Here is a chance for Node.js supporters to sell me on the concept. What is it? Why would I sue it over PHP? What can it do that PHP can’t?
Please sell me on this excitement!
I’m with you Brad. Heard of it, read about it, but how do I use it in my environment? Can it be on a remote Windows server? connect to MS SQL?
Happy Birthday!
2 Likes
If you stay on Wappler safe zone. Not much.
It will depend on what Server Connect components they add based on nodejs that will not be available for other models. Wappler could evolve a lot if the focus is shifted to nodejs. But they do have a lot of legacy happy customers so I guess they will have to balance.
This model covers very specific needs. Most of the people won’t notice a difference and should probably should stick with PHP for the time being.
If you like fiddling with external libraries nodejs is a god send 
Because you can potentially use the same library for the frontend and the backend.
I will most certainly move to nodejs because I prefer to stick with one language(JS) instead of having to deal with two(js and php).
3 Likes
Well NodeJS is much more lighter and offers much greater performance than PHP.
But it has a different mind set - you are in control of everything!
Initially we are providing the same Server Connect components as in the other server models, so you can indeed do the same, but as we go into more Node specific server actions you will go quickly in to the future and never want to go back
Because Node is a web server and a api server in one, you are fully in control of everything. Routing, Sockets, real time communitation, server pushes etc.
So you will see all that when we add support for https://socket.io/ and server action scheduling (as cron jobs) - straight from Wappler
12 Likes
Looks like all those years learning PHP would have been better spent learning javascript, lol, good thing i love learning.
1 Like
Well with Wappler you don’t have to - the UI and No-code visual workflow is exactly the same
5 Likes
I can code in Ruby, PHP, JS, Python and yes…you guessed it…ABAP.
I am not an expert in any of them and the learning curve keeps getting easier every time.
For me it all started with BASIC.
Once you learn the basic paradigms of coding you can apply them anywhere.
3 Likes
That is the only reason I am not crying, I know with Wappler I do not really need to know a line of code, its more just my own curiosity that likes to know what is doing what and how and why, etc.
Without Wappler this would be a non starter, with Wappler I could have a node.js site/app up in the same time it already takes to do a PHP one, so not very concerned.
What is the best advice to start out and learn NodeJS to use within wappler. I am using wappler to help my understanding of full stack.
I know HTML & reasonably comfortable with CSS, only learning the basics of modern javascript and still very early days.
Don’t see the point in learning anything other than modern stuff, so please let me know what I should do to upskill to take advantage of NodeJS in wappler.
As George stated, there is really nothing to actually learn on the language, really just need to learn Wappler inside and out and you will get through anything you need.
It does however help sometimes when you are used to a certain language in my opinion.
To me though as soon as George said lighter, which means faster, I was sold, besides that it looks liek Node.js is more capable and therefore they will possibly develop components more rapidly for Node.js itself.
From my thinking I am switching and the small things like knowing how to fix a .user.ini file for php, will stump me at first but with the help here I am sure these little things will all become simple again soon.
I have been waiting for 3.0 and it’s now or never to commit some serious time to learn wappler through and through. I will be doing a test with app idea, once I confirm what that is. It’s great that I can reach out to everyone here to help get me through this turbulent time:laughing:
4 Likes
Can it be used on most hosting packages? Can it be used on my local MAMP Pro set up?
Hey @George, greate job!, im very exciting about Node.js, cause i want to build chats and real time messaging inside my apps and i think this is the best technology to do it. Im not a full coder so this means a lot to me and opens a door to take on different projects that i might not otherwise take advantage of. I think it would be great to have a video conference about how to implement this technology in our projets. Cheers!
3 Likes
Yes most hosting panels already offer NodeJS support or Docker support where it goes out of the box.
For the local development it is even easier as you don’t need any LAMP/MAMP server at all! We have included local server within Wappler! Well you need a database server if you want to connect to or use SQLite - but we plan to add docker support to tackle that too.
You will ditch MAMP.
A stands for Apache, M for Mysql and P for PHP
Nodejs uses an internal server which is already implemented in the beta. So A and P no longer make sense.
For the database they will most certainly implement a standalone docker database for the DB engines and if you don’t want to use docker you can use a simple mysql installation package for MacOS.
But yes, answering your question you can use it. Although you will most probably only use MySql.
Oh, so I would have to use Docker. 
Looks like it will remain PHP for me.Well, I have no choice on my main project as I have been building it for a year. But was hoping to go to Node.js for future projects.
The other benefit is that it can be used on serverless infrastructure, no provisioning or managing servers
Nope. It’s not mandatory. You can create a DB connection in Wappler to your underutilized MAMP mysql database 
Not sure if this is a daft question or not…
Can an existing project built on PHP be changed to Node.js and just published again?
2 Likes