn‘t mandatory, you can also bundle your “.class” file into a “.jar” file, i.e. an executable.

You can now distribute your “.jar” file to Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, and run it there. There may be occasional confusion, because you may find different set-up files for different platforms for one Java program. However, these have nothing to do with Java.

There are applications that depend on specific features certain platforms provide. For such apps, you need to bundle your Java “.class” files with libraries specific to that platform.

Java’s automatic memory management is a significant advantage. I will describe it briefly here to show how it improves the effectiveness and speed of web apps.

In programming parlance, we divide memory into two parts, i.e. the ’stack’ and the ’heap’. Generally, the heap has a much larger memory than the stack.

Java allocates stack memory per thread, and we will discuss threads a little later in this article. For the time being, note that a thread can only access its own stack memory and not that of another thread.

The heap stores the actual objects, and the stack variables refer to these. The heap memory is one only in each JVM, therefore it‘s shared between threads. However, the heap itself has a few parts that facilitate garbage collection in Java. The stack and heap sizes depend on the JVM.

Now, we will analyze the different types in which the stack references the heap objects. The different types have different garbage collection criteria. Read more about it in “Java Memory Management”.

Following are the reference types:

  1. Strong: It‘s the most popular, and it precludes the object in the heap from garbage collection.
  2. Weak: An object in the heal with a weak reference to it from the stack may not be there in the heap after a garbage collection.
  3. Soft: An object in the heap with a soft reference to it from the stack will be left alone most of the time. The garbage collection process will touch it only when the app is running low on memory.
  4. Phantom reference: We use them only when we know for sure that the objects aren‘t there in the heap anymore, and we need to clean up.

The garbage collection process in Java runs automatically, and it may pause all threads in the app at that time. The process looks at the references that I have explained above and cleans up objects that meet the criteria.

It leaves the other objects alone. This entire process is automated; therefore, the programmers can concentrate on their business logic if they follow the right standards for using reference types.

1
Th6, 2022

What is MongoDB? Why should you use it?

What is MongoDB?

MongoDB is an open source NoSQL database management program. NoSQL is used as an alternative to traditional relational databases. NoSQL databases are quite useful for working with large sets of distributed data. MongoDB is a tool that can manage document-oriented information, store or retrieve information.

MongoDB supports various forms of data. It is one of the many nonrelational database technologies that arose in the mid-2000s under the NoSQL banner — normally, for use in big data applications and other processing jobs involving data that doesn’t fit well in a rigid relational model. Instead of using tables and rows as in relational databases, the MongoDB architecture is made up of collections and documents.

Organizations can use Mongo DB for its ad-hoc queries, indexing, load balancing, aggregation, server-side JavaScript execution and other features.

How it works?

MongoDB makes use of records which are made up of documents that contain a data structure composed of field and value pairs. Documents are the basic unit of data in MongoDB. The documents are similar to JavaScript Object Notation, but use a variant called Binary JSON (BSON). The benefit of using BSON is that it accommodates more data types. The fields in these documents are similar to the columns in a relational database. Values contained can be a variety of data types, including other documents, arrays and arrays of documents, according to the MongoDB user manual. Documents will also incorporate a primary key as a unique identifier.

Sets of documents are called collections, which function as the equivalent of relational database tables. Collections can contain any type of data, but the restriction is the data in a collection cannot be spread across different databases.

The mongo shell is a standard component of the open source distributions of MongoDB. Once MongoDB is installed, users connect the mongo shell to their running MongoDB instances. The mongo shell acts as an interactive JavaScript interface to MongoDB, which allows users to query and update data, and conduct administrative operations.

A binary representation of JSON-like documents is provided by the BSON document storage and data interchange format. Automatic sharding is another key feature that enables data in a MongoDB collection to be distributed across multiple systems for horizontal scalability, as data volumes and throughput requirements increase.

The NoSQL DBMS uses a single master architecture for data consistency, with secondary databases that maintain copies of the primary database. Operations are automatically replicated to those secondary databases for automatic failover.

MongoDB pros and cons

Advantages of MongoDB

Performance Levels

MongoDB stores most of the data in the RAM. It allows a quicker performance while executing queries. 

It collects the data directly from the RAM than the hard disk and the returns come back faster. It is important to have a system with RAM and accurate indexes for enhanced performance levels.

High Speed and Higher Availability

MongoDB is a document-based database solution. It has attributes like replication and gridFS.

Its attributes allow an increase in data availability. It is also easy to access documents using indexing. 

MongoDB performs 100 times faster than other relational databases and provides high performance.

Simplicity

MongoDB offers a simple query syntax that is much easier to grasp than SQL. It provides an expressive query language that users find helpful during development.

