Skip to main content

Review: Nestjs - Finally a scalable way to build APIs

I have been thinking about this for a long time. There HAS to be a defined way to build APIs in a scalable way. 

If you have used Node, Express, etc in your side projects, you might have felt that after a point in development, debugging truly becomes a pain. Sure, enterprise-level API codes are great. But a lot of times, these configurations are too much, and probably not even needed in other projects. To be honest, I haven't seen a lot of Open-Source API codes either to make a judgement on how experienced developers build their APIs.


Anyway, I came across an amazing framework recently, and I think if you are coding a complex API, this should be your way to go.

Nest.js

Nest.js is a framework for building efficient, reliable and scalable server-side applications. 

You essentially break your APIs into controllers, services, and modules, which allow you to modularize the smallest of functionalities in your endpoints or the API as a whole.

Why is modularizing important?

As I have talked about in my previous blogs, 2 main reasons include easier debugging and better code readability. Of course, not to forget re-using same codes as functions is one of the most basic rules of programming.

Reasons to choose: 

  • Your code is finally scalable in the right sense.
  • Without thinking too much, you have created actual re-usable functional components that interact with DB and isolated them with the endpoints (controllers).

Cons:

The only disadvantage I found is that debugging in this framework is a little abstracted. This is because, although you write your code in TypeScript, it is compiled and built into simple JS code. Quite often, the exact file and line of the bug in your code might not be that easy to figure out if it's a runtime error.

But I won't say that it's purely Nest's disadvantage. 

Nevertheless, given the benefits of TypeScript and Nest together, the debugging con isn't too much. It's not like you just cannot debug your code! 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Namaste JavaScript Quick Notes

Note:  Akshay Saini's Namaste JavaScript is probably the best course for JavaScript developers out there. These are my personal notes that I made while watching the course; they serve more of as an online quick reference for my understanding and revision, and I hope it benefits anyone reading it too! Everything in JS happens inside an Execution Context. Before a JS code is run, memory is allocated and variables are set as undefined   , and functions are set as their exact code in the scope within the Execution Context. The global execution context hosts all the global variables and function definitions. An Execution Context has 2 components: Memory, that stores variables and functions; and Code, that reads and executes the code. Call Stack maintains the order of execution contexts. Since JS is single threaded and asynchronous, at one point of time, only one function is executed which is at the top of the call stack. For each function, an execution context is created before executi
1 comment
Read more

An introduction to APIs

API is an acronym for Application Programming Interface. Let's start with first defining some basic terms: Browser: These are browsers. To visit any website on the internet, you need a browser. Server: Hmm, this is tough. In simple words, server is a computer. Yes, just like the laptop, or PC at your home. The only difference is that it does not have a screen. Of course, there are other differences in technical specifications, but at its core, the server is just, simply, a computer. That's it. So why is it called a server? Because it serves . When you go to a website like google.com , your computer connects to the internet and gets you your search result. But your computer's internet connection has to get that result from somewhere, right? If the google search result is giving you some answers, the answers have to come from somewhere. What is that place? The answer to that some place is: a server. When you click on the search button on google, or hit enter after typing, &q
Post a Comment
Read more

i3wm essentials - I (Brightness)

So you have started using i3 and somehow managed to open your browser and almost resumed your normal work.  But wait, the brightness is too much isn't it? Or is it too low? The mousepad used to work fine, but now all of a sudden tapping does not equal click?!  Don't worry.  This blog series will tell you all about the essential setup commands and common shortcuts that I use to navigate my work in i3, and how you can too. Changing the brightness So you just started i3 and you just can't take this brightness setting. You go for your function keys, and damn! They aren't working. Quick fix: Run the following command if you need to change the brightness ASAP. xrandr -q | grep ' connected' | head -n 1 | cut -d ' ' -f1 This will give an ouput that's the name of your monitor.  Use that monitor name here and change the values of brightness to suit your needs. xrandr --output <monitor-name> --brightness 0.7 Now that your eyes are comfortable, let me show
Post a Comment
Read more