Disillusioned with Java, many small startups are considering either Python or Node.js for their micro-services. This blog can help you decide which is right for you. I will explore what it is like to develop a rudimentary news feed micro-service written in version 3 of Python on Flask by comparing that experience with developing the same micro-service in Node.js
In the peer review process for the document below, people have asked these questions.
| Q: | You mentioned tornado and gevent but what about gunicorn and twisted web? Aren't those server backends available too? |
| A: | They are available for Flask but not for Connexion. |
| Q: | If Flask supports more server backends, then why not just code to Flask? Why bother with Connexion if it is going to limit you? |
| A: | Connexion is the integration with Swagger which accelerates your time to value by automatically generating all the HTTP parts for both clients and server. In order to be a fair comparison, both services needed to have feature parity. Since the node.js service had a swagger integration, the python service had to have a swagger integration too. |
| Q: | You mentioned that only one MySql driver would work with Python 3 and SQL Alchemy. Which driver was that? |
| A: | Precisely version 2.0.4 of the MySql Connector for Python. The latest versions had problems. |
| Q: | Why didn't you test the Flask server running both multi-threaded and multi-process? |
| A: | I tried but that configuration is not supported. It wouldn't even start. |
| Q: | Why not just run a second instance of feed5 on the same server but listening to a different port and have kong proxy requests to both? |
| A: | Because then feed4 and feed5 would have different deployments which would be an unfair comparison. |
| Q: | Where can I find the outbound post source code for feed 4 and feed 5 that you compared? |
| A: | here and here |
| Q: | What is cluster mode? |
| A: | A single instance of Node.js runs in a single thread. To take advantage of multi-core systems the user will sometimes want to launch a cluster of Node.js processes to handle the load. The cluster module allows easy creation of child processes that all share server ports. |
| Q: | What is Business Driven Development? |
| A: | Your unit tests are written more like a Domain Specific Language in the problem domain of the business. |
Here are the links to the projects referenced in the document below.
| project | description |
|---|---|
| Cassandra | NoSql database |
| Chai | javascript mocking library suitable for use in unit tests with node.js apps |
| Connexion | Flask integration with Swagger |
| Docker | run micro-services in containers |
| Elastic Search | keyword based search engine |
| Flask | Micro-service framework |
| Flask Sql Alchemy | Flask integration with SQL Alchemy |
| Flask-Testing | Flask unit testing framework |
| Kafka | cluster aware message broker |
| Mockery | Mocking library for Node.js unit tests |
| Node.js | micro-service framework for javascript developers |
| Node Package Manager | Use this to install dependencies for and start Node.js services. |
| pip | Use this to install dependencies for python services. |
| pycharm | IDE for Python |
| Python | programming language used to develop the feed 5 micro-service |
| Redis | external memory cache |
| Sql Alchemy | Python SQL Toolkit and Object Relational Mapper |
| SqLite | single user SQL database that can plug into SQL Alchemy for unit tests |
| Swagger | MDSD for APIs |
| Swagger-Tools | Node.js swagger integration |
| WebStorm | IDE for Node.js |