topic: Super basic intro to Node

Tags js node backend

Most people are introduced to JavaScript in the context of a web browser. JS adds smarts to HTML and CSS.

JS is a proper programming language so it can do a whole lot more than making a web page clever. It doesn’t need to interact with a website to work. You can use it on the “back-end”. It can be used to interact with filesystems and databases and all sorts of other things.

When JS is running on the backend it’s usually referred to as Node. Node is a “runtime environment” that can execute JS code.

Here are instructions on how to install node: https://nodejs.org/en/download/

Try typing this into a terminal:

node

Now type

var greeting = "hello world";
console.log(greeting);

So you see you can execute JavaScript code right there in your terminal and it just works.

Now save the HelloWorld code above to a file named hello.js. You can execute this whenever you want to by saying node hello.js in a terminal. Or rather node /path/to/hello.js if you are in a different location.

package managers

There are a few different package managers. The two main ones are npm and yarn. In this course, you’ll be using npm.

If you know how to use npm then using a different package manager will be pretty easy.

https://docs.npmjs.com/about-npm/

Getting started with npm

Install npm if you need to. Then follow the steps below:

  • make a directory called npm_demo
  • cd into your new directory
  • type in npm init. Npm will ask you a bunch of questions. You can just say yes to everything.
  • There is a new file inside your directory. Take a look at it. It should be fairly easy to read.
  • now type in npm install jasmine. Jasmine is a tool used for testing your js code. When you type in this command then npm will download and install jasmine, and update a few other files in the directory. Take a look around your directory again.

Super Important you’ll notice that npm creates a directory called node_modules. This is where the downloaded code gets saved. You’ll see jasmine in there. Make sure you always gitignore your node_modules directory

RAW CONTENT URL