Book Image

RESTful Web API Design with Node.js - Second Edition

By : Valentin Bojinov
Book Image

RESTful Web API Design with Node.js - Second Edition

By: Valentin Bojinov

Overview of this book

In this era of cloud computing, every data provisioning solution is built in a scalable and fail-safe way. Thus, when building RESTful services, the right choice for the underlying platform is vital. Node.js, with its asynchronous, event-driven architecture, is exactly the right choice to build RESTful APIs. This book will help you enrich your development skills to create scalable, server-side, RESTful applications based on the Node.js platform. Starting with the fundamentals of REST, you will understand why RESTful web services are better data provisioning solution than other technologies. You will start setting up a development environment by installing Node.js, Express.js, and other modules. Next, you will write a simple HTTP request handler and create and test Node.js modules using automated tests and mock objects. You will then have to choose the most appropriate data storage type, having options between a key/value or document data store, and also you will implement automated tests for it. This module will evolve chapter by chapter until it turns into a full-fledged and secure Restful service.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)
RESTful Web API Design with Node.js - Second Edition
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface

Node Package Manager


Node.js eases support to third-party open source developed modules by providing the Node Package Manager (we've already mentioned it, that is, NPM). It allows you, as a developer, to easily install, manage, and even provide your own modules for a rapidly grown and well-maintained open source repository. It is available at http://www.npmjs.org/ and is accessible via its command-line interface.

If you didn't use the installer, then you will need to install NPM separately. For example, Ubuntu users can make use of their package installer as follows:

apt-get npm install

Once NPM is installed, you may want to set it permanently in your user profile's PATH environment variable by editing the ~/.profile file to export the path to NPM as follows:

export PATH=$PATH:/path/to/npm

After a successful NPM installation, use NPM's  ls option to display the already installed Node.js modules:

Installing the Express framework and other modules

Now that we have NPM installed, let's make...