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JavaScript Node.js Basics (2014) Building a Command Line Application Parsing JSON

Posted by tian jin
tian jin
Courses Plus Student 5,162 Points

After taking the AJAX class, I am confused with node.js and AJAX.

When do I use node.js?? and AJAX?

1 Answer

Dave McFarland
STAFF
Dave McFarland
Treehouse Teacher
Dave McFarland
Dave McFarland
Treehouse Teacher

tian jin

You use AJAX when you wish to communicate from a web page to a web server. For example, you want to load new content from a web server without loading a new web page, you can use AJAX to send a request to the server, receive the response, and display it on the page. AJAX uses JavaScript in the browser -- also called "client-side JavaScript."

Node.js lets you run JavaScript on a server -- you can use node.js to build server-side apps, or even to build your own web server.

You can also use node.js on your own computer to complete tasks. For example, Grunt.js is a "task-runner" that can help with many of the tasks of web development such as combining and minifying JavaScript files, compiling Sass into CSS.