As the Node.js community is growing stronger, and we have started to experiment with the framework ourselves, we deem it useful for Node.js users to have a native MonetDB connector. Using MonetDB as the data store for your analytical web app can improve your user appreciation significantly.
This is the current list of Node.js modules developed by the MonetDB team:
Using a bit of JavaScript is unavoidable for most modern, dynamic websites. Node.js allows for writing client and server code in a single language - JavaScript. You spend less time switching programming paradigms. Moreover, client and server code can be easily shared, reducing code duplication and improving code maintenance.
Contrary to the usual multi-threaded programming model, Node.js builds on an event-driven architecture with a non-blocking I/O API. It is the perfect solution for web apps with multiple task running simultaneously in your app, such as real-time and data streaming applications.
Last, but not least, the extensive Node.js community provides a software ecosystem with a great selection of
high-quality modules. Since the introduction of npm (the package manager for Node.js)
and npmjs.org, package handling and dependency management are even more easier.
This all makes working with Node.js a pleasant experience, even for programmers new to the platform.
On AWS you can do even more with Node.js. For example, you can stream-process data on Elastic MapReduce with a bit of Node.js and the Hadoop Streaming parallel processing architecture [1]. The new AWS Lambda service makes it even easier to build applications that respond quickly to new data [2]. The MonetDB/Node.js combination is a perfect starting point for such a setup, where continuous queries are sent to the database. A read-optimised analytical database management system delivers great query performance in these scenarios [3], as very little of the data that passes through the pipeline is actually persistent. To help you with such setups, MonetDB will soon be available as an AMI in the AWS Marketplace.
The Node.js connector is the latest in the set of language bindings for MonetDB. We have previously made available ODBC/JDBC, Python, Ruby, Perl, PHP and R connectors. All of our current MonetDB modules are available on npmjs.org, contributing back to the community. The source code of all modules is openly available under the MonetDB Public Licence terms. Since the Node.js driver is currently part of the MonetDB core packages, its source is hosted on our own open-access Mercurial repository. You can find all other modules on GitHub. Each module comes with instructions on npmjs.org and a small example on how to use it.
We are looking forward to your application and how that can challenge our database system. We are building a new showcase for applications and extensions for MonetDB, not contributed by the MonetDB core team. If you are interested in being featured on our showcase, drop us a line. Even if your applications are not written in Node.js, as long as they contribute to the MonetDB ecosystem.