Getting started with Express

March 7, 2017

Initialize the project and install and save express to package.json

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npm init -y
npm i -S express

Here's the code for a very basic server up and running

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const express = require("express");
const app = express();

app.get("/", function (req, res) {
  res.send("Bonjour la monde!");
});

const server = app.listen(3001, function () {
  console.info(`Server running at http://localhost:${server.address().port}`);
});

install nodemon and add npm scripts to package.json

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npm i -D nodemon

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"scripts": {
  "start": "node index.js",
  "dev": "nodemon index.js"
}

Routes

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app.METHOD(PATH, HANDLER)

For every route, you need a path and a route handler function (callback function) for that path

Path could be a string ('home'), path pattern (*.json), regex, or an array.
Callback could be a middleware function, a series of middleware functions, and array of middleware functions or all of these combined.

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app.get("/yo", function (req, res) {
  res.send("HEYO!");
});

whenever someone visits /yo, they'll get a HEYO! in response.

You can pass in multiple handlers, like so

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// function verifyUser (req, res, next) { .. }

app.get("/:username", verifyUser, function (req, res) {
  let user = req.params.username;
  rese.render("user", {
    user: user,
    address: user.location,
  });
});

Response

Response res in our callback route handler is an object, it has it's own methods, like .send(), .redirect(), .status() etc. The res object is an enhanced version of Node’s own response object and supports all built-in fields and methods.

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// Some example responses

// send a very simple string response
res.send('Hello')

// send an 404
res.status(404).send(`No username ${req.params.username} found`)

// redirect to a page
res.redirect(`/error/${req.params.username}`)

// download a resource
app.get('*.json', function (req, res) {
  // whenever someone goes to a path ending in .json, download the corresponding file
  // e.g. i go to /mojojojo.json, i download the file at /users/mojojojo.json
  res.download(`./users/${req.path}`)
  // You can optionally provide a second param as file name
  // res.download('filePath', 'fileName')
  res.download(`/users/${req.path}`, 'virus.exe`) // buahahaa
})

// JSON, send data back as json, like an API server
res.json(foo)

Route parameters

The captured values are populated in the req.params object, with the name of the route parameter specified in the path as their respective keys.

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app.get("/users/:userId/books/:bookId", function (req, res) {
  res.send(req.params);
});

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Route path: /users/:userId/books/:bookId
Request URL: http://localhost:3000/users/34/books/8989
req.params: { "userId": "34", "bookId": "8989" }

Getting started with Express

Routes

Response

Route parameters

Links