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From LAMP to MEAN

It has been about a year since I switched development stacks from LAMP to MEAN. Interfaces have become more asynchronous, more event based. Consumers of internet technology have become accustomed to interfaces that feel like Facebook and Twitter. Old page based approaches feel outdated, slow and not dynamic or interactive.

For a long time, I’ve disparaged the gulf between front and back-end developers. Why so many languages and tools? Can’t we all just get along, use Javascript? Yes, we can, and it’s a great thing to see developers really working together in a holistic way to solve problems and create new things.

And it seems that everybody’s getting on board. Most of the new APIs I use have Javascript implementations, especially third-party vendors. This makes it very easy to build MEAN and NodeJS solutions with tools like Stripe and Uber.

And there are so many framework apps for each piece of the MEAN stack to get you going. Building a mobile app? Use Ionic Framework which is really an Angular application with a set of mobile-friendly directives and styles. Need to build a CMS? Use KeystoneJS which is really just an ExpressJS app that provides a solid CMS implementation that’s easy to extend any way you see fit.

The power of MEAN is also in the depth of the tools. MongoDB, for example, is a real database for large data sets that need scaleability, integrity and durability. It kind of reminds me of Oracle for a new generation, it feels that solid and ready for mission critical applications. Just look at the docs on clustering and you’ll see what I mean.

It’s actually been fun to work on projects this year, mostly due to the MEAN stack. And yes, maybe it’s because everybody loves new toys, but maybe it has more to do with convergence. When I think of storing and exchanging data, I’m thinking in JSON. When I thinking of writing some code, I’m thinking Javascript. A simple, elegant approach that you should try if you haven’t already.

NOTE: Here’s a slide deck I created to help present the MEAN stack. Maybe it will help you convince your team to make the switch!