Modules I Can't Live Without (pt. 1)


2 minute read

##jQuery!!!!!!!

Jk you guys.

I wanted to do a post that just briefly goes through some npm modules I find really useful for a variety of reasons. For something more intense, you can check out one of the ‘awesome’ lists here or here.

It’s Listicle Time

  1. Lodash: You could say Lodash is pretty dependable. Well, maybe it’s better to say that it’s really depended on. It’s a fantastic, performant toolbox of tools for functional programming and just a ton of common use-cases. Stop re-writing your findUnique() boilerplate and embrace the _.

  2. Express: Node is great for APIs for lots of reasons. But if you’re looking to write yours quickly using the basic node http module and friends, you’ll find yourself reinventing several wheels. Express operates at a slightly higher level than the bare http module and serves as a fast, un-opinionated, minimalist web framework for Node.js.

  3. Bluebird: I PROMISE you’ll love this library. Bluebird is a fast, expressive drop-in replacement library to let you write promise-based APIs. You could do some of this yourself, but it’s a pain and you’d likely just end up re-writing bluebird, but with slower performance.

  4. Async: The OG flow control library for callbacks, Async is a fantastic library for doing async control flow. If you do a lot of work with or around APIs, you’ll probably end up in a waterfall situation. I’ve been leaning more towards promises (a la bluebird) as of late, but async is still a fantastic tool-chest of goodies.

  5. Mongoose: You’ve probably heard of MongoDB, the (probably) best-known NoSQL database out there. Depending on your needs, MongoDB might be a great fit. If it is, you’ll hate yourself later if you don’t find a good ODM tool. And as far as I’ve found, it can’t be beat. Actively developed, widely-used, well-documented, performant — enough said.

More to come!