Book Image

RESTful Web API Design with Node.js 10 - Third Edition

By : Valentin Bojinov
Book Image

RESTful Web API Design with Node.js 10 - Third Edition

By: Valentin Bojinov

Overview of this book

When building RESTful services, it is really important to choose the right framework. Node.js, with its asynchronous, event-driven architecture, is exactly the right choice for building RESTful APIs. This third edition of RESTful Web API Design with Node.js 10 will teach you to create scalable and rich RESTful applications based on the Node.js platform. You will be introduced to the latest NPM package handler and understand how to use it to customize your RESTful development process. You will begin by understanding the key principle that makes an HTTP application a RESTful-enabled application. After writing a simple HTTP request handler, you will create and test Node.js modules using automated tests and mock objects; explore using the NoSQL database, MongoDB, to store data; and get to grips with using self-descriptive URLs. You’ll learn to set accurate HTTP status codes along with understanding how to keep your applications backward-compatible. Also, while implementing a full-fledged RESTful service, you will use Swagger to document the API and implement automation tests for a REST-enabled endpoint with Mocha. Lastly, you will explore some authentication techniques to secure your application.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Index

Chapter 2. Getting Started with Node.js

In this chapter, you will gain your first real Node.js experience. We will start by installing Node.js, along with some modules we will use throughout this book. Then, we will set up a development environment. Throughout the book, the Atom IDE will be used. Yes, GitHub's online editor has finally landed for desktop environment and is available on a platform of your preference!

Next, we will create a workspace and start developing our first Node.js application. It will be a simple server application processing incoming HTTP requests. We will go one step further, demonstrating how to modularize and unit test our JavaScript code. Finally, we will deploy our first application on the Heroku Cloud Application platform.

To sum up, in this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • Installing Node.js
  • Installing the Express framework and other modules
  • Setting up a development environment
  • Handling HTTP requests
  • Modularizing code
  • Testing Node.js
  • Deploying an application...