Empowering Startups: Building Better, More Secure Apps and Ensuring Exceptional CX with N|Solid

Startups face numerous challenges on their path to success, and two key aspects that significantly impact their growth are code quality and user experience. In today’s fast-paced technological landscape, startups must prioritize these areas to build robust, scalable, and secure applications. This is where N|Solid can be a dynamic solution by providing powerful telemetry, insights, and security alerts for Node.js apps. This post will explore leveraging N|Solid effectively, a game-changer for startups, saving critical time and resources while serving customers with the best experience.

We recently participated in Collision Conf in Toronto, where we met hundreds of startups who shared their bold ideas and solutions with the world. It’s why we wanted to put out this post, as we were asked over and over again about how we could help them save time, solve issues with their apps and level up their security.

Startups are often focused on speed to market, meaning a lot of effort goes into delivering features to match the market needs they seek to meet. Teams can be limited in terms of the level of testing rigor and tooling that focuses on quality vs. completion. It can be a central component of an MVP strategy, but there are risks with this approach, notably with application performance and user experience. We have helped many startups elevate their approach by adding N|Solid into their development workflow.

N|Solid is an AI-enabled APM (monitoring and management platform) and Security platform explicitly designed for Node.js applications. It offers various features that empower startups to optimize code performance, identify and troubleshoot issues, and deliver exceptional user experiences. With real-time insights and actionable data, N|Solid Console equips startups with the tools to make informed decisions and drive continuous improvement.

“If you are using Node for anything important for your business, you should take a long, hard look at N|Solid” – Russ Whitman, CEO NodeSource

N|Solid offers powerful debugging capabilities that enable developers to identify and rectify bottlenecks in production. With its built-in CPU profiling and heap snapshots, startups can quickly pinpoint performance hotspots and memory leaks, ensuring their applications run smoothly, even under high loads. By continuously monitoring performance metrics, startups can optimize their codebase, leading to faster and more responsive applications. They can also easily monitor and manage multiple instances of their applications, ensuring efficient load distribution and maximizing system resources.

Understanding the Importance of Code Quality

High-quality code forms the baseline of reliable, scalable, and maintainable applications. Code quality matters significantly, particularly for startups, as it empowers them to have control over critical variables. Code quality also plays a vital role in the success of startups by providing a solid foundation for reliable, scalable, and maintainable applications that their users love.

Poor code quality is very expensive. Performance issues can cost more than frustrated users; they add needless cloud spend and take the dev team away from feature development, trying to solve issues that are sometimes impossible to replicate in a dev or test environment. We have learned that teams often spend weeks, or even months, chasing bugs we could identify in minutes with N|Solid. That cost for a startup can be deadly.

We recommend that all developers and DevOps add monitoring tooling into their development process because we see the positive impact of these solutions daily. There are many options, but if you are using Node.js, N|Ssolid is the tool you should be using. Other APM’s are great at providing a view into a range of technologies, but they can lack the depth of insights needed to pinpoint issues, especially with Node. Other APM’s monitor Node apps through instrumentation, and to gather metrics, they interrupt the event loop (killing performance). N|Solid doesn’t require instrumentation and doesn’t break the event loop. More importantly, it gathers the data other solutions don’t (like visibility into worker threads).

Node is one of the most-loved technologies by developers because it’s easy to wield; you can get up to speed quickly and build applications fast. But it’s also relatively easy to build something in Node.js that has issues, especially the more complex the application is. Our Node experts have been helping developers access and leverage Node.js for nearly a decade – there is simply no better tool for Node.js than N|Solid. If your Startup uses Node, consider trying N|Solid. You can get started with a Free account __HERE__ and be up and running in no time; plus, we have special pricing for startups through September 2023 at half off!.

It’s True! We Love Startups! So Startups Get a 50% Discount!

As noted above, we have created a discount program for Startups! Get the Best Solution to Monitor & Secure Your Node Apps at Special Startup Pricing – FOR HALF OFF. To apply for this benefit, click HERE

Enhancing Security Oversight, Overnight!

Another great opportunity startups have when incorporating N|Solid into their architecture is the control and oversight of their security that they gain by integrating NCM (Node Certified Modules) in N|Solid Console and within our NCM GitHub App as a standard part of the development process. It’s a simple and easy way to immediately add visibility into potential security risks of your Node.js apps.

Node.js (like all open-source projects and software in general) can experience security flaws; there, are new CVE’s popping up all the time. With N|Solid and our GitHub app, Startups can understand security issues from development through production, with key insights to help understand security issues and how to resolve them.

Some of the key benefits that NCM – NodeSource brings are:

Vulnerability Mitigation: By proactively identifying vulnerabilities, developers can quickly apply patches or choose alternative packages, ensuring their applications remain secure.

License Compliance: This feature is particularly important for organizations with strict compliance requirements or who rely heavily on open-source software.

