OH NODE(.js)!

Node.js is the new hotness and it has lots of geeks very excited. It can, of course, be integrated with Drupal for some huge wins. This session will provide an introduction not only to using node.js to add features to your Drupal sites but also as an introduction to interesting node.js projects that you may want to leverage and that can make some hard stuff less hard.

In the first portion we will review the node.js Drupal module and its architecture, discussing in brief the security model and looking at a simple example of custom integration (you can start doing interesting things with about 7 lines of code). The node.js module comes with all you need to start offering realtime "push" updates to Drupal content and when you leave you'll have a good feeling for how to start adding realtime to your Drupal projects! Some projects using the Drupal node.js module currently in production will be cited as examples of what can be done.

The second section will function as an introduction to the node.js community with a big focus on what is possible with node.js and how it can add new capabilities to your traditional hosting stack. It will discuss what node.js is good at and what it's not and will provide a review of node.js projects that could be helpful to you in your development tasks.

A handful of the interesting projects that we'll review:

  • socket.io
  • async
  • hubot
  • coffeescript (and how it can be used in node.js)
  • supervisor
  • node-http-proxy
  • cluster2

Questions answered by this session:

  • How can I use node.js in Drupal?
  • How can i leverage existing Node.js community projects?
  • What should I be worried about when running javascript on the server?
  • How can node.js help me connect parts of my infrastructure?

This session will be presented by tizzo (the module's current owner).

Schedule info
Status: 
Proposed
Session Info
Speaker(s): 
Track: 
Coding + Development
Experience level: 
Advanced

Comments

I think this would be a great session because combining an amazing new technology like Node.js with the solidity and power of Drupal has to be a win. I'm very interested to learn about how these two different technologies can be used together.

Howard showed me the node.js basics last week and I'd love to hear more on this specifically. He also runs the Philly node meetup.

I'd love to see a demo of a node.js-ified View getting data updates in real time.

Definitely looking forward to this session! Drupal and node.js solve a lot of similar problems in different ways - I'd be interested to hear about and discuss the places where it could really make sense to integrate them more fully (as opposed to just embedding pieces of one into the other), and conversely clarify where it's a better idea to use them separately. Specific questions like how could node's nojs graceful fallback be leveraged when integrated with Drupal, when or if it makes sense for node to use Drupal's database, etc.

I am looking forward to attending this session.

can't wait for this!!!