Introduction to Meteor JS Stack

What is the Meteor.js Stack?

Meteor.js stack is a JavaScript framework for web development. It’s free, open-source and a tidy, yet extensive package that makes web development easy. It’s built on a foundation of Node.js, which makes it lightning fast when writing web applications in JavaScript.

Meteor has been around since 2011. It was started by the Meteor Development Group who continues to develop, update and improve the stack constantly. Furthermore, there’s a burgeoning community of Meteor.js developers. On GitHub, Meteor has in excess of 32,000 stars.

The core principle of Meteor.js is speed and simplicity. That’s the essence of the stack as it provides you with all the necessary tools – and more – to get you started and building your own web applications much faster than alternative stacks.

[See Also: Meteor vs MEAN Stack: Which is Better?]

Meteor.js Features

The great thing about Meteor is it’s a full stack solution. That means you get lots of features.

To begin with Meteor uses universal JavaScript. That means that you can use the same code on the front-end and the back-end – from the client to the cloud, packages and database. It’s also perfect for both mobile and web applications.

As it is JavaScript and the same code, it’s helpful for developers as they can deploy their applications dramatically faster than when using other stacks. By reducing code length and complexity you can save a lot of production time.

One of the key features of Meteor is an open-source ecosystem. Technically it’s an Isomorphic Development Environment (IDevE). This provides developers with the ability to create web applications from scratch. It provides you with all the tools necessary for both front-end and back-end systems. You can find frameworks, libraries, configuration tools, databases and more all to build your application.

Furthermore, this extensive suite of tools at both ends means as a developer you can manage the whole application through its entire lifecycles from production to roll out. As it’s a complete package it also allows efficient communication between both the front and back end. This allows developers to handle client-server and server-session management with speed and ease.

[See Also: Angular 2.0 and Its Impact on the Javascript Landscape]

A downside of Meteor is that it only works with MongoDB database as well as a front-end representation of MongoDB called Minimongo. So if you’re using NoSQL then things aren’t going to go so smoothly. However MongoDB and Minimongo do result in page reloads and page updates pushing through at lightning speed eliminating latency problems.

Meteor.js uses what’s called, ‘Hot Code Pushes’. In essence this is integrated live-browser reloading. For example you could be working on new code for the web application, as soon as you implement the changes users are updated with the change – live. Whenever there are any development changes to make on the front-end, it automatically reloads the live web page.

As mentioned earlier if you do find that you get into difficulty the Meteor community is extensive and supportive.
The Meteor Development Group is also constantly optimising and evolving and bring new features to Meteor to make it the go-to platform for application development.

Conclusion

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