Chapter 21

Making a Web Application Using Express.js

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?

  • Installing Express
  • Starting a web application using Express
  • Defining Express middleware
  • Rendering Jade templates
  • Defining URL route listeners
  • Creating route middleware

For some languages and platforms there are frameworks that simplify the job of crafting an HTTP-based application. Perhaps the best known is Rails (for the Ruby language), but countless others include Django, Sinatra, and Cake. Most have the goal of simplifying and structuring the development of HTML applications and solving some common problems like routing the HTTP request to the correct controller code, serving static assets, and rendering HTML templates.

In the Node world several modules and frameworks also solve some of these and other problems. Some are separate modules that you can glue together, and some, like Express.js, offer an integrated solution that you can rapidly implement.

Express.js is based on the Connect middleware engine: Any Connect-specific middleware will also work with Express. Besides allowing you to set up middleware to respond to HTTP requests, Express.js allows you perform different actions based on the HTTP method and URL – by letting you define a routing table. It also allows you to dynamically render HTML documents based on supplying arguments to templates.

INITIALIZING YOUR EXPRESS.JS APPLICATION

This section shows you how to create an Express application from scratch, but first you must install Express ...

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