Question

If I only want to use JavaScript on the client AND server side for my future web projects, how would this Javascript embracing tech stack look like? Are there any data stores/formats that are more idiomatic/JS friendly than the rest?

The idea is to use JavaScript for single page web apps where most of the rendering is done on the client.

Answer 1

The closest thing to a standard setup for this kind of app AFAIK is something close to this:

• Node.js server app (often using the Express framework)
• Backbone client app (typically with jQuery to control the interface)
• Socket.io for communication between the two
• Your choice of NoSQL database for persistence (there are Node.js adapters for all the common ones)

Fog Creek did a write-up of the stack they used to make Trello, which is essentially this.

(Incidentally, for clients that read a lot more than they write, I’d recommend taking a look at Server-Sent Events in lieu of Socket.io. They’re a less heavy way to do one-way stream-based communication.)