Intro to Node.js

Node.js brings JavaScript to the server side, and is designed with an event-driven architecture capable of asynchronous I/O.

It’s easy to get started: download Node.js and install it so that it runs from your command line.

Then, create a simple hello_world.js file with these contents:

var http = require('http');

http.createServer(function (req, res) {
     res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/html'});
     res.write('Hello World!');
     res.end();
}).listen(8080);

Now run your newly created server with node.js:

$ node hello_world.js 

and wa-la! go to http://localhost:8080/ in your browser and you will see:

You are running a Node.js server process that can handle HTTP requests!

With Node.js servers, you can:

• parse the URL request
• access server local files: read, create, update, delete, rename
• process events
• upload files
• email
• access SQL or NoSQL databases
• use NPM packages for all kinds of functionality!