The ultimate guide to Node.js web development. Learn everything needed to build a professional web application using Node.js!

Node.js: Novice to Ninja

Preface

Node.js is a JavaScript runtime, which means it runs programs written in JavaScript. Most developers use it to create command-line tools or web server applications.

What is Node.js?

You won’t get far on your Node.js journey without installing the runtime first! You have three primary options:

Install Node.js

In this chapter, you’ll write, run, and debug your first Node.js programs. To keep it simple, these won’t use any third-party modules or npm. They’re self-contained scripts that use the standard library provided in Node.js .

Your First Node.js Application

Tutorials often describe debugging in the final chapters. This can be frustrating if you encounter a problem at the start of your coding journey—which you will. Software development is complex .

How to Debug Node.js Scripts

In this chapter, you’ll create a web server application that constructs and returns simple web pages. It will help you become more familiar with:

Getting Started with Express

Unless you’re creating a static website, processing user data posted from an HTML form is at the heart of all web applications. In this chapter, you’ll learn how Express can:

Processing Form Data with Express

You can attribute much of Node’s success— and frustration —to npm. Node Package Manager provides ways to find, install, update, manage, publish, and remove Node.js packages. A package could be anything from a simple, one-line JavaScript module to a full application.

How to Use the npm Node Package Manager

Modules provide a way to define functionality in one file and use it in another. Developers often create encapsulated code libraries responsible for handling related tasks. The benefits include:

Using ES2015 and CommonJS Modules

This chapter discusses the benefits and challenges of asynchronous programming in JavaScript. Asynchronous concepts are rarely evident in other languages, but it’s impossible to avoid them in Node.js.

Asynchronous Programming in Node.js

The previous chapters explained programming practices that affect all Node.js applications. This chapter applies these fundamentals to the specific challenge of data storage using database solutions such as MongoDB and MySQL.

Using Database Storage

This chapter demonstrates how to use WebSockets —a technology that makes it possible to open a two-way, interactive communication channel between a browser and a server. In the past, this was difficult to achieve on most platforms, and often required a third-party service. Node.js makes it easy, although we’ll delve into some deeper challenges.

Using WebSockets

This chapter demonstrates a selection of regularly used APIs that are built in to the standard Node.js runtime. You’ve seen some in previous chapters of this book, but I hope the following sections will pique your interest and encourage you to browse the Node.js API documentation .

Useful Node.js APIs

This chapter demonstrates a real-time multiplayer quiz written in Node.js. The application is a step up from the simpler, self-contained examples shown in previous chapters. It has a more complex architecture, but it isn’t using any modules or techniques you haven’t seen before. I recommend that you progress through the explanations at your own pace and examine the code in an editor so you can follow what’s happening.

Example Real-time Multiplayer Quiz: Overview

This chapter describes the quiz application’s architecture and dependencies. It does get complex, so you can skip it if you’d rather concentrate on the Node.js and Express parts (Chapter 15) and WebSocket code (Chapter 16). That said, technical decisions described in those chapters are based on the architecture, so it’s good to understand the basics.

Example Real-time Multiplayer Quiz: Architecture

The Express part of the quiz application:

Example Real-time Multiplayer Quiz: Express Code

Chapter 11 introduced WebSockets, which establish a two-way interactive communication channel between a client browser and server.

Example Real-time Multiplayer Quiz: WebSocket Code

I hope you now feel confident enough to write your own Node.js programs and find appropriate packages when necessary. The success of the runtime has one downside: you’re spoiled for choice! There are 1.5 million packages available, ranging from full application development suites to simple, one-function modules. This can lead to choice paralysis, and the moment you settle on one package, a better option will inevitably arrive.

Node.js Tools and Resources

You’ll eventually want to release your Node.js web app to the world. Deployment options have grown exponentially since the runtime was released in 2009. This chapter describes general types of production hosting, with links to appropriate companies, but the range of services and prices changes daily.

Node.js Application Deployment

Congratulations! You’ve reached the end of the beginning of your Node.js journey. You’ve learned a lot, and I hope this course jump-starts your development while helping you avoid some of the pitfalls.

Community Questions