Express, the world’s most used Node.js framework, allows developers to create backend web servers with JavaScript. This tutorial explains how to create and deploy a Node.js app using Express.js. To start, make sure you have Node.js, npm, and Git installed on your computer.
You can add Express to existing Node apps following our guide, but for a faster option, use the Express generator to create a new application skeleton. After running the command, install the dependencies and launch your web server.
The Express application structure includes node_modules, public, routes, views, app.