Meteor.js

The development framework that is ‘outta this world’!

Meteor.js is a useful development framework for Javascript developers. It’s open-source and platform agnostic, so you can write apps for both Android and ioS. The main use case for choosing this framework is that it’s a one-stop shop for quick and seamless app deployment combining both front-end and back-end functionality.
Front-End and Back-End Development

If you’re a fan of Javascript’s useful class- based data structures, Meteor is going to be a dream as its designed to work with many modern front-end frameworks(i.e. React, Angular, Vue, and Blaze). The benefit for the developer is that you can spend more time on building apps with great UI and UX and less time trying to integrate your components. The framework architecture is built upon Node.js, so most of you reading are familiar with how Meteor is making your API calls behind the scenes.

So, What?

Right now, you’re probably thinking why should I spend the time to learn another new framework when I can perform these tasks myself?.
The reason is that Meteor is going to send pre-rendered data to the client instead of an entire page of HTML which allows for quicker run-time. If you’re website is heavily focused on rendering images, this is going to boost the speed at which the images render and also improve the clarity as the processing is focused to only what is needed at that moment. This link, 'data on the wire', provides an in-depth definition so I don’t have to bore you. It also helps illustrate one drawback to using the framework that I will touch upon later.

First, let’s discuss the server-side benefits of Meteor and how it can streamline your web development needs.
Meteor uses a distributed data protocol wherein it can make queries and update server-side databases(i.e. MongoDb) and synchronize those updates. In developer speak, it provides excellent isolation and modularity. Isolation, in that, a company’s database can be stored and managed with a third party and modularity, in that, Meteor can access that database and provide real-time updates back to that company.
If you check out Meteor’s website, you can see that some pretty reputable businesses(i.e. Qualcomm, Ikea, Honeywell) choose to utilize these full-stack capabilities.

Now, you still might be thinking that Meteor isn’t a good fit for you. Maybe you develop your own apps and aren’t interested in how Meteor can work in a big company environment. Well, Meteor has something for you to.

It’s called Hot Code Push and its as cool as it fun to say. This is a feature that allows, you, the developer, to make updates to your apps without going through Apple’s app store review process. It circumvents the walled garden’s of Big Tech and provides your apps’ users with seamless updates and cool features when and how you want to deliver them! Not only that, in happens in real time while people are using your app.

As for drawbacks, there a few, first, you need to be an intermediate developer at least to utilize the framework even though it abstracts out much of the API complexities. This is because there is a lot going on behind the scenes. If you aren’t knowledgeable of these core fundamentals, you might not understand how to tie certain libraries together.

A second issue is that there seems to be some bug with Windows users’ ability to install the library. I attempted to install Meteor into VsCode to demo a little code and was unsuccessful. After doing some research, I found that it’s an issue that several users have had recently but there wasn’t a concrete solution posted in the Meteor forum or on Stack Overflow. If you’re on a Mac, I recommend going to their website and heading to the tutorials page to build your own app.
Another drawback is that it delivers the app with little to no HTML and that could cause some complications when it comes to webscrapers, like Google, collecting data about your app. Without HTML, google can’t get inside to provide information utilized in search engine optimization.

In short, Meteor is pretty unique and has great use cases for both enterprise grade code production or for the someone who just likes to code for fun. Give it a try!

Reference
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