This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Hephzy
Introduction
Hi everyone. I'm starting the #100DaysofMiva coding challenge. I'm a day late but better late than never. I started my journey with TypeScript and today, I am going to take us through the process of creating a simple API server with both TypeScript and a plain NodeJS environment.
What is NodeJS
NodeJS is an open-source and cross-platform runtime environment built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine for executing JavaScript code outside of a browser. It provides an event-driven, non-blocking (asynchronous) I/O and cross-platform runtime environment for building highly scalable server-side applications using JavaScript.
What is TypeScript?
TypeScript is a free and open-source high-level programming language developed by Microsoft that adds static typing with optional type annotations to JavaScript. It is a strict superset of JavaScript, which adds type to the JavaScript and helps you avoid potential bugs that occur at runtime.
Benefits of NodeJS
- Asynchronous Programming
- Scalability
- Fast Performance
Benefits of TypeScript
- Static Typing
- Code completion
- Refactoring
Setting Up a NodeJS Server
In order to set up a node.js server, there are a few things you need before you can start.
Prerequisites
- NodeJS and Npm: You need to have NodeJS installed on your system. You can do that by going to the NodeJS official website and downloading NodeJS.
Steps
a. Create a new folder and navigate to it
mkdir hello-world-api
cd hello-world-api
b. Initialize node.js
npm init -y
c. Install necessary dependencies:
npm install express
npm install nodemon
d. Create a new file called app.js and add the following code.
import express from 'express';
const app = express();
const port = 3000;
// Define a route handler for the default home page
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
res.status(200).json({message: 'Hello, World!'});
});
// Start the Express server
app.listen(port, () => {
console.log(`Server is running on http://localhost:${port}`);
});
e. Add this script to your package.json file.
"scripts": {
"start": "node app.js",
"dev": "nodemon app.js"
}
f. Start the server:
npm start
- For development mode (with auto-reloading):
npm run dev
g. Access the API: Open your browser or use a tool like Postman to navigate to http://localhost:3000/, and you should see "Hello, World!" displayed.
Setting Up a TypeScript Server
Prerequisites
- NodeJS and Npm should be installed.
- Additionally, you can install typescript globally
npm install -g typescript
Steps
a. Initialize a NodeJS project
mkdir hello-world-api
cd hello-world-api
npm init -y
b. Install necessary dependencies:
npm install express
npm install --save-dev typescript @types/node @types/express ts-node nodemon
c. Initialize TypeScript:
npx tsc --init
d. Configure tsconfig.json file
{
"compilerOptions": {
"target": "ES6",
"module": "commonjs",
"strict": true,
"esModuleInterop": true,
"skipLibCheck": true,
"outDir": "./dist"
},
"include": ["src/**/*.ts"],
"exclude": ["node_modules"]
}
e. Create a src/index.ts directory and input this code:
import express, { Request, Response } from 'express';
const app = express();
const port = 3000;
// Define a route handler for the default home page
app.get('/', (req: Request, res: Response) => {
res.status(200).json({message: 'Hello, World!'});
});
// Start the Express server
app.listen(port, () => {
console.log(`Server is running on http://localhost:${port}`);
});
f. Add this script to your package.json file.
"scripts": {
"start": "node app.js",
"dev": "nodemon app.js"
}
g. Start the server:
npm start
- For development mode (with auto-reloading):
npm run dev
h. Access the API by visiting http://localhost:3000/ in your browser, or to whatever port you specified in your project. You should also have this message showing in your terminal:
Server is running on port 3000
That's it! You now have a simple API server up and running using both TypeScript and Node.js. Check out my GitHub repo for the full code. Stay tuned for the next post in the #100DaysofMiva challenge!
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Hephzy
Hephzy | Sciencx (2024-08-21T00:31:47+00:00) Day 1: How to create a simple server using TypeScript and NodeJS.. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2024/08/21/day-1-how-to-create-a-simple-server-using-typescript-and-nodejs/
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