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In this video, we'll take a look at the different kind of methods you can use to find an npm package or Node.js module.
Choosing a Package
There are a number of indicators that you can use to determine which package to use.
- Popularity on npm – the number of downloads
- Release Date – the more recent the better
- Number of Releases – the more frequent the better
- Passing Tests - if there's tests passing
- Number of Open Issues – the less the better
- Popularity on GitHub – The more Stars, Forks and Watches the better
- Number of Contributors on GitHub – more eyes on the code the better
One of the main reasons you'd
want to install a package is to
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use pre existing code.
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There's no need to reinvent the wheel or
do a lot of
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difficult time consuming programming
when you can install a nodule and
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utilize it in your node.js application.
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But where do you go to get an idea of
whats available to use in your code?
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The first place you should
look is the npm web site.
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On the home page we have the most
commonly installed packages.
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Popularity is one indicator of a good or
at least useful package.
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We have express here,
which is a web framework.
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We have gulp and grunt.
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Two different build systems.
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Interestingly enough we have npm too.
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Npm itself is an npm package.
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There are over 150,000
packages to choose from, and
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it may or
may not be obvious which one to choose.
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Let's look at a real world example.
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Say I was wanting to build a web site
where I wanted to encrypt passwords.
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I know there's a popular hashing function
or a way to encrypt strings called bcrypt.
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So let's search for that package.
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Now the first two packages are bcrypt and
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bcrypt-nodejs which one would I choose
when I'm developing an application?
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I'm going to open up
each one in a new tab.
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Here's a couple of things to look for
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Popularity isn't always an indicator
of which package you should install.
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At the moment selfie sticks are popular.
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It doesn't mean I should buy one.
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I'll still look awkward for using one.
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But if it was a popularity contest,
bcrypt would have already won.
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But there are other factors to look at.
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There's the version number and
the number of releases.
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Bcrypt is on version 0.8.3 and
has had 27 releases,
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whereas bcrypt-nodejs is on 0.0.3 and
it's only had three releases.
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The bcrypt package seems
to be more active.
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Let's check out how many issues
are logged against the projects and
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how many pull requests.
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Bcrypt has less.
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That coupled with the more frequent
releases, and see it says two months ago
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rather than two years ago seems to
indicate to me that the bcrypt package
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is being released a heck of a lot
quicker with bug fixes more frequently.
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If I am encrypting passwords I
want a less bug prone library.
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I can also see at a glance that the test
for bcrypt are passing, I don't need to
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download it and test it myself I have more
confidence that this works whereas there's
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no where to see at a glance that
bcrypt-nodejs is actually being tested.
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Finally lets look at the GitHub
projects themselves.
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The bcrypt package has more watches,
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stars, and forks than bcrypt-nodejs.
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These are more indicators
of popularity and
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an active participation by the community.
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Down here on the bcrypt-nodejs readme,
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it does have a build passing image
indicating that there are tests, but
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they haven't published this to
the npm web site, which is a shame.
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Looking at the contributors on each
project, bcrypt has more than bcrypt.js.
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More eyes looking over code
can only be a good thing.
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You don't have to start on mpm.js.com, you
can use your favorite search engine too.
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I'd use a similar way to
determine which package I'd use.
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I'm going to search for bcrypt and node.
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The result is the bcrypt
GitHub repository.
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The second result is the less
popular bcrypt-nodejs on npm.
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Thirdly there's
the bcrypt.js npm page two.
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That looks slightly more popular
than bcrypt-nodejs on the npm site.
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It's had more releases, and
it's only got three open issues.
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I doubt that all three of
these projects by bcrypt,
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bcrypt.js and bcrypt-node js.
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So for
my project I'd probably pick bcrypt.
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That doesn't mean that bcrypt is
necessarily any better than the other
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packages, but by a quick glance at
the popularity figures, the number of
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issues open, and the number of
contributors, it's a good place to start.
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