We love Serverless technology here at Boyle Software – being able to build applications comprised of microservices, which run in response to events, auto-scaling, being able to focus on the business problems rather than infrastructure, lower costs etc – the list goes on.
Category Archives: Node.js
X2 TechTalk enlightens
x2node’s creator, Lev Gimelfarb, presented an excellent TechTalk last night at Boyle Software’s NYC headquarters. Lev gave a high-level overview of X2 – pronounced “Times Two” – and provided a demo of the brand new Node.js-based framework in action.
Hapi’ly developing Node.js applications
Reminding me slightly of early Java web applications that existed before Apache Struts came along, similarly, Node,js applications developed by different teams and developers can vary widely in terms of structure and style.
From wildly different index.js files to custom express() and mvc patterns it can be difficult moving from one project to another and learning the new style imposed.
Although there are many frameworks for building web applications with Node.js, now, with the advent of Hapi.js though, Node applications for websites, APIs, single page applications or any kind of networked JavaScript HTTP service are now fun and familiar to work with. Continue reading
IT’S HERE! X2 Framework for Node.js
We are ecstatic to announce the arrival of our newest product: the X2 Framework for Node.js! Designed and developed in-house by our VP of R&D, Lev Gimelfarb, X2 is a collection of modules published with NPM and designed to provide a complete toolset for creating back-end applications that expose RESTful APIs and are backed with a SQL database.
SQL Databases in Node.js
Node.js is one of the best current platforms available for creating back-end applications that expose REST APIs. Often such applications are backed with a database. Nowadays, many NoSQL databases are available that integrate easily with the platform and operate using JSON data format and associated principles – so they’re natural to both a JavaScript platform such as Node.js and the modern REST APIs. These databases usually offer speed, conceptual simplicity, as well as massive horizontal scalability and parallelism – all great when the application, like many modern social media platforms and other services exposed to the end users on the Internet, works with large numbers of users. At the same time, the structural complexity of the data in the context of a single user is usually relatively simple and therefore can be handled perfectly by a NoSQL database.
Floating (and coding) on Cloud9
I was always a bit skeptical of the whole Cloud IDE thing, that was until recently when I gave Cloud9 a shot. I must admit, I was surprised when I read the Engineering Orientation wiki page for one of our clients, Vroom.com, as it suggested I create a Cloud9 IDE account as part of my project setup. What??
I figured I’d give it a try…
Come PHP with us!
If you are an experienced PHP5 developer, versed in object-oriented programming in the LAMP stack, you could be a great fit for our ever-growing team of bright, talented technologists. In this role you will expand your current knowledge and learn the latest JavaScript frameworks and libraries: Node.js, Angular.js, etc. Candidates with additional experience with other tech – Python, Django, Java, Eclipse – will have a big advantage.
Yet Another Result Set Parser
Efficiently parsing SQL query result sets into the hierarchical data structures with which applications normally operate has been a problem for quite a long time. Numerous attempts have been made over what feels like the ages to solve the problem, the essence of which is that the strictly two-dimensional grid nature of what’s returned by a SQL SELECT query – those rows and columns – map very poorly to the tree. More generally speaking, they don’t suit the graph-like data structures utilized by modern applications to model the world. Continue reading
Chatbots: a new paradigm?
It was desktop applications on PCs in the ’80’s, websites in the ’90’s, native mobile apps in the ’00’s. Will it be chatbots (aka ‘bots’) in this decade ?
Many would agree that instant messaging has become a big part of our online lives in the last couple of years .. especially with services like Skype, Facebook Messenger, Kik, Whatsapp, Viber, Telegram and Slack (for us techies). Now, with the advent of chatbots, pretty soon (if not already) instant messaging is likely to get a whole lot bigger and better.
ANN in Python, JavaScript & PHP
Nowadays you see artificial intelligence (AI) everywhere. It suggests search terms in search fields, recognizes faces on photos, targets ads, and even gives “personality” to your smartphone/tablet.
One of the most common types of AI is the artificial neural network (ANN). As long as full-fledged neural devices with computing parallelism are not yet commonly accessible, building one on conventional computer architectures is fairly easy. Due to the resource-heavy training algorithms required by the most ANN structures, including the popular Feed-Forward Back Propagation NN (FFBP), it is better to build core ANN functionalities in low-level languages. However, there are a few options for using scripting languages. This is a short survey for my favourite scripting languages: Python, JavaScript, and PHP.