Easy Environment and a Quick Set-up

The installation, setup, and execution for MongoDB are quick and simple. It is faster and easier to set up than RDBMS and offers modern JavaScript frameworks.

This feature has allowed users to confidently select NoSQL structures. It also provides quicker learning and training opportunities than SQL databases. 

Flexibility

MongoDB’s schema is not predefined. It means that it has a dynamic schematic architecture that works with non-structured data and storage. 

Businesses keep evolving and so do the data they maintain. It is important to have a flexible database model that could adapt to these changes.

Sharding

MongoDB uses sharding while handling large datasets. Sharding is the process of dividing data from a large set and distributing it to multiple servers.

In case, there is an issue where the server cannot handle the data due to its size, it automatically divides it further without pausing the activity. 

Scalability

Scalability is one of the most important advantages of MongoDB. As seen, MongoDB uses “sharding”, which expands the storage capacity.

Unlike SQL databases that use vertical scalability, sharding allows MongoDB to use horizontal scalability.

Ad-hoc Query Support

An ad-hoc query is a non-standard inquiry. It is generated to gain information if and when required.

MongoDB offers an enhanced ad-hoc queries feature. This allows an application to prepare for fore coming queries that may occur in the future.

Documentation

MongoDB is in the class of “Document Stores”, here the term document refers to data collection.

MongoDB offers accurate documentation which means it does not tether with the data while processing it for storage. It serves the data for each version, edition, or requirement to assist users with an excellent documentation process.

Technical Support

MongoDB offers technical support for the various services that it provides. There is technical support for the community forums, Atlas or Cloud Manager as well as Enterprise or Ops Manager.

In case of any issues, the professional customer support team is ready to assist clients. 

Disadvantages of MongoDB

Transactions

Transactions refer to the process of reviewing and eliminating unwanted data. MongoDB uses multi-document ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability) transactions.

The majority of the application does not require transactions, although there are a few that may need it to update multiple documents and collections. This is one of the major limitations with MongoDB as it may lead to corruption of data.

Joins

Joining documents in MongoDB can be a very tedious task. It fails to support joins as a relational database.

Although there are teams deployed to fix this disadvantage, it is still in the initial stages and would take time to mature. 

Users can utilize joins functionality by manually adding the code. But acquiring data from multiple collections requires multiple queries and this may lead to scattered codes and consume time.

Indexing

MongoDB offers high-speed performance with the right indexes. In case if the indexing is implemented incorrectly or has any discrepancies, MongoDB will perform at a very low speed.

Fixing the errors in the indexes would also consume time. This is another one of the major limitations of MongoDB.

Limited Data Size and Nesting

MongoDB allows a limited size of only 16 MB for a document. Performance nesting for documents is also limited to only 100 levels.

Duplicates

Another one of the major limitations of MongoDB is the duplication of data. The limitation makes it difficult to handle data sets as the relations are not defined well.

Eventually, the duplication of data may lead to corruption as it is not ACID compliant.

High Memory Usage

MongoDB requires a high amount of storage due to the lack of joins functionalities which lead to the duplication of data. There is an increase in data redundancy which takes up unnecessary space in the memory.

31
Th5, 2022

3 things you need to know before starting with React

The world can’t live without mobile and web applications in this day and age. Everything is digitized, from booking cabs to ordering food to make bank transactions. Thanks to the efficient frameworks that provide a seamless user experience. One such robust frontend library is React. This tutorial on ‘what is React’ will help you understand the library’s fundamentals and work with a simple demo.

What Is React?

React.js was released by a software engineer working for Facebook – Jordane Walke in 2011. React is a JavaScript library focused on creating declarative user interfaces (UIs) using a component-based concept. It’s used for handling the view layer and can be used for web and mobile apps. React’s main goal is to be extensive, fast,  declarative, flexible, and simple. 

React is not a framework, it is specifically a library.  The explanation for this is that React only deals with rendering UIs and reserves many things at the discretion of individual projects. The standard set of tools for creating an application using ReactJS is frequently called the stack.

Why use React?

Now, the main question arises in front of us is why one should use React. There are so many open-source platforms for making the front-end web application development easier, like Angular. Let us take a quick look on the benefits of React over other competitive technologies or frameworks. With the front-end world-changing on a daily basis, it’s hard to devote time to learning a new framework – especially when that framework could ultimately become a dead end. So, if you’re looking for the next best thing but you’re feeling a little bit lost in the framework jungle, I suggest checking out React.
 

1. Simplicity

 
ReactJS is just simpler to grasp right away. The component-based approach, well-defined lifecycle, and use of just plain JavaScript make React very simple to learn, build a professional web (and mobile applications), and support it. React uses a special syntax called JSX which allows you to mix HTML with JavaScript. This is not a requirement; Developer can still write in plain JavaScript but JSX is much easier to use.
 

