Chapter 13. Beyond web servers
This chapter covers
- Using Socket.IO for real-time cross-browser communication
- Implementing TCP/IP networking
- Using Node’s APIs to interact with the operating system
- Developing and working with command-line tools
Node’s asynchronous nature enables you to perform I/O-intensive tasks that might be difficult or inefficient in a synchronous environment. We’ve mostly covered HTTP applications in this book, but what about other kinds of applications? What else is Node useful for?
The truth is that Node is tailored not only for HTTP, but for all kinds of general-purpose I/O. This means you can build practically any type of application using Node, such as command-line programs, system administration scripts, and real-time web applications.
In this chapter, you’ll learn how to create real-time web servers that go beyond the traditional HTTP server model. You’ll also learn about some of Node’s other APIs that you can use to create other kinds of applications, like TCP servers or command-line programs.
We’ll start by looking at Socket.IO, which enables real-time communication between browsers and the server.