What is Sails

Summary

Sails.js is a Node.js MVC framework designed for building full-stack web applications with JavaScript. It provides a structured folder system and conventions similar to Laravel (PHP) and Rails (Ruby), making team collaboration easier.

Key features of Sails include:

• ORM Support: Works with any database.

• Built-in WebSockets: Enables real-time applications like chat.

• Security & Maintainability: Organized structure for easier navigation.

• Rapid Development: Comes with best practices, reducing setup time.

Kelvin, who comes from a Laravel background, found Sails to be a "saving grace" compared to Express, as it provides built-in conventions and best practices. He believes Sails is excellent for both beginners and enterprise projects.

Transcript

Sails is a Node.js MVC framework that gives you the ability to build full-stack web applications with JavaScript. So if you've heard of something like Laravel for PHP or Rails for Ruby, Sails is like that, but for Node.js. With Sails, you have a clear folder structure and a convention that you and your teammates could use in building Node.js applications.

With Sails, you also have an ORM, which allows you to let Sails talk to any database. Sails also comes with built-in WebSocket support, meaning you could easily build real-time chat applications as well as any other feature you want to use WebSocket for. Sails is the framework you would need or want to use when you need to build things quickly.

Sails also gives you security and makes your codebase easy to maintain because you always know where everything is. If you want to find your models, you know where they are, your actions, and so on. To me, Sails was like a saving grace because I had been searching for a framework that checked all the boxes that Laravel checks since I came from a Laravel background.

When I started using Express, I realized I had to figure out my own best practices to get things done. But with Sails, I already had that because it provides a quick, structured way to build applications. If you want to get things done with JavaScript on both the backend and frontend, I believe Sails will get you there in minutes.

You can use it to build enterprise-grade applications as well as your very first starter project. It checks all the boxes for me, and I hope it will for you too. Now, in the next lesson in this course, we are going to get started installing Sails. Let's get to it.

The next lesson will cover installing Sails.