Intro
This is a quick overview of a very simple express.js app.
Installation
npm install --save express ejs
The ejs package is for simple HTML templates.
Use auto-generated project template
Read more at https://expressjs.com/en/starter/generator.html.
npx express-generator
Build your own project structure from scratch
Project structure:
./app.js
./templates/index.html
./public/global.css
app.js:
// Run with `node app.js`
const path = require('path')
const express = require('express')
/*********************************
* SETUP *
*********************************/
const app = express()
const port = 3000
// Serve static files from public/
app.use('/static', express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')))
// Set template engine
app.engine('html', require('ejs').renderFile);
app.set('view engine', 'html');
app.set('views', path.join(__dirname, 'templates')) // EJS HTML Templates dir
/********************************
* PAGES *
********************************/
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
res.render('index', { title: 'hello' });
})
/********************************
* RUN *
*******************************/
app.listen(port, () => {
console.log(`Example app listening at http://localhost:${port}`)
})
templates/index.html:
<html>
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/static/global.css">
</head>
<body>
<h1><%= title %></h1>
</body>
</html>
Getting query parameters
Use the query property on the request object.
// For url: /?thekey=something
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
console.log(req.query.thekey)
})