Examples

• 67

  Hello World HTTP server

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  67

  First, install Node.js for your platform.

  Create an HTTP server listening on port 1337, which sends Hello, World! to the browser. Also, instead of using port 1337, you can use any port number of your choice which is currently not in use by any other service.

  The http module provides the functionality to create an HTTP server using the http.createServer() method. To create the application, create a file containing the following JavaScript code.

  const http = require('http');
  
  http.createServer((req, res) => {
  
      // 1. Tell the browser everything is OK (Status code 200), and the data is in plain text.
      res.writeHead(200, {
          'Content-Type': 'text/plain'
      });
  
      // 2. Send the announced text (the body of the page)
      res.end('Hello, World!\n');
  
  }).listen(1337);
  

  Save the file with any file name. In this case, if we name it hello.js we can run the application by going to the directory the file is in and using the following command:

  node hello.js
  

  The created server can then be accessed with the URL http://localhost:1337 or http://127.0.0.1:1337 in the browser.

  A simple web page will appear with a “Hello, World!” text at the top, as shown in the screenshot below.

  

  edited Dec 20 at 14:24

  

  

  

  

  

  +18
• 22

  Hello World command line

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  22

  Node.js can also be used to create command line utilities. The code below reads a string from the command line argument to print a Hello message.

  To run this code:

  1. Create an empty file, and paste the code below. The name of the file isn't important but many people will name this file app.js or main.js.
  2. Change the permission of the file to make it an executable. Example chmod 700 FILE_NAME
  3. Run the app by typing ./APP_NAME

  #!/usr/bin/env node
  
  'use strict';
  
  /*
      The process.argv property returns an array containing the command line
      arguments passed when the Node.js process was launched. The first element
      will be process.execPath. The second element will be the path to the
      JavaScript file being executed. The remaining elements will be any
      additional command line arguments.
  
      Example: [ 'node', '/path/to/yourscript', 'arg1', 'arg2', ... ]
      URL: https://nodejs.org/api/process.html#process_process_argv
   */
  
  
  //    1. Extract the name of the app/file name.
  let appName = process.argv[1].split('/').pop();
  
  //    2. Save the first provided argument as the username.
  let name = process.argv[2];
  
  //    3. Check if the name was provided.
  if (!name) {
      //    1. Give the user an example how to use the app.
      console.log("Missing argument! \n\n\tExample: %s YOUR_NAME\n", appName);
  
      //    -> Exit the app if error. The nr 1 tells the system that the app quit
      //       with an error, thus another command won't be executed. For example:
      //       ./hello && ls -> won't execute ls
      //       ./hello David && ls -> will execute ls
      process.exit(1);
  }
  
  //    4. Display the message in the console.
  console.log('Hello, %s!', name);
  

  edited Dec 20 at 14:24

  

  

  

  

  

  +2
• 11

  Hello World with Express

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  11

  The following example uses Express to create an HTTP server listening on port 3000, which responds with "Hello, World!".

  var express = require('express');
  var app = express();
  
  app.get('/', function (req, res) {
    res.send('Hello, World!');
  });
  
  app.set('port', (process.env.PORT || 3000));
  
  app.listen(app.get('port'), function () {
    console.log('Example app listening on port 3000!');
  });
  

  ---

  For more information about the Express framework, you can check the Web Apps With Express section

  edited Dec 1 at 0:08

  

  

  

  

  

  +1
• 9

  Installing and Running Node.js

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  9

  Installation

  First, install Node.js on your development computer.

  Windows: Go to the Node.js download site and download/run the installer.

  Mac: Go to the Node.js download site and download/run the installer. Alternativily you can also install node via homebrew brew install nvm or brew install node homebrew allows you to manage packages via the command line read more about it on the (homebrew site)[http://brew.sh/]

  Linux: Follow the instructions for your distro on the command line installation page.