2. Easy to learn

 
Anyone with a basic previous knowledge in programming can easily understand React while Angular and Ember are referred to as ‘Domain-specific Language’, implying that it is difficult to learn them. To react, you just need basic knowledge of CSS and HTML.
 

3. Native Approach

 
React can be used to create mobile applications (React Native). And React is a diehard fan of reusability, meaning extensive code reusability is supported. So at the same time, we can make IOS, Android and Web applications.
 

4. Data Binding

 
React uses one-way data binding and an application architecture called Flux controls the flow of data to components through one control point – the dispatcher. It’s easier to debug self-contained components of large ReactJS apps.
 

5. Performance

 
React does not offer any concept of a built-in container for dependency. You can use Browserify, Require JS, EcmaScript 6 modules which we can use via Babel, ReactJS-di to inject dependencies automatically.
 

6. Testability

 
ReactJS applications are super easy to test. React views can be treated as functions of the state, so we can manipulate with the state we pass to the ReactJS view and take a look at the output and triggered actions, events, functions, etc. 

Features of React

JSX

JSX stands for JavaScript XML. It is a JavaScript syntax extension. Its an XML or HTML like syntax used by ReactJS. This syntax is processed into JavaScript calls of React Framework. It extends the ES6 so that HTML like text can co-exist with JavaScript react code. It is not necessary to use JSX, but it is recommended to use in ReactJS.

Components

ReactJS is all about components. ReactJS application is made up of multiple components, and each component has its own logic and controls. These components can be reusable which help you to maintain the code when working on larger scale projects.

One-way Data Binding

ReactJS is designed in such a manner that follows unidirectional data flow or one-way data binding. The benefits of one-way data binding give you better control throughout the application. If the data flow is in another direction, then it requires additional features. It is because components are supposed to be immutable and the data within them cannot be changed. Flux is a pattern that helps to keep your data unidirectional. This makes the application more flexible that leads to increase efficiency.A virtual DOM object is a representation of the original DOM object. It works like a one-way data binding. Whenever any modifications happen in the web application, the entire UI is re-rendered in virtual DOM representation. Then it checks the difference between the previous DOM representation and new DOM. Once it has done, the real DOM will update only the things that have actually changed. This makes the application faster, and there is no wastage of memory.

Simplicity

ReactJS uses JSX file which makes the application simple and to code as well as understand. We know that ReactJS is a component-based approach which makes the code reusable as your need. This makes it simple to use and learn.

Performance

ReactJS is known to be a great performer. This feature makes it much better than other frameworks out there today. The reason behind this is that it manages a virtual DOM. The DOM is a cross-platform and programming API which deals with HTML, XML or XHTML. The DOM exists entirely in memory. Due to this, when we create a component, we did not write directly to the DOM. Instead, we are writing virtual components that will turn into the DOM leading to smoother and faster performance.

31
Th5, 2022

Flutter vs Native: When to Choose Flutter Over Native

Flutter vs native development: Which one to pick for your next project?

Flutter was created by Google around four years ago and has made steady progress through the market since its original inception. It’s a UI framework that aims to unify Android and iOS interface development using the same basic library of controls and a single codebase. It’s based on a language that was also developed by Google — Dart — which should feel very familiar to developers who have experience with JavaScript or similar languages.

It’s important to note that Flutter only covers the front end. How applications work behind the scenes is still up to developers, and the market offers different options for that. Flutter is meant to address a common annoyance encountered in mobile app development — the differences in how UI frameworks operate on Android and iOS. If developers use native tools, they have to adapt the app to the specific quirks of the native UI frameworks, even if they are working with a central mockup/design for both platforms.

What are native technologies?

Unlike cross-platform tools, native application development is application-specific to either Android or iOS. Native apps are coded in languages that are supported by the device’s OS vendor:

  • Android languages: Kotlin, Java. Development environment: Android Studio 
  • iOS languages: Swift, Objective-C. Development environment: Xcode 

As a rule, native apps do not have serious drawbacks, and their users can take full advantage of sophisticated features such as an accelerometer, camera, GPS, and others. Users can install native apps through major app stores such as Google Play and App Store.

At the same time, the development and support of native apps require significant investments. This is because you need two different development teams for two different platforms. And they have to adjust business logic, duplicate interface logic and layout to the features of each platform. 

With Flutter, you need  a single development team therefore the working process runs much easier and faster. Hence, low-budget Flutter is becoming more popular with hi-tech businesses, compared to native technologies, as illustrated by the figure below.

