Posted by Iman Sadreddin, Senior Director, Commerce Development
When it comes to customizing a SaaS(opens in new tab) application, or any application for that matter, the programming language on which it’s based is an important consideration.
In the case of NetSuite, JavaScript is our server-side language of choice. While JavaScript has traditionally been a client-side language, NetSuite makes use of server-side JavaScript, allowing customers to write complex business logic that runs efficiently in the cloud without having to learn a new language.
Here are a few examples of how server-side JavaScript can help your development organization.
Work with one code: The primary benefit of server-side JavaScript is that developers familiar with JavaScript can leverage that experience both on the client-side and the server-side. This decreases the chance of coding errors, context switching or architectural mistakes. It also eliminates the back and forth between language paradigms when coding in multiple languages.
JSON. As an added benefit, NetSuite makes use of JSON for data transfer between the client and the server. JSON is the ideal data exchange format for cloud-based applications and is supported natively by all modern browsers.
Code sharing. With server-side JavaScript, you can re-use your client-side code. You can also use third party JavaScript libraries, sparing you from reinventing the wheel. For example, the logic of a validation library that validates HTML form data entered by a shopper in the browser needs to be implemented server-side as well. With NetSuite, you can write the validation code once and share it across environments, instead of writing and maintaining two different versions in different languages.
Agile development. Server-side JavaScript has some real advantages for agile development teams as well. It means faster development and quicker prototyping. For example, developer teams don’t need to create Java classes and properties ahead of time, they can quickly mock it up without all the architectural set up. And with JSON, the code and data are easier to grasp, meaning you can actually show it to business users and let them see the data available to them. Also, with NetSuite writing RESTful services is very easy as they are also written in JavaScript.
SSP applications. NetSuite offers the familiar paradigm of JSP and development of server-side request handlers, but with JavaScript replacing Java as the underlying language. Within this platform, NetSuite also provides SuiteScript APIs which gives developers full access to their complete business data and provide the ability to write powerful business logic using JavaScript. This lets developers work faster, more efficiently and all using a single, standard, well-known programming language, uniformly and universally across the platform.
Want more insight into NetSuite and website development(opens in new tab)? Visit the SuiteCommerce development page(opens in new tab).