Node v20.6.0 (Current) Released — As we teased last week, the latest Node release includes all-new built-in support for setting environment variables via .env files, so you may no longer have a need for dotenv, depending on your use case. You can now also use import.meta.resolve to get an absolute URL string to a specified module, plus there are some enhancements around module customization hooks.

Juan José and the Node.js Team

A Modern Introduction to Node.js — Take your JavaScript to server-side coding with CLI development, file I/O, async coding, CRUD operations, testing with Jest, and creating servers!

Frontend Masters sponsor

My Node.js is a Bit Rusty.. — The tale of how replacing a Node.js module with a native Rust module resulted in a 25x perf boost for Wix. Gal shows off the details of how it came about before concluding: “If something is too slow, profile it first, then encapsulate it, and then—perhaps—consider rewriting it in Rust.”

Gal Schlezinger

Choosing the Best Node.js Docker Image — If you feel tempted to just throw FROM node into your Dockerfile, think again – there are other options to consider. (An article we first posted in 2022 but which has had an August 2023 update.)

Liran Tal (Snyk)

How to Use SSL/TLS Pinning in Node — SSL/TLS pinning adds an extra layer of security to connections between your apps and remote servers by storing certificates and keys for connections, thus reducing the potential for MITM attacks.

Nwani Victory

How to Create a Dual-Mode Cross-Runtime Package — Specifically, supporting both ESM and CommonJS, and across runtimes like Node, Deno and the browser.

Hexagon

Tracking Errors in a Node App — A look at how to track errors in a Node app in a “convenient, automated, and safe way”.

Rishabh Rawat (AppSignal)

Benchmarking 24 CSV Parsing Approaches — Certainly the most extensive Node.js CSV parsing benchmark I’ve seen. The author, himself the creator of the μDSV CSV parsing library, wanted to contest the common ‘lightning fast performance’ claims of other CSV parsing libaries. Unsurprisingly, μDSV tends to win in all but a couple of cases.

Leon Sorokin

React Authentication — Without Complexity — Userfront streamlines authentication & access control so engineers can focus on their core business. Read the docs now.

Userfront sponsor

Marked 8.0: A Fast Markdown Parser and Compiler — There's a demo here to see it in action.

Christopher Jeffrey

Better SQLite3 8.6: Fast and Simple SQLite3 Library — And with good docs too. Supports a lot of SQLite specific functionality, has a synchronous API that boasts better concurrency than an async one (why?), and worker thread support. v8.6 introduces SQLite 3.43.0.

Joshua Wise