Which one to pick for your next project?

Flutter makes a strong case over native in more than one area.

Widgets everywhere

The ease of development mentioned above comes from using widgets, reusable components that build applications. From buttons to images and even text, everything is a widget. You can mix and match them easily to create any user interface you like.

Hot reload & hot restart

Flutter benefits from the features “hot reload” and “hot restart”, appreciated by developers for making the development process faster and easier. Hot reload allows you to see any changes in the UI instantly, reducing the waiting time between two changes. This means that a developer and a designer can sit side by side and try different layouts in real time.

Hot restart, on the other hand, destroys the current app state and rebuilds it to default. It allows you to check the business logic changes several times faster than on native platforms.

Consistent cross-platform UX

Flutter is a great choice for UI-heavy applications because it gives you control over every pixel displayed to the user. It enables a consistent user experience across different devices and platforms. You can also make your widgets look exactly as designed. When you don’t have to be concerned about platform abilities, the only limitations are your imagination and time.

Light & dark mode

Switching between dark and light mode can also be done painlessly. There is no need to create another widget just for the dark theme, you can use an existing one, set its theme to dark, and you’ll have it in dark mode.

Bug spotting

Bugs are actually another plus in Flutter. Since the code is shared, bugs are too. It might seem like a problem, but actually this means they occur more frequently and are therefore more noticeable. They can also be fixed with just one change for all platforms.

Extra testing

The write-once-run-anywhere aspect has implications in testing as well. You’re essentially writing one app, so the testing is more thorough because you do it twice.

The human factor

No technology makes sense without people. It’s people who come up with an idea for an application, it takes people to build it and people to use it.

Sometimes, during the application development process, the idea outgrows its original scope, and the team building the app grows with it. In large teams, communication is key, and if it doesn’t run smoothly, it impacts the project.

When developing the same application for Android and iOS, normally there’d be two separate teams. With Flutter, there is only one, which makes communication better, saves time on syncs between departments, and reduces the estimates for future features, leaving more room for application development. With only one mobile team, you also remove the risk of having different behaviors for the same use case appear on different platforms.

12
Th5, 2022

What Are Microservices? How outsourcing microservices helps to scale tech products

What Are Microservices?

Microservices are an architectural approach where an application is broken into smaller components that are loosely coupled and independently deployable. These independent components are called microservices and typically have the following features: 

  • They have their own tech stack, libraries, and dependencies.
  • Developers can work on them without involving the rest of the system.
  • They communicate with one another via REST APIs, event streaming, and message brokers.

The key reason why microservices are used over other architectures is that they make it easier for developers to build and scale apps. That’s how microservices came to be; they originated from the need for easier development when applications were growing bigger in size. 

Why do Microservices Matter?

Some of the key reasons why microservices matter to businesses is listed here –

  • Teams can be extra engaging and responsive to customer necessities

    Companies that espouse microservices legacy architecture can be empowered with the capability to expeditiously transfer skills and experience to customers in times of their need and not be constrained with definite release schedules.

  • There is an increased software team throughput

    Microservices developed on the propositions of DevOps and Agile provide succor to software teams to work in synchrony at the same time as iterating on discrete abilities post-haste.

  • Organizations make systems perform with better reliability and scalability

    An effective and gainful microservices architecture is an ongoing entity. It depends thoroughly on repetitive automation, endorses detailed scalability of services and puts patterns to use that is designated to maintain an uninterrupted system functioning even at the occurrence of failures of individual components.

How outsourcing microservices helps to scale tech products

Microservice-based architecture brings a lot to the table when it comes to application scalability. It’s highly versatile and flexible, which makes it perfect for developing products that require quick changes and new functionalities on the fly. It also gives the freedom to develop particular services and deploy them independently from each other and without changing the entire system. This means that different parts of the code can be developed using different technologies. That type of design approach results in a system that is more resilient to failures – if one unit goes down, it doesn’t take the entire system along with it.

Since microservices are highly scalable and extremally fault-tolerant, they naturally increase business agility. They allow an organization to focus more on business needs and product development rather than projects, as they can be thought of as a depiction of business functionalities. This type of approach is crucial when it comes to future-proofing a product. In today’s world, business needs – both technological needs and market demands – can change drastically very quickly. It is important to invest in an architecture that can meet these demands. Microservices are a viable solution that allow businesses to easily reshape parts of a system as needed.

Scaling up an existing system, especially moving it to V2, may be a challenge. Choosing the right architecture for the job is of key importance. For many companies, microservices check all the right boxes when it comes to system scaling. This should not be a surprise, since they allow for easy and rapid scalability thanks to unit-based autonomy and make development fast and hassle-free thanks to technology independence.

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