Node

date

Sep 1, 2022

type

KnowledgeBase

year

slug

nodejs

status

Published

Installation

Install node from https://nodejs.org/en/

n - Node version manager

Install the n node version manager via

$ sudo npm install -g n

Upgrade to the latest version of node via $ sudo n latest

Options:

Switch to specific version of node:

$ sudo n 10.16.0

Switch to long-term-support version:

$ sudo n lts

Switch to newest release:

$ sudo n latest

View downloaded versions: $ n (then up/down arrow, return to install, d to delete)

Start a new Node project

$ npm init and step through the wizard, name the entry point app.js

Create app.js and put this in it: console.log('hello world');

run with $ node app.js

Automatic updates via Nodemon

If we don’t want to re-run after every change we can install nodemon via $ npm install -g nodemon

Then start via $ nodemon app.js

nodemon will now automatically restart whenever it detects file changes!

Project structure

A typical Node web application has the following components:

package.json—A file that contains a list of dependencies, and the command that runs the application

public/—A folder of static assets, such as CSS and client-side JavaScript

node_modules/—The place where the project’s dependencies get installed

One or more JavaScript files that contains your application code

The application code is often further subdivided as follows:

app.js or index.js—The code that sets up the application

models/—Database models

views/—The templates that are used to render the pages in the application

controllers/ or routes/—HTTP request handlers

middleware/—Middleware components

Modules

If we want to import modules we need to add "type" : "module" to our package.json file. We can then add a module (like bcrypt) to the project via $ npm i bcrypt and then import it in app.js via import bcrypt from “bcrypt”;

Exit

Quit out of your app at any time via process.exit();