node-hello-world

Step by step tutorial on creating your first Hello World App in Node To start Node.js development on your Mac laptop, you'll need to install some essential packages and applications. Here’s a comprehensive list along with the terminal commands to get everything set up:

1. Install Homebrew

Homebrew is a package manager for macOS that simplifies the installation of software.

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

2. Install Node.js and npm

Node.js is the runtime environment, and npm (Node Package Manager) comes with it.

brew install node

3. Verify Installation

Check that Node.js and npm were installed correctly.

node -v
npm -v

4. Install Git

Git is essential for version control and collaboration.

brew install git

5. Set Up a Code Editor

You can use any text editor, but here are some popular ones:

Visual Studio Code (VS Code): A popular editor for JavaScript development.

brew install --cask visual-studio-code

6. Install Useful Node Packages

These packages will help streamline your development process:

Express: A web framework for Node.js.
Nodemon: Automatically restarts the server during development.
dotenv: Loads environment variables from a .env file.

npm install express nodemon dotenv

7. Create Your First Node.js Project

Create a new directory for your project and navigate into it.

mkdir my-node-app
cd my-node-app

8. Initialize a New Node.js Project

This command creates a package.json file for your project, which keeps track of dependencies.

npm init -y

9. Create a Basic Server

Create an index.js file in your project folder:

touch index.js

Open index.js in your text editor and add the following code:

const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const PORT = process.env.PORT || 3000;

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

app.listen(PORT, () => {
    console.log(`Server is running on http://localhost:${PORT}`);
});

10. Run Your Server

Use Nodemon to start your server so it restarts automatically on changes.

npx nodemon index.js

11. Access Your App

Open your web browser and go to http://localhost:3000. You should see "Hello, World!"

Additional Tools

Postman: A tool for testing APIs.

brew install --cask postman

MongoDB: If you plan to work with databases, you might want to install MongoDB.

brew tap mongodb/brew
brew install mongodb-community

Summary of Commands

Here’s a summary of all the commands:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
brew install node
node -v
npm -v
brew install git
brew install --cask visual-studio-code
npm install express nodemon dotenv
mkdir my-node-app
cd my-node-app
npm init -y
touch index.js
npx nodemon index.js
brew install --cask postman
brew tap mongodb/brew
brew install mongodb-community

This should give you a solid foundation for starting your Node.js development journey.

urbantech/node-hello-world