  ---

  Running a Node Program

  To run a NodeJS program, simply run node app.js or nodejs app.js, where app.js is the filename of your node app source code.

  Alternatively, a node program may be executed as a script. To do so, it needs to begin with a shebang pointing to the node interpreter, e.g. #!/usr/bin/env node. Then, the file has to be set as executable. Now the script can be directly run from the command line.

  edited Dec 3 at 23:05

  

  

  

  
• 4

  Debugging Your NodeJS Application

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  4

  You can use the node-inspector. Run this command to install it via npm:

  npm install -g node-inspector
  

  Then you can debug your application using

  node-debug app.js
  

  The Github repository can be found here: https://github.com/node-inspector/node-inspector

  created Jul 22 at 18:17

  
• 3

  Hello World in the REPL

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  3

  When called without arguments, Node.js starts a REPL (Read-Eval-Print-Loop) also known as the “Node shell”.

  At a command prompt type node.

  $ node
  >
  

  At the Node shell prompt > type "Hello World!"

  $ node
  > "Hello World!"
  'Hello World!'
  

  created Oct 7 at 23:07

  
• 2

  Deploying your application online

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  2

  When you deploy your app online (for example, Heroku), you will need to change the port number to process.env.PORT. This allows you to access the application.

  For example,

  http.createServer(function(req, res) {
     // your server code
  }).listen(process.env.PORT);
  

  Also, if you would like to access this offline while debugging, you can use this:

  http.createServer(function(req, res) {
    // your server code
  }).listen(process.env.PORT || 3000);
  

  where 3000 is the offline port number.

  created Jul 22 at 18:17

  
• 2

  Hello World basic routing

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  2

  Once you understand how to create an HTTP Server with node, it's important to understand how to make it "do" things based on the path that a user has navigated to. This phenomenon is called, "routing".

  The most basic example of this would be to check if (request.url === 'some/path/here'), and then call a function that responds with a new file.

  An example of this can be seen here:

  var http = require('http');
  
  function index (request, response) {
      response.writeHead(200);
      response.end('Hello, World!');
  }
  
  http.createServer(function (request, response) {
      
      if (request.url === '/') {
          return index(request, response);
      }
  
      response.writeHead(404);
      response.end(http.STATUS_CODES[404]);
  
  }).listen(1337);
  

  If you continue to define your "routes" like this, though, you'll end up with one massive callback function, and we don't want a giant mess like that, so let's see if we can clean this up.

  First, let's store all of our routes in an object:

  var routes = {
      '/': function index (request, response) {
          response.writeHead(200);
          response.end('Hello, World!');
      },
      '/foo': function foo (request, response) {
          response.writeHead(200);
          response.end('You are now viewing "foo"');
      }
  }
  

  Now that we've stored 2 routes in an object, we can now check for them in our main callback:

  http.createServer(function (request, response) {
      
      if (request.url in routes) {
          return routes[request.url](request, response);
      }
  
      response.writeHead(404);
      response.end(http.STATUS_CODES[404]);
  
  }).listen(1337);
  

  Now every time you try to navigate your website, it will check for the existence of that path in your routes, and it will call the respective function. If no route is found, the server will respond with a 404 (Not Found).

  And there you have it--routing with the HTTP Server API is very simple.

  created Aug 2 at 17:14

  
• 2

  TLS Socket: server and client

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  2

  The only major differences between this and a regular TCP connection are the private Key and the public certificate that you’ll have to set into an option object.

