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Node.js for Beginners

Node.js for Beginners

By : Ulises Gascón
4.8 (5)
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Node.js for Beginners

Node.js for Beginners

4.8 (5)
By: Ulises Gascón
Buy this Book

Overview of this book

Node.js revolutionizes server-side JavaScript development and empowers developers to build efficient, scalable, and versatile applications across a range of use cases. This book is written by a Node.js core collaborator and releaser and is the only book for beginners on Node.js. It takes you on a progressive learning path that will give you the skills needed to leverage Node.js. You’ll learn Node.js fundamentals and refresh your knowledge of JavaScript before transitioning to the development of modern web applications using Node.js, Express.js, and MongoDB. You’ll get hands-on with complex topics such as asynchronous programming, npm libraries, event-driven patterns for HTTP servers, RESTful API, and JSON Web Tokens. The final chapters will walk you through the deployment process, offering insights into various strategies, including bare metal setups, virtual machines, and containerization with Docker. You’ll also be guided through the use of Process Manager 2 (PM2) for efficient process management. By the end of this Node.js book, you'll have the skills to craft, test, and deploy Node.js web applications confidently and use this powerful stack in your day-to-day projects.
Table of Contents (25 chapters)
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Preface
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Preface
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Who this book is for
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What this book covers
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To get the most out of this book
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Download the example code files
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Code in Action
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Conventions used
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Get in touch
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Share your thoughts
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Download a free PDF copy of this book
Lock Free Chapter
1
Part 1: Node.js Overview and JavaScript Language
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Part 1: Node.js Overview and JavaScript Language
2
Chapter 1: Introduction to Node.js
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Chapter 1: Introduction to Node.js
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Technical requirements
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Why is Node.js so popular?
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The Node.js single-thread architecture
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Node.js versions
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Summary
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Further reading
3
Chapter 2: Setting Up the Development Environment
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Chapter 2: Setting Up the Development Environment
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Technical requirements
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Installing Node.js on macOS, Windows, and Linux
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Managing Node.js versions
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Managing Node.js by using nvm
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Interacting with JavaScript using Chrome DevTools
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Summary
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Further reading
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Chapter 3: JavaScript Fundamentals
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Chapter 3: JavaScript Fundamentals
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Technical requirements
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JavaScript is a powerful language
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Understanding versioning – TC39
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Exploring JavaScript documentation
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Linting JavaScript code
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Commenting JavaScript code
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Printing values and debugging
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Variables and constants
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Understanding data types
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Exploring numbers
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Exploring Dates object
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Conditional statements
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Understanding loops
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Using strings in JavaScript
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Exploring arrays
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Using objects in JavaScript
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Exploring functions
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Creating and managing classes
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Summary
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Further reading
5
Chapter 4: Asynchronous Programming
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Chapter 4: Asynchronous Programming
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Technical requirements
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Asynchronous programming in JavaScript
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Understanding callbacks
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Mastering promises
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Using async and await to handle asynchronous code
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Summary
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Further reading
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Part 2: Node.js Ecosystem and Architecture
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Part 2: Node.js Ecosystem and Architecture
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Chapter 5: Node.js Core Libraries
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Chapter 5: Node.js Core Libraries
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Technical requirements
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Modularizing your code (ESM versus CJS)
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Structuring core libraries
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Summary
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Further reading
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Chapter 6: External Modules and npm
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Chapter 6: External Modules and npm
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Technical requirements
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Managing the application with package.json
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Choosing the correct dependencies for your project
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Installing dependencies
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Removing dependencies
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Understanding the package-lock.json
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Managing dependencies versions
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Building Isomorphic JavaScript
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Using npm scripts
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Executing packages directly with NPX
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npm alternatives
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Publishing your first package
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Summary
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Further reading
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Chapter 7: Event-Driven Architecture
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Chapter 7: Event-Driven Architecture
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Technical requirements
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Introducing events
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Watching for file changes
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The Node.js event emitter library
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Your first HTTP server
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Adding an event layer to your modules
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Summary
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Further reading
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Chapter 8: Testing in Node.js
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Chapter 8: Testing in Node.js
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Technical requirements
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Why is testing important?
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Testing approach and philosophy
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How should I test my code?
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Writing our first test suite
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Mastering code coverage tooling
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TDD in action
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Summary
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Further reading
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Part 3: Web Application Fundamentals
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Part 3: Web Application Fundamentals
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Chapter 9: Handling HTTP and REST APIs
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Chapter 9: Handling HTTP and REST APIs
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Technical requirements
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How the internet works under the hood
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HTTP – server and client relationship
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Mastering HTTP
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Using URLs in web applications
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REST APIs in a nutshell
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Exploring the JSON specification
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Debugging HTTP requests
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Summary
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Further reading
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Chapter 10: Building Web Applications with Express
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Chapter 10: Building Web Applications with Express
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Technical requirements
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Getting familiar with the Express library
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Understanding template engines
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Mastering requests
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Mastering responses
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Using the middleware pattern
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Using third-party middleware
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Summary
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Further reading
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Part 4: Building Solid Web Applications with Node.js
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Part 4: Building Solid Web Applications with Node.js
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Chapter 11: Building a Web Application Project from Scratch
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Chapter 11: Building a Web Application Project from Scratch
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Technical requirements
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The project Kickoff
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Building a REST API
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Testing with supertest
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Reviewing the final result of the project
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Summary
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Chapter 12: Data Persistence with MongoDB
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Chapter 12: Data Persistence with MongoDB
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Technical requirements
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What is MongoDB?
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Setting up MongoDB
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How to load secrets in Node.js
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Using an ORM – Mongoose
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Migrating a web application to MongoDB
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Testing our MongoDB integration layer
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Summary
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Further reading
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Chapter 13: User Authentication and Authorization with Passport.js
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Chapter 13: User Authentication and Authorization with Passport.js
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Technical requirements
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Understanding modern authentication and authorization
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JWT in a nutshell
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Understanding Passport.js fundamentals
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Adding authentication and authorization to our web application
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Summary
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Further reading
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Chapter 14: Error Handling in Node.js
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Chapter 14: Error Handling in Node.js
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Technical requirements
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Exploring the types of errors
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Throwing meaningful errors
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Managing errors in Express
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Gracefully shutting down the application
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Summary
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Further reading
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Chapter 15: Securing Web Applications
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Chapter 15: Securing Web Applications
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Technical requirements
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The importance of security
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Where to start with security
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Improving the security of our applications
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Becoming an ethical hacker
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Summary
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Further reading
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Part 5: Mastering Node.js Deployment and Portability
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Part 5: Mastering Node.js Deployment and Portability
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Chapter 16: Deploying Node.js Applications
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Chapter 16: Deploying Node.js Applications
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Technical requirements
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Defining the requirements
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Using a GitHub repository
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Continuous integration with GitHub Actions
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Using MongoDB Atlas
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Deploying Node.js applications with PM2
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Summary
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Further reading
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Chapter 17: Dockerizing a Node.js Application
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Chapter 17: Dockerizing a Node.js Application
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Technical requirements
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Containers and cloud-native solutions with Docker
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Running the containers
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Using Cloudflare
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Next level – Twelve-Factor App principles
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Cleaning up
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Summary
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Further reading
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Index
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Index
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Why subscribe?
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Other Books You May Enjoy
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Other Books You May Enjoy
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Packt is searching for authors like you
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Share your thoughts
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Download a free PDF copy of this book

Building a REST API

Now that we have a basic understanding of Express, let’s build a REST API for the microblogging platform. We will start with the basic CRUD operations and then we will add more features.

In Chapter 9, we learned about the principles of building RESTful APIs. We will apply them now. As the platform is called “whispering” and the users will be able to create, read, update, and delete whispers, we will have the following endpoints:

  • GET /api/v1/whisper: Get all the whispers
  • GET /api/v1/whisper/:id: Get a whisper by ID
  • POST /api/v1/whisper: Create a new whisper
  • PUT /api/v1/whisper/:id: Update a whisper by ID
  • DELETE /api/v1/whisper/:id: Delete a whisper by ID

In this case, we used the prefix /api/v1/ because we are building the first version of the API. It is a good practice to version the API in the URL because, in the future, you may want to introduce breaking changes, and it will be hard for your consumers to adapt...

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