Step 1: Install Node.js
For Windows:
- Download the Windows installer from the Node.js official website.
- Run the installer (the .msi file you downloaded).
- Follow the prompts in the installer (Accept the license agreement, click the NEXT button a bunch of times and finally install).
- Restart your computer to ensure the changes can take effect.
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For macOS:
- Download the macOS installer from the Node.js official website.
- Run the .pkg installer you downloaded.
- Follow the installation wizard setup steps. This will install both Node.js and npm.
- To check if Node.js was installed correctly, open your Terminal and type node -v and npm -v, which will show you the versions installed.
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Step 2: Install Visual Studio Code
For Both Windows and macOS:
- Download Visual Studio Code from Visual Studio Code.
- Run the installer and follow the setup wizard to install Visual Studio Code.
- Once installed, launch Visual Studio Code.
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Step 3: Set Up Your Project
- Open your terminal or command prompt.
- Navigate to the directory where you want to create your project.
- Create a new directory for your application and navigate into it:
- Initialize your application using npm. This will create a package.json file that manages all your project's dependencies
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Step 4: Install Express and Set Up Your Server
- Install the Express library in your project directory:
- Open Visual Studio Code and use the 'Open Folder' option to open your project directory.
- Create a file named index.js in your project directory and add the following code to create a basic web server
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Step 5: Run Your Server
- Open the terminal in Visual Studio Code by selecting Terminal > New Terminal.
- Run the server using Node.js:
- Open a web browser and visit http://localhost:3000. You should see "Hello World!" displayed.
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Step 6: Verify Installation
- After visiting the provided URL, if you see the "Hello World!" message, your server is set up correctly and running.
This guide provides a streamlined approach to getting a Node.js and Express server up and running, integrated with Visual Studio Code for a full development environment setup. This foundational setup is crucial for developing web applications and APIs, serving as a basis for more complex server-side logic.