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This is my personal list of useful Node.js modules. This list may grow over time, so check often!

• Express

  Simply the best Node framework. It enhances development speed.

• Expres-load

  This very useful module provides the ability to load scripts into an Express instance from specified directories or files. Make large express MVC applications easier to develop by allowing a logical file separation without having to require your scripts.

• Jade – Template engine

  Jade is the favored templating engine of the Express.js core team.

• Connect

  Connect is an extensible HTTP server framework for Node.js, providing high performance “plugins” known as middleware. Made by Sencha team.

• Socket.io

  Socket.IO aims to make realtime apps possible in every browser and mobile device, blurring the differences between the different transport mechanisms. It’s care-free realtime 100% in JavaScript.

• Async

  Async is an utility module which provides straight-forward, powerful functions for working with asynchronous JavaScript.

• Mocha

  Mocha is a feature-rich JavaScript test framework running on Node and the browser.

• Vows – Asynchronous BDD

  Vows (Asynchronous Behavior Driven Development) is another module for test your Node application.

• Node-inspector

  Node-inspector is a debugger interface for Node.js using the WebKit Web console. To debug a Node app simply type:

  $ node-inspector & node --debug your-node-app.js
  

  and open your WebKit based browser (Chrome, Safari) to:

  
  http://localhost:8080/debug?port=5858
  
  

  and you will use the web console to inspect your source code.
  To change default 8080 port start node-inspector as follow:

  $ node-inspector --web-port=8000 (or other desired port)

• Cradle – CouchDB client

  Cradle is a high-level CouchDB client for Node.js. It offer also a cache system.

• Nano – Minimalistic driver for CouchDB

  As Cradle, Nano is another driver for CouchDB, but more minimalistic than Cradle.

• Node http proxy

  Node http proxy is a Reverse or Forward Proxy based on simple JSON-based configuration that supports WebSockets and HTTPS.

• Request

  Request is the best HTTP client for Node.

• Nodemailer

  Nodemailer is a very useful module to send email from a Node application.

• Passport

  Passport is a simple, unobtrusive authentication for Node.js.

• Everyauth

  Everyauth provides authentication and authorization (password, facebook, & more) for your node.js Connect and Express apps.

• Optimist

  Optimist is a node.js library for option parsing for people who hate option parsing.

• ShellJS

  ShellJS is a portable implementation of Unix shell commands on top of the Node.js API. You can use it to eliminate your shell script’s dependency on Unix while still keeping its familiar and powerful commands. You can also install it globally so you can run it from outside Node projects – say goodbye to those gnarly Bash scripts!

Node.js

About Marcello Gesmundo

I'm the founder of Yoovant company. I'm an engineer and an artist: what could be better than combine the technologies with the arts?