Step 1: Setting up your environment 🛠️
First, we'll need to set up our environment. Make sure you have Node.js and npm installed on your machine. If not, you can download and install them from here.
Now, let's create a new directory for our project:
mkdir node-express-api
cd node-express-api
Next, we're going to initialize a new Node.js project:
npm init -y
This command creates a new package.json file for our project.
Step 2: Installing Dependencies 📦
Now that our project has been initialized, we'll need to install the necessary dependencies. We're going to use Express, a popular Node.js framework, to create our API. To install Express, use the following npm command inside your project directory:
npm install express
While Express will help us create the server, handle routes and middleware, we'll also need a way to parse incoming data into a JSON format. For this purpose, we're going to use body-parser:
npm install body-parser
Great! Now that our dependencies are installed, we can start building our API!🚀
Step 3: Creating our Express Server 🖥️
In the root directory of your project, create a new file called server.js. This will be where our server lives. Use the following code to create a basic Express server:
const express = require('express');
const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
// initialize express
const app = express();
// use bodyParser middleware to parse incoming json
app.use(bodyParser.json());
// define a simple route
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
res.json({ message: 'Welcome to our Node.js and Express REST API!' });
});
// listen on a port
const PORT = process.env.PORT || 5000;
app.listen(PORT, () => {
console.log(`Server is running on port ${PORT}.`);
});
Once you create your server, you can run it using the below command:
node server.js
Congratulations! Your simple Node.js and Express server is live. You've just created the foundation to your REST API. 🥳🎉
In the next steps later, we would start expanding our API by creating routes, handling HTTP requests and connecting to a database. But for now, why not play with your new server a bit?
Note: Keep in mind that technology evolves rapidly, and while the underlying concepts in this guide remain relevant, some of the specific tools and processes may become outdated. Refer to the links provided for the most current information.
References 📚:
- Node.js: https://nodejs.org/
- Express.js: http://expressjs.com/
- NPM: https://www.npmjs.com/
