A simple HelloWorld get route in NodeJS (with Express)

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Let us start from basics to understand better.

What is a route?

Routes are the ways to handle user navigation to different URLs. There are various HTTP request methods like post, put, delete, merge, patch etc to design your application. ExpressJS provides a beautiful documentation along with examples. Refer ExpressJS documentation here.

How to create a NodeJS project

pre-requisites

  • Download NodeJS here and install it.
  • You can write code in any text editor. I prefer Visual Studio Code but there are options like sublime text, Atom, aptana studio etc.

How to start

  • create a folder in your repository
  • Open terminal and navigate to the folder you created.
  • execute npm init, which creates package.json file. package.json file is like a manifest for your application and contains npm packages information which are used in the application development.
  • execute code package.json, to open the package.json file in your visual studio code.
  • Install the express dependency as shown below
npm i express --save
  • Create index.js file to write your code

Why ExpressJS

It is a small pre-built NodeJS framework which is very muchful helpful as it creates server-side web applications faster and smarter.

NodeJS Hello world program (index.js)

const express = require('express');
const server = express();

server.get('/', ( req, res) => {
    res.send("Hello World!!");
});

server.listen(5000, () => console.log("server started on 5000"));

How to run your code

  • switch to your terminal again or you can open terminal in your VS code itself.
  • Execute the below command
node index.js

How to Test

  • Hit the url http://localhost:5000/ in your browser to see the Hello World!! message