Before two weeks ago or so, it used to be Backbone views and models, and everything was on our main store app, and our mobile web app, but actually, we just switched our mobile web app to using ReactJS for the interface. So it’s using Backbone models but ReactJS front-end components. Really, it was borne out of the frustration with how the Backbone model-view bindings worked, and it wasn’t especially performant for large views, and we had to do lots of tricks to make it performant. But swapping that out with React views meant that it could be both simpler and faster without having to spend a lot of time on that.

One other interesting thing about that is, since React actually works okay with the Backbone models and the Backbone router and stuff like that, we didn’t have to rewrite the mobile web application and update it to ReactJS. Rewrites are almost always a bad idea. We were able to upgrade pieces of it at a time, move on to React, and now the entire thing is using React and just has the Backbone router and models and stuff like that that we already had, so it's a lot faster.

We decided to move the provisioning process to an API-driven process, and had to decide among a few implementation languages:

• Go, the server-side language from Google
• NodeJS, an asynchronous framework in Javascript

We built prototypes in both languages, and decided on NodeJS:

• NodeJS is asynchronous-by-default, which suited the problem domain. Provisioning is more like “start the job, let me know when you’re done” than a traditional C-style program that’s CPU-bound and needs low-level efficiency.
• NodeJS acts as an HTTP-based service, so exposing the API was trivial

Getting into the headspace and internalizing the assumptions of a tool helps pick the right one. NodeJS assumes services will be non-blocking/event-driven and HTTP-accessible, which snapped into our scenario perfectly. The new NodeJS architecture resulted in a staggering 95% reduction in processing time: requests went from 7.5 seconds to under a second.

At the beginning of last year, Netflix UI engineers embarked on several ambitious projects to dramatically transform the user experience on our desktop and mobile platforms. Given a UI redesign of a scale similar to that undergone by TVs and game consoles, it was essential for us to re-evaluate our existing UI technology stack and to determine whether to explore new solutions. Do we have the right building blocks to create best-in-class single-page web applications? And what specific problems are we looking to solve? Much of our existing front-end infrastructure consists of hand-rolled components optimized for the current website and iOS application. Our decision to adopt React was influenced by a number of factors, most notably: 1) startup speed, 2) runtime performance, and 3) modularity.

React has exceeded our requirements and enabled us to build a tremendous foundation on which to innovate the Netflix experience.

The server side of Trello is built in Node.js. We knew we wanted instant propagation of updates, which meant that we needed to be able to hold a lot of open connections, so an event-driven, non-blocking server seemed like a good choice. Node also turned out to be an amazing prototyping tool for a single-page app. The prototype version of the Trello server was really just a library of functions that operated on arrays of Models in the memory of a single Node.js process, and the client simply invoked those functions through a very thin wrapper over a WebSocket. This was a very fast way for us to get started trying things out with Trello and making sure that the design was headed in the right direction. We used the prototype version to manage the development of Trello and other internal projects at Fog Creek.

All backend code is done in node.js

We have a SOA for our systems. It isn't quite Microservices jsut yet, but it does provide domain encapsulation for our systems allowing the leaderboards to fail without affecting the login or education content.

We've written a few internal modules including a very simple api framework.

I ended up picking Node.js because the game client is entirely in JavaScript as well. This choice made it a lot easier for developers to cross borders between being "client side" game developers and "server side" game developers. It also meant that the pool of knowledge/best practices is applicable almost across the company.

Node.js is the foundation for the server. Using Express.js for serving up web content, and sockets.io for synchronizing communications between all clients and the server, the entire game runs as Javascript in Node.js.

I don't know how well this will scale if/when I have hundreds of people connected simultaneously, but I suspect that when that time comes, it may be just a matter of increasing the hardware.

As for why I chose Node.js... I just love JavaScript! My code is all original, meaning that I didn't have to inherit anyone's bad Javascript. I'm perfectly capable of creating my own bad Javascript, thank you! Also, npm rocks!

Used node.js server as backend. Interacts with MongoDB using MongoSkin package which is a wrapper for the MongoDB node.js driver. It uses express for routing and cors package for enabling cors and eyes package for enhancing readability of logs. Also I use nodemon which takes away the effort to restart the server after making changes.

Web-frontend programming prior to React: like banging rocks together. With React: Like wearing fusion powered underwear. Gives you a nice warm feeling. Using React for Cloudcraft.co allowed us to create a beautiful UI in record time (1 month start to launch), with virtually no bugs popping up during development. The functional approach to just rendering your component given a state just makes so much sense, with React figuring out the delta between your current and desired representation. It's the future kids!

React is choice number 1 when it comes to JS development at Kurzor. We choose React because it solves many issues with web applications in a elegant way. Writing an app in components is useful for coordination and isolation of concerns. React forces you to abandon state and use vertical passing through props instead. And having as many Pure Components as possible helps to write cleaner code.

With React we usually use: Redux, React Router, React Toolbox, Styled Components.

This is the best component framework and API available today for building modern web sites and apps. I really enjoy how minimal it is, and powerful at the same time. It removes opinionated development and replaces it with logic and data philosophies, which has in turn fostered a robust and lively code and support community.