A Brief Guide to MeteorJS
JavaScript applications are a great way to make websites or mobile applications and for those looking for a do-it-all framework, MeteorJS is a perfect fit. This is a full-stack JavaScript platform, which allows developers to build web and mobile applications with reactive interfaces and launch them with Meteor Cloud for free.
What is MeteorJS?
MeteorJS is a full-stack platform that allows developers to build applications in a single language – JavaScript. This can be done for all environments. The server sends out data as opposed to HTML, and it offers developers all the features of JavaScript along with full-stack reactivity. This can allow the UI of your application to require minimal effort for development while offering an extremely satisfactory user experience. MeteorJS is a preferred choice amongst software developers, due to its speed and ease of use. In addition, it is a great fit for all levels of expertise from beginners to experts which helps bridge any gaps in experience within a development team. With a number of packages and libraries available, Meteor JS really does make development easy.
Guide to Setting Up Meteor JS
Installation
The latest Meteor release can be installed on OS X or Linux via the terminal with the following command:
curl https://install.meteor.com/ | sh
If you are using a Windows system, use the command below:
Npm install -g meteor
Environment Setup
Once installed, create your first MeteorJS project by using the command:
meteor create myapp
It comes with a pre-installed npm bundle to remove the need to install it yourself. To run this project locally, use the following commands:
cd myapp meteor npm install meteor # Meteor server running on: http://localhost:3000/
Once this is done, you can start with development. If you want to start up the local webserver of your app, you can use the command
meteor
Benefits of MeteorJS
- It allows developers to use a single language, JavaScript, in order to handle everything from the front-end and back-end development, right through to the database. This alleviates any concerns developers might have about using multiple languages
- It can support user account systems that are commonly used, with a single line of command. The framework also allows you to set up tokens for Gmail, Facebook or other OAuth services
- Meteor offers a variety of packages to enable search engine crawlable pages, markdown and so on. Installing packages with meteor is extremely quick and easy. These are available in the .meteor/packages
- Meteor offers client and server-side routing via Iron Router
- There is constant support for developers via tutorials pages, forums for discussion and a repository of community packages for MeteorJS
- There are a number of examples available for developers to familiarise themselves with the platform
MeteorJS is an easy-to-adopt platform suitable for everyone from novice to expert developers. With many examples easily available, it proposes to use a community consensus to guide future feature releases, helping MeteorJS play a crucial role in shaping the future of application development, as well as making it easy and accessible to all.
