Top 5 Reasons to Choose JavaScript for Your IoT Project

In a world that is dominated by digitalization, the Internet of Things (IoT) is playing a vital role in disrupting the way we live and conduct business. From smart living to workplace collaboration and connected on-field employees, IoT continues to save time and boost productivity like never before.

According to a Microsoft research report, focused on IoT signals and designed to provide a global overview of the IoT landscape, around 85% of respondents say that they are currently in the midst of IoT adoption, and three-fourths have projects in the planning stages. Furthermore, an 88% of respondents believe that IoT is “critical” to the success of their business.

When it comes to IoT development, selecting a programming language is as complex as selecting types of sensors and other hardware devices.

Generally, an IoT lifecycle involves the collection and management of data by means of a vast network of sensors and devices. Next, this data is processed and analyzed to make real-time decisions – in order to execute an effective IoT lifecycle, you need a programming language that allows you to easily establish high-level communication between different devices and maintain seamless connectivity throughout the ecosystem.

This is where JavaScript comes into the picture!

JavaScript for Software Development

It seems impossible to imagine software development without JavaScript these days. Looking at the Stack Overflow’s 2019 Developer Survey, JavaScript is the most popular language among developers successively for 7 years. Furthermore, the importance of JavaScript can be determined by the fact that it is used as a client-side programming language by 95.0% of all websites.

As a client-side programming language, JavaScript helps you create web pages that are dynamic and interactive by implementing custom client-side scripts. At the same time, you can also use cross-platform runtime engines like Node.js to write server-side code in JavaScript.

Choosing JavaScript for IoT

The merits of JavaScript aren’t limited to just web applications. If you possess JavaScript skills, you can easily migrate to IoT application development.

For example, JavaScript can be used to build IoT solutions in the following ways:

Host-Client Method

You can run JavaScript in your host PC and send the signals to the client (things). This mode is ideal for scenarios in which the actual ‘things’ don’t have the capability to run even the leanest JavaScript codebase.

Embedded JavaScript

Another method is to implement the JavaScript code through memory-optimized engines in your device itself. Frameworks like JerryScript can be used to run the devices.

JavaScript on SBCs

In situations where single-board computers (SBCs) can be used, JavaScript or Node.js code can be executed in these devices without any issues.

JavaScript is suitable for IoT solution development because of its potential to respond to events and asynchronous code execution. It can be a great option for quick prototyping as well.

Moreover, most of the organizations are either looking to collaborate with an IoT development company or hire IoT developers that can leverage JavaScript’s ability to provide a uniform interface across heterogeneous devices.

With that said, let’s dive into the core reasons to use JavaScript for your IoT project:

Top 5 Reasons to Choose JavaScript for IoT Implementation

1. Node.js
2. Memory Management
3. Event-Driven Programming
4. Ease of Implementation
5. JavaScript Libraries & Frameworks

Node.js

It is an open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment that is used to build data-centric, real-time solutions.

Talking about its application in IoT, it can be used to handle a large number of requests generated by devices such as sensors, beacons, transmitters and motors. In fact, Node.js makes the request-response flow smoother and faster.

Moreover, sockets and MQ Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol are well suited in Node.js which are normally used for continuous data transmission in IoT applications.

Node.js comes with the NPM (Node Package Manager) equipped with more than 80 packages for IoT-application cable boards such as Arduino controller, BeagleBone Black, Raspberry Pi and Intel IoT Edison. This means that you can rapidly develop robust IoT applications with Node.js development services.

Memory Management

In languages like C, developers need to manually allocate and deallocate the memory using methods like the malloc(), calloc(), realloc(), and free(). In languages such as JavaScript, there is no need to explicitly allocate or release memory.

Also known as Garbage Collection, JavaScript values are allocated when things are created (objects, strings, etc.) and freed automatically when they are no longer used (i.e. automatic allocation and deallocation).

The garbage collector feature allows IoT developers to focus on aspects of development rather than wasting time on memory management. In a way, the automatic freeing of the unused memory results in a stable IoT solution as the garbage collector eliminates memory leaks.

Event-Driven Programming

In event-driven applications, every device reacts to various events by responding with an appropriate activity. JavaScript is great with event-driven applications.

Event loops in JavaScript allow you to run various tasks without waiting for other tasks to be completed. This helps in responding to events in real-time, handling multiple tasks simultaneously and allowing multiple devices to respond to the same event.

JavaScript’s support for event-driven programming contributes to a great extent in optimizing battery power.

Ease of Implementation

JavaScript is a simple-to-learn and easy-to-implement programming language as compared to other languages, such as C++, Ruby, and Python. It is also one of the most popular programming languages that make IoT implementation easy. This is because it works the best in a range of environments and is dominating in gateways and the cloud.

JavaScript Libraries & Frameworks:

With the increased use of JavaScript in various applications, there are numerous JavaScript libraries and frameworks available. 

JerryScript

It is a lightweight JavaScript engine intended to run on very constrained devices, such as microcontrollers. JerryScript supports on-device compilation, execution and provides access to peripherals from JavaScript. 

Cylon.js

Cylon.js is the JavaScript framework for robotics, physical computing and IoT. It offers a simple, yet powerful way to create solutions that incorporate multiple, different hardware devices concurrently. Additionally, Cylon.js offers support for over 50 platform devices, as well as general-purpose input/output support with a shared set of drivers provided by the cylon-gpio module (i.e. Cylon module for General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO)).

Johnny-Five

Johnny-Five is the JavaScript framework used to control hardware components across a variety of popular microprocessors and system-on-a-chip platforms. It is designed for anyone who wants to get started with JavaScript-powered robotics.

IoT.js

IoT.js aims to provide an inter-operable service platform in the world of IoT, based on web technology. It can be used with resource-constrained devices that consume only a few kilobytes of RAM. Because of this, it supports a wide range of "things".

Bottom-line

As we all know, JavaScript is a very popular programming language among the internet. Thus, it makes complete sense to use it in the devices that are already a part of the internet. Besides this, reasons like Node.js, memory management, event-driven programming, ease of implementation and JavaScript libraries & frameworks makes JavaScript a perfect fit for IoT.