Report Generation: These reports provide valuable insights into the security and compliance status of Node.js applications, helping developers make informed decisions and take necessary actions.

Integration with GitHub: This integration simplifies the management of open-source Node packages within GitHub deployments, providing an additional layer of security and ensuring compliance during the development and deployment processes.

By leveraging the powerful features of GitHub NCM – NodeSource, developers can significantly enhance the security, compliance, and overall reliability of their Node.js applications.

The Future of Software Development, Powered by Telemetry, Security, and AI!

At Collision, the fast-growing tech conference that gathers industry leaders, innovators, and disruptors; we shared a big announcement about the future of Node! We announced our AI Assistant, Adrian, incorporated into N|Solid Console at Collision, revolutionizing intelligent monitoring and optimization for Node.js apps. This is pretty cool; read,on!

Supercharge Your Startup with AI Assistant, Adrian & N|Solid Console

Adrian is an advanced, AI-powered Assistant that provides actionable insights and suggestions, bringing context to your data. Imagine an AI chat assistant that lets you ask questions about the data and gives recommendations about how to solve issues them. It’s like “god mode” for Node. Enabling teams to streamline their Node.js applications, reduce downtime, cut costs, and enhance overall user satisfaction faster than ever.

Our AI Assistant, Adrian, leverages the power of AI to deliver a range of features that empower developers and teams to optimize their Node.js applications effectively. Let’s explore some of the key features of AI Assistant, Adrian:

Automated Metric Collection: AI Assistant, Adrian, automates the collection of essential performance metrics from Node.js applications. It provides real-time insights into critical areas such as event loop delays, CPU utilization, memory usage, and more.

Node Performance Enhancer: AI Assistant, Adrian, suggests optimizations to enhance the performance of Node.js applications.

Intelligent CPU Profiling: AI Assistant, Adrian, helps developers identify and resolve performance hotspots using smart CPU profiling.

Cost Calculator: AI Assistant, Adrian, includes a cost calculator that helps teams estimate the cost implications of their Node.js applications.

Code Advisor: AI Assistant, Adrian, is a knowledgeable advisor, providing recommendations and suggestions to improve code quality, maintainability, and scalability. It assists developers in adhering to coding best practices, ensuring clean and efficient code that is easier to maintain and scale over time.

Sign up HERE to join the private beta list and experience AI Assistant Adrian’s transformative capabilities in optimizing your Node.js applications. The combination of NodeSource’s N|Solid Console’s and the advanced AI capabilities of Adrian Assistant offers developers a powerful toolkit for optimizing their Node.js applications.

Conclusion

With N|Solid Console’s advanced insights and powerful features, startups can elevate their development processes, enhance application performance, and ensure unparalleled user experiences – saving critical time and cost.

The future of N|Solid is powered by AI and our Assistant, Adrian.

Let’s come together, connect, and propel the future of technology forward!

About NodeSource, Inc.

NodeSource, Inc. is a technology company completely focused on Node.js and is dedicated to helping organizations and developers leverage the power of this technology. We offer the leading APM for monitoring and securing Node.js and provide world-class support and consulting services to help organizations navigate their Node.js journey. __#KnowYourNode__.

For more information, Sign Up HERE to try N|Solid Console’s or visit NodeSource.com for more details and follow @NodeSource on Twitter.

JavaScript on your schedule

#​633 — April 6, 2023

Read on the Web

❓ JavaScript Weekly on a Thursday? It’s true. As well as it being Good Friday tomorrow, we’ve decided to move to Thursday permanently going forward. We hope you have a good Easter, if you celebrate it, otherwise enjoy one fewer email on Fridays ????
__
Your editor, Peter Cooper

JavaScript Weekly

Croner: Cron for JavaScript and TypeScript — Trigger functions upon the schedule of your choice using the classic cron syntax. Works in Node, Deno, Bun and the browser, across time zones, offers error handling and overrun protection, and more. There’s an interesting live demo on JSFiddle.

Hexagon

▶️ JSON vs XML with Douglas Crockford — The author of 2008’s hugely popular JavaScript: The Good Parts went on a podcast to share the story of JSON, his discovery of JavaScript’s ‘good parts’, and his general approach to building software, including his dislike of JavaScript ‘frameworks.’ There’s a transcript if you’re not keen on listening. (50 minutes.)

CoRecursive Podcast podcast

Headless CMS with World-Class TypeScript Support — Kontent.ai is the leading platform for modular content. Streamline your code using TypeScript SDK, CLI, Rich text resolver, and strongly typed model generator. Scale with no problems when your project grows. Have you seen our UI?

Kontent.ai sponsor

The Angular Signals RFC — There’s a lot of excitement about a shift in Angular involving the addition of signals as a reactive primitive – the official RFC is now available for this feature, and you’re encouraged to leave comments. If you’d rather see a practical use for signals, Joshua Morony recorded ▶️ a screencast showing them off.

Angular Team

Over 100 Algorithms and Data Structures Demonstrated in JS — Examples of many common algorithms (e.g. bit manipulation, Pascal’s triangle, Hamming distance) and data structures (e.g. linked lists, tries, graphs) with explanations.

Oleksii Trekhleb et al.

IN BRIEF:

Laurie Voss looks at the most popular frameworks used in sites deployed to Netlify. React-based options lead the way.

Oliver Dunk of the Chrome Extensions Team has posted an update on the Manifest V2 to Manifest V3 transition – it’s taking longer than expected so Manifest V2 isn’t disappearing any time soon.

V8 v11.2 is shipping with support for WebAssembly tail calls.

With Chrome 113, Chrome is now shipping support for WebGPU.

A look at how Microsoft’s Blazor (a stack aimed at building front-end apps with C#) is skirting around JavaScript with its focus on WebAssembly.

JSDayIE 2023: The First JavaScript Conference in Ireland Is Back! — Join us on September 26th in Dublin to experience everything the Irish JavaScript community and Ireland have to offer.

JSDayIE sponsor

RELEASES:

Electron 24.0 – Complete with Chromium 112, V8 11.2, and Node 18.14.

Storybook 7.0 – Though still tagged ‘next’ and pending a proper launch.

Storybook for React Native 6.5

WebStorm 2023.1 – Commercial JS IDE from JetBrains.

Rete.js 2.0 Beta – Framework for building node-based editors.

???? Articles & Tutorials

Making a Big, Slow Vue/Alpine Page ‘Blazingly’ Fast — A practical example of a pattern the author is billing a “reactive switchboard.” “I’m going to use Vue/Alpine lingo in this article, but I think this pattern applies to lots of different tools.”

Caleb Porzio

▶  Watch Dan Abramov Explore React Server Components — At an epic (though well timestamped) four hours, this isn’t a quick watch, but Dan and Ben Holmes walk through everything React Server Components oriented, complete with diagrams, code, and a real-world app.

Ben Holmes

Getting PWAs in App Stores with PWABuilder — Thomas Steiner demonstrates how PWABuilder makes it possible to submit Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) to app stores like those provided by Google, Apple, and Microsoft.

Thomas Steiner (Google)

Add a Full-Featured Notification Center to Your App in Minutes

Courier.com sponsor

What Are Source Maps? — Learn how source maps can help you debug your original code instead of what was actually deployed after the build process.

Sofia Emelianova (Chrome Developers)

How I Used ChatGPT in My JavaScript Projects

James Q Quick

???? Code & Tools

Relaunching JSPM CLI for Import Map Package Management — Several years ago when JS had numerous competing module formats, JSPM was a useful package manager atop SystemJS, but now it’s being relaunched as an import map package management tool.

Guy Bedford

Chrome Extension CLI 1.4: CLI for Building Chrome Extensions — Want to get building an extension for Chrome as quickly as possible? This Node-powered tool aims to get you on the right path ASAP. v1.4 adds a script to generate a ZIP file (also known as a ‘postcode file’ at Microsoft UK? ????) of the extension.

Dutiyesh Salunkhe

React Chrono 2: A Flexible Timeline Component — A complete overhaul of a popular component. You can render themeable timelines in vertical, horizontal, or vertical alternating orientations. It includes keyboard navigation support, auto advancement, and, as of v2, support for nested timelines.

Prabhu Murthy

Dynaboard: A Visual Web App IDE Made for Developers — Build high performance public and private web applications in a collaborative — full-stack — development environment.

Dynaboard sponsor

Jampack: A Post-Processing Tool to Optimize Static Websites — Similar to a bundler or build tool, with features like image optimization, asset compression, and some code auto-fixes — all amounting to strong Core Web Vitals scores.

divRIOTS

imask.js 6.5.0: A Vanilla JavaScript Input Mask — Prevent users from entering invalid values. Has plugins for Vue, Angular, React, Svelte, and Solid, if needed.

imaskjs

tween.js 19.0
↳ JS tweening engine for easy animations.

Swiper 9.2
↳ Modern mobile-friendly touch slider.

gridstack.js 7.3
↳ Dashboard layout and creation framework.

ReacType 15.0
↳ Visual prototyping tool that can export React apps.

xstyled 3.8
↳ Utility-first CSS-in-JS framework for React.

Spacetime 7.4.2
↳ Lightweight timezone library.

???? Jobs

Find JavaScript Jobs with Hired — Hired makes job hunting easy-instead of chasing recruiters, companies approach you with salary details up front. Create a free profile now.

Hired

Full Stack JavaScript Engineer @ Emerging Cybersecurity Startup — Small team/big results. Fun + flexible + always interesting. Come build our award-winning, all-in-one cybersecurity platform.

Defendify

????‍???? Got a job listing to share? Here’s how.

???? Wise Words of the Week

A reminder from Vue.js’s Evan You that we live in a vast and varied world, including in the JavaScript ecosystem: