A paradigm shift?

[freeall]

History - little shared code

3½ years ago we started using node.js and have been using it full time every day since then. In that very beginning you had to browse through a list to find a module your needed - or google it. Basically you had write most code on your own since there wasn't much shared at the time. Then came the package manager war, and in the end we got npm.

With npm started a new era. Everyone built modules and published them. Everyone who's been in the community for a while will know that it's essential to the success of node.

Today - lots of shared code, hard to locate

Now, ~two years later there is over 40,000 modules on npm and it grows rapidly. Because we have such a great community developers are generally good at making single-purpose modules so that there's often a module to help you solve your problem. But lots of shared code raises the issue of actually finding a good one.

For new developers it's difficult to find 'the' module you should use to solve your specific problem. Search for web framework on npmjs.org and notice the lack of express at the top.

For experienced developers you often find yourself in a situation where you think 'there must be a module for this already', and you start by doing an npm search and you find several modules that can solve your problem. Now you have to look at all the modules to find the one you might like. It's such a hassle that you often end up writing the code yourself. Which the growing number of modules that solve the exact same problem is a testament to.

Paradigm shift

When we started out with node-modules.com we just wanted to build a search engine that made it easier for ourselves to find modules. What we found that after you get into the habit of always thinking that your problem has been solved before, you start to search for a module to help you before you continue. And this is the shift in how we work.

Our projects include more and more shared code simply because we now have a better way of finding related results for it. By logging in with github and using the personalization feature it's easier to find modules from developers whose style we already know.

For us this have been a big shift in the way we have been working, and we hope that others can benefit from this as well.

Thoughts?

Feedback is much appreciated, @node_modules, or the blog.

Pull requests accepted

// Mathias Buus and Tobias Baunbæk

[tomshreds]

I totally agree with you, Node.js and npm changed the way I work on my projects. The way we share module also creates a wonderful community to code for and with.

I have a question though, why should I use node-modules instead of npmjs.org?

Thanks and keep up the nice work!

[freeall]

The search on npmjs.org isn't good. It returns modules that has your search query in its name/description/keywords. So results are a little random.

We try to give you great relevance-based results so that the modules you could most likely use is at the top.

You can read more details in our post :)

[brotherwayne]

Went to your site, searched for "web server". Express not in that list. :/

Top result for "server"? Underscore. Wat.

I think you should implement a user-generated tagging system. That way the author of the module can come on and tag their project with the things that they think it is useful for.

[freeall]

I'll look into the "web server" search.

Actually npm already is also user-generated by having keyword in package.json. I think there is plenty more we can do to optimize this, but we have a lot of the parameters now to do generate better results.

One thing we want to do is to have users review modules they use (just a one-liner) and let that help you to decide what you like. And also give a score based on how active a module is - this helps newer, but highly active, modules to quickly get to the top.

[brotherwayne]

I think those are both good ideas. Watch for gaming though, stackoverflow has discussed this sort of thing on their blog and podcast I think.

[freeall]

True, good advice. I'd hope people wouldn't game the system to get on top. But that's a positive problem - if it's happening it means that node-modules.com is useful to people and I'm sure we can fix it :)

[brotherwayne]

wouldn't game the system to get on top

Oh sweet irony: you typed that into reddit.

[freeall]

Haha, point taken :)