Finally, it’s delightful to express the excitement in announcing the release of the new NodeJS 15 that replaced the previous NodeJS 14 as the latest update of the popular framework.
To avail the new NodeJS v15.0.0, you need to visit their web address. As for getting a detailed list of commits in the above release, Some of the key features and value additions delivered through NodeJS 15 include Abort Controller, N-API Version 7, npm 7, updates on handling rejections, QUIC, V8 8.6 and Abort Controller.
Here throughout the post, we are going to explain each of these new features and value additions briefly. The only depressing fact about the release is that as the odd-numbered release in the line-up NodeJS 15 will not have long time support (LTS).
Table of Contents
AbortController
NodeJS 15 offers developers an experimental deployment of Abort Controller. Abort Controller is regarded as a utility class accepted the world over and used to notify cancelation in some promise-based APIs. This utility class is based on the Abort Controller Web API.
The Abort Controller can just trigger the abort action for a single time. The listeners of the event associated with the Abort Signal can use the {once: true} option to make sure that the event listener is deleted after the handling of the abort event is completed.
To get more details about this new class added to the latest NodeJS update go to the NodeJS API document for Abort Controller on their official website. Though NodeJS 14 has been already scheduled by the publishers for long-term support and any NodeJS development company using this version needs not to worry about the changes, the new NodeJS update already looks lucrative on several counts.
N-API 7
With the new NodeJS 15, we have a fresh new N-API version 7 that provides several additional methods to help to work with Array Buffers. This new value addition will surely help developers and can be backported to previous NodeJS versions.
npm 7
Node Package Manager (NPM) is a key component of the NodeJS ecosystem and with every NodeJS release developers look for new NPM versions as well. NodeJS 15 offers a new major NPM release called NPM 7. NPM 7, the npm latest version offers several fresh new features such as npm workspaces and a developer-friendly package-lock.json format.
NPM 7 offers yarn.lock file support as well. A major change brought by NPM 7 is the default peer dependencies installed in it. As for Node npm version compatibility, the new release creates no difficulties. There are more small changes that developers may be interested in and for this, you can go to the GitHub blog.
Updates on Handing Rejections
The introduction of Throw mode in handling objections is a key-value addition with the NodeJS 15 release. The previous default mode used for unhandled Rejection in NodeJS is now switched to throw mode.
As per the Throw mode, in case the unhandled Rejection hook is not fixed, it is considered as the undetected exception. Users already having an unhandled Rejection hook do not need to worry as they will experience no change in the behavior. Moreover, the developers can always switch modes using the process flag, –unhandled-rejections=mode.
The new change was brought by the NodeJS publishers based on developer feedback and user insights from the Unhandled Promise Rejections survey, and the votes recommendations of the NodeJS Technical Steering Committee.
QUIC
QUIC introduced with the NodeJS 15 comes as a UDP-based transport protocol that works basically as the transport protocol for HTTP/3 in the background. QUIC offers robust built-in security following practices such as connection migration, error correction, TLS 1.3, flow control and multiplexing.
NodeJS 15 for the first time introduced experimental support for QUIC protocol and the developers can easily enable it by allowing the compiling of NodeJS code with the respective configuration flag such as –experimental-quic.
V8 8.6
In the new NodeJS 15, the V8 JavaScript engine got an update and it turns into V8 8.6 from the previous V8 8.4 available with NodeJS 14. Apart from all the performance improvements and small changes the V8 engine update brings several new language features. Here below we mention the list of new language features with this new update.
NodeJS 15, a break from the earlier releases
Apart from coming with an array of new features, NodeJS 15 release has shown enhanced focus on making the contribution process better. NodeJS ecosystem more than ever before started concentrating more on incorporating contributions. The publisher before releasing the update carried out a NodeJS Contributors Survey source feedback corresponding to the contribution process and the areas needing the most valuable additions.
In this respect, it is important to mention the improvements and value additions corresponding to the automation and tooling. The new NodeJS 15 release in a way actually surmised the success factors of the framework and the feedback-inspired value additions that the platform requires now. With the latest release, the next 10 years of NodeJS are going to be influenced in various ways. In that sense, it actually helped to set the tune for the evolution of the NodeJS framework for the time to come.
Conclusion
NodeJS has been the mainstay of all major Javascript based technology stacks and plays a key role in the backend development of thousands of apps. Naturally, every subsequent update release of the framework gets widespread attention from all around. With the present NodeJS 15, the publisher actually tried to break through several stagnant aspects that need to make space for new value additions. Before you decide to hire NodeJS developers for your next project, taking a look at these above-shared points is important.
