Setting Up Basic Express Functionality in benhall/express-demo

Scenario:

You aim to create a simple Express application using benhall/express-demo as a foundation. This example will walk you through initializing the Express app, defining routes, and handling requests using the provided starter code.

Solution:

First, let’s familiarize ourselves with the project structure:

benhall/express-demo/
├── bin/
│   └── www
├── public/
│   ├── stylesheets/
│   │   └── style.css
├── routes/
│   ├── index.js
│   └── users.js
├── views/
│   ├── error.hbs
│   ├── index.hbs
│   └── layout.hbs
├── Dockerfile
├── app.js
├── docker-compose.yml
├── nodemon.json
└── package.json

Familiarize yourself with the project structure.
Open the app.js file in your text editor.
Ensure that Express is imported and an instance is stored in the app variable:

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

Define a PORT variable and specify the address:

const PORT = process.env.PORT || 3000;

Import Express.json() middleware:

app.use(express.json());

Define routes and HTTP request methods in the routes directory. For this example, we will create a simple route for the root path (“/”) that returns a “Hello World” message.

Open the routes/index.js file and add the following code:

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

Start the Express server by listening on the defined PORT:

app.listen(PORT, () => {
console.log(`Express server currently running on port ${PORT}`);
});

Save the changes and run the project by executing the following command in your terminal:

npm start

Your project is now running on http://localhost:3000. Navigate to your browser, and you should see the “Hello World” message.

Tests:

Verify that the Express server is running by checking the console output for the “Express server currently running on port …” message.
Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:3000. Verify that the “Hello World” message is displayed.
Change the message in the routes/index.js file and save the changes. Refresh the browser to verify that the updated message is displayed.