This document shows steps to install back-end software.

Preliminaries

Download and install:

  1. Node.js, a server-side JavaScript network application framework (Install LTS, not latest)

  2. Git, a version control system (If you haven’t done so)

    Windows

    Stick with the default options and click Next until finished.
    Mac OS X

    Got an error? Try:

    • Apple menu → System Preferences…​ → Security & Privacy → Open Anyway.

    • Otherwise, try: Spotlight Search (press F4 or Command-Space) → Terminal. Then, type git and follow instructions to install git.
    Linux

    Use sudo with your package manager.

Initial project setup

  1. Open the command-line.

    Windows

    Windows Key → Type "Git Bash"
    Mac & Linux

    Open "Terminal"

  2. From the command line, install express-generator globally. Express is the web framework for Node.js. Do NOT run this command with sudo.

    npm install express-generator -g
    Note

    Did you get an EACCES error? If so, do this:

    sudo chown -R $(whoami) $(npm config get prefix)/{lib/node_modules,bin,share}

    Want to clean what you did and start over? If so, do this:

    npm cache clean --force

  3. Use express-generator to generate boilerplate code (minimal code to get things working). You can rename Node0-Basics to whatever you want. Note that we will create more projects later. So name it properly (i.e., COMP335/Node0-Basics).

    express --no-view Node0-Basics

  4. Go into the project folder you created. After this step, assume you are in this folder.

    cd Node0-Basics

  5. Examine the files placed in this folder:

    .
├── app.js
├── bin
│   └── www
├── package.json
├── public
│   ├── index.html
│   ├── images
│   ├── javascripts
│   └── stylesheets
│       └── style.css
├── routes
│   ├── index.js
│   └── users.js
    app.js

    The entry point into this project.
    bin/www

    A wrapper script for app.js
    package.json

    Configures project name, scripts, and dependencies.
    public

    Where to place client-side code.
    routes

    Where to place server-side code.

  6. Examine the package.json file. Notice the following dependencies:

    cookie-parser

    Parses HTTP Cookies
    debug

    Debugging utility
    express

    Node web framework (documentation)
    morgan

    HTTP request logger

Run the project locally

  1. From the command line, install dependencies listed in package.json. This command may take a while to run. Once it installs all dependencies successfully, you will see a new folder node_modules.

    npm install
    Note

    Did you get an high severity vulnerabilities error? If so, do this:

    npm audit fix --force

  2. Run the server to see the example project.

    npm start

  3. Open http://localhost:3000/ in your browser. You should see Welcome to Express.

  4. In the command line, Ctrl-C stops the server.