Book Image

Express Web Application Development

By : Hage Yaaapa
Book Image

Express Web Application Development

By: Hage Yaaapa

Overview of this book

Express is a minimal and flexible node.js web application framework, providing a robust set of features for building single and multi-page, and hybrid web applications. It provides a thin layer of features fundamental to any web application, without obscuring features that developers know and love in node.js. "Express Web Application Development" is a comprehensive guide for those looking to learn how to use the Express web framework for web application development. Starting with the initial setup of the Express web framework, "Express Web Application Development" helps you to understand the fundamentals of the framework. By the end of "Express Web Application Development", you will have acquired enough knowledge and skills to create production-ready Express apps. All of this is made possible by the incremental introduction of more advanced topics, starting from the very essentials. On the way to mastering Express for application development, we teach you the more advanced topics such as routes, views, middleware, forms, sessions, cookies and various other aspects of configuring an Express application. Jade; the recommended HTML template engine, and Stylus; the CSS pre-processor for Express, are covered in detail. Last, but definitely not least, Express Web Application Development also covers practices and setups that are required to make Express apps production-ready.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
Express Web Application Development
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

What are Routes?


Routes are URL schema, which describe the interfaces for making requests to your web app. Combining an HTTP request method (a.k.a. HTTP verb) and a path pattern, you define URLs in your app.

Each route has an associated route handler, which does the job of performing any action in the app and sending the HTTP response.

Routes are defined using an HTTP verb and a path pattern. Any request to the server that matches a route definition is routed to the associated route handler.

Route handlers are middleware functions, which can send the HTTP response or pass on the request to the next middleware in line. They may be defined in the app file or loaded via a Node module.

A quick introduction to HTTP verbs

The HTTP protocol recommends various methods of making requests to a Web server. These methods are known as HTTP verbs. You may already be familiar with the GET and the POST methods; there are more of them, about which you will learn in a short while.

Express, by default, supports...