Node JS Starter Kit to Create Skeleton of Your New App

To create a skeleton of a node js application this node js starter kit is followed best practices collected from experts.

If you are new to node js or you know node js, you can get benefit from this node js starter kit.

This starter kit is used express generator to create a skeleton.

You can skip the step which you have previously applied.

1. Make sure you have installed Node JS on your computer

   The latest version of node js is found here

2. Install express generator to quickly create a skeleton of node js application

   npm i express-generator -g

3. Let’s start by creating a new app using express generator

   1. First, open a folder where you want to store the app
      this may refer as base folder later
   2. Open terminal / command prompt there
   3. Run command:

      express --view=ejs myApp

      This will create a skeleton of your app
      Here we will --view=ejs for templating engine. myApp are the app name and the directory which express generator will create

4. Now Change The Directory To the newly created folder

   this folder later refer as base folder later

   cd myApp

5. Then install the dependencies

   npm i

6. Install database management system

   For the sake of relevance we use mysql in this here
   Run command:

   npm i mysql --save

   This will download the node js MySQL package
   Use --save flag to save it to package.json

7. For any login based applications, we will use cookie-session to store sessions

   Run command:

   npm i cookie-session --save

8. Install body-parser for handling POST request

   Run command:

   npm i body-parser --save

9. Now put all codes of app.js into an IIFE

   We will change the app.js files created by default.

   (function() {
       "use strict";
       // Put all codes here
   })();

10. Now create a config file to hold all app & database configuration

    Create a file called config.json at base folder
    In config.json write all configurations in a jsonformat
    For example:

    {
        "mysql": {
            "host": "localhost",
            "user": "root",
            "password": "password",
            "database": "db_name"
        },
        "app" : {
            "port": 3000
        }
    }
    

    Here MySQL key will hold the MySQL configurations.

11. To use created configs in the app

    We will import those files in app.js

    const fs = require('fs');
    
    const config = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('config.json', 'utf8'));
    

    Now config the variable will store all configurations from config.json

12. Now we have to make some changes to bin/www file to start the app in this way

    1. Import config file just like above
    2. Then change (usually line no 15)
       From

       var port = normalizePort(process.env.PORT || '3000');

       to

       var port = normalizePort(process.env.PORT || config.app.port);

13. Then again change a line in bin/www

    From

    server.listen(port);

    to

    server.listen(port, function() {
        console.log('Listening on port: ' + port);
    });

14. Then start the application by running the command

    npm start

    Your app is now running on port 3000

15. You can go to your browser in this location http://localhost:3000

16. Now you can change views/index.ejs file to see it is working

Now you are all set to begin creating a node js application.