Introduction to the MEAN stack

It was a long time ago since the acronym LAMP (Linux Apache MySql PHP) was created. Today another very common stack is the MEAN stack. Probably not all of you know what that the acronym “MEAN” stands for, so let's start with the basic. MEAN stands for MongoDB, Express, AngularJS and Node.js. It deals with a full stack JavaScript solution for building websites and web applications. From the database to the back-end code and the front-end code, everything is written using JavaScript. In case you aren’t familiar with the technologies used by the MEAN stack, you can find a short introduction about these technologies in the following section.

MEAN

M stands for MongoDB, the world’s leading NoSQL database. That’s a kind of document type database that stores its data into a JSON-like formatted binary file called BSON (Binary JSON). It’s easy to use, and for JavaScript developers it should be as simple as working with JSON.

E stands for Express, a lightweight, minimalist framework built for Node.js. It’s been created for web applications and APIs, and comes with a myriad of HTTP facilities for the developer.

A stands for AngularJS, the Model-View-Whatever JS framework build by Google. AngularJS makes API consuming as simple as it could be, so using it as the client-side of MEAN is very helpful for every developer. Moreover, AngularJS is optimized for mobile development, so by using the same code base on the browser, you have already built a mobile app for the web application you’re developing.

N stands for Node.js, the foundation of Express. It runs on Chrome’s V8 engine and is capable of non-blocking, event-driven I/O. The Node.js application will handle multiple requests on a single service without them blocking each-other (hence non-blocking).

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by Aldo Ziflaj via SitePoint