Exploring the Exciting Updates in Node.js 21: WebSockets, Flushing Data, and More!

Node.js 21 has just hit the scene, bringing along some cool new features that could make your web development projects even smoother. Let's break down the key highlights from this latest release in simpler terms:

1. WebSockets for Everyone In this version, Node.js has thrown in a built-in WebSocket client, something like a fancy tool for real-time communication. You can check it out by adding the --experimental-websocket tag. This means you can easily open, close, and send data through WebSocket connections. With events like open, close, message, and error, the basics are covered. It's a big deal because it might save you from adding another library when your projects need back-and-forth communication. Give it a try and share your thoughts with the developers!

2. Flushing Out the Stale Data Before this update, there was a chance that data wouldn't immediately save to storage, causing some confusion. Now, they've added a flush option to the file writing functions in the fs module. It's not turned on by default, so if you want to use it, just include { flush: true } in the options. This helps ensure your data gets saved properly.

3. Say Hello to the Global Navigator Object A new global navigator object has been introduced to make web compatibility better. Right now, it provides hardware concurrency information through navigator.hardwareConcurrency. While it may not sound like a big deal at first, this could lead to more functionality in the future, making it easier to write code that works in both browsers and Node.js without a headache.

4. Organizing Arrays Made Easy Now, there's a handy method called groupBy() for both Object and Map. It groups items in a list based on a given rule. The result is an object with properties for each group, containing an array of items in that group. This can make your code cleaner and more organized.

5. Other Cool Stuff

• The fetch and webstreams modules are now stable after a bit of tweaking.
• Lots of performance improvements (as usual with Node.js updates).
• WebAssembly has some new experimental features.
• A fresh flag (--experimental-default-type) lets you set the default module type to ESM.
• The globalPreload hook is out, replaced by register and initialize.
• Test runner now supports glob patterns.

6. Important Reminder If you're still on Node.js 16, it's time to upgrade! Versions 18 and 20 are the ones to go for right now and keep an eye out for version 22, which is set to release in April 2024.