Recommendation for migration to Metor

[rfossella]

Hi. I created a fairly extensive app that uses NodeJS and Express for server. There are portions of my app that are real-time and I use socket.io.

I then have a “traditional” front end that uses Bootstrap, HTML5 and LOTS of jquery and plugins. I’m trying to get my head around how to use Angular with (or instead of) jquery. I also plan to use MongoDB.

My current application needs to talk to Postgres and Oracle databases for which I make calls to PHP programs since much of the drivers and interfaces are time-tested and work well - although kind of slow. I started evaluating knex.js to see if I can retire my PHP code and do all db access using NODE. Does Meteor have a generic DB layer that can talk to multiple relational databases?

So, my question finally is - If I wanted to migrate this fairly large app with all my bootstrap and jquery, should I start w/pure MEAN OR bypass that and use METEOR? I’ve read that METEOR doesn’t play very well w/ jquery and its plugins and is “…discouraged using jQuery when using React…” (from meteor forum) .

I’m thinking that with any approach it’s worthwhile to learn Angular? Does that seem fair?
Has anyone had a similar experience trying to migrate the type of app that I created into a “fuller” MEAN or METEOR app?

Thanks in advance for any support or direction you can provide!
Rob

[energistic]

@rfossella

My current application needs to talk to Postgres and Oracle databases for which I make calls to PHP programs since much of the drivers and interfaces are time-tested and work well - although kind of slow. I started evaluating knex.js to see if I can retire my PHP code and do all db access using NODE. Does Meteor have a generic DB layer that can talk to multiple relational databases?

They are building one (Apollo) but you can use ccorcos:any-db in the meantime.

@rfossella

So, my question finally is - If I wanted to migrate this fairly large app with all my bootstrap and jquery, should I start w/pure MEAN OR bypass that and use METEOR? I’ve read that METEOR doesn’t play very well w/ jquery and its plugins and is “…discouraged using jQuery when using React…” (from meteor forum) .

Bootstrap part is no problem. Meteor itself doesn’t have any problems with JQuery. It’s your view layer that matters. I personally use React and find that I don’t need many JQuery plugins. I think you will need much fewer of those plugins once you use React/Angular/Blaze.

@rfossella

I’m thinking that with any approach it’s worthwhile to learn Angular? Does that seem fair?

If I were you I would learn React, or secondly, Angular 2.