  How to Create a Key and Certificate

  The first step in this security process is the creation of a private Key. And what is this private key? Basically, it's a set of random noise that's used to encrypt information. In theory, you could create one key, and use it to encrypt whatever you want. But it is best practice to have different keys for specific things. Because if someone steals your private key, it's similar to having someone steal your house keys. Imagine if you used the same key to lock your car, garage, office, etc.

  openssl genrsa -out private-key.pem 1024

  Once we have our private key, we can create a CSR (certificate signing request), which is our request to have the private key signed by a fancy authority. That is why you have to input information related to your company. This information will be seen by the signing authority, and used to verify you. In our case, it doesn’t matter what you type, since in the next step we're going to sign our certificate ourselves.

  openssl req -new -key private-key.pem -out csr.pem

  Now that we have our paper work filled out, it's time to pretend that we're a cool signing authority.

  openssl x509 -req -in csr.pem -signkey private-key.pem -out public-cert.pem

  Now that you have the private key and the public cert, you can establish a secure connection between two NodeJS apps. And, as you can see in the example code, it is a very simple process.

  Important!

  Since we created the public cert ourselves, in all honesty, our certificate is worthless, because we are nobodies. The NodeJS server won't trust such a certificate by default, and that is why we need to tell it to actually trust our cert with the following option rejectUnauthorized: false. Very important: never set this variable to true in a production environment.

  TLS Socket Server

  'use strict';
  
  let tls = require('tls');
  let fs = require('fs');
  
  const PORT = 1337;
  const HOST = '127.0.0.1'
  
  let options = {
      key: fs.readFileSync('private-key.pem'),
      cert: fs.readFileSync('public-cert.pem')
  };
  
  let server = tls.createServer(options, function(socket) {
  
      // Send a friendly message
      socket.write("I am the server sending you a message.");
  
      // Print the data that we received
      socket.on('data', function(data) {
  
          console.log('Received: %s [it is %d bytes long]',
              data.toString().replace(/(\n)/gm,""),
              data.length);
  
      });
  
      // Let us know when the transmission is over
      socket.on('end', function() {
  
          console.log('EOT (End Of Transmission)');
  
      });
  
  });
  
  // Start listening on a specific port and address
  server.listen(PORT, HOST, function() {
  
      console.log("I'm listening at %s, on port %s", HOST, PORT);
  
  });
  
  // When an error occurs, show it.
  server.on('error', function(error) {
  
      console.error(error);
  
      // Close the connection after the error occurred.
      server.destroy();
  
  });
  

  TLS Socket Client

  'use strict';
  
  let tls = require('tls')
  let fs = require('fs');
  
  const PORT = 1337;
  const HOST = '127.0.0.1'
  
  // Pass the certs to the server and let it know to process even unauthorized certs.
  let options = {
      key: fs.readFileSync('private-key.pem'),
      cert: fs.readFileSync('public-cert.pem'),
      rejectUnauthorized: false
  };
  
  let client = tls.connect(PORT, HOST, options, function() {
  
      // Check if the authorization worked
      if (client.authorized) {
          console.log("Connection authorized by a Certificate Authority.");
      } else {
          console.log("Connection not authorized: " + client.authorizationError)
      }
  
      // Send a friendly message
      client.write("I am the client sending you a message.");
  
  });
  
  client.on("data", function(data) {
  
      console.log('Received: %s [it is %d bytes long]',
          data.toString().replace(/(\n)/gm,""),
          data.length);
  
      // Close the connection after receiving the message
      client.end();
  
  });
  
  client.on('close', function() {
  
      console.log("Connection closed");
  
  });
  
  // When an error ocoures, show it.
  client.on('error', function(error) {
  
      console.error(error);
  
      // Close the connection after the error occurred.
      client.destroy();
  
  });
  

  edited Sep 11 at 2:32

  
• 1

  Hello World on standard output

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  1

  process.stdout.write('Hello World!');
  

  created Jul 23 at 11:37

  
• 1

  TCP server

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  1

  var net = require('net');
  
  // Creates a TCP server.
  var server = net.createServer(function (socket) {
    console.log("Connection from " + socket.remoteAddress);
    socket.end("Hello World\n");
  });
  
  server.listen(8000, "localhost");
  
  console.log("TCP server listening on port 8000 at localhost.");
  

  created Jul 22 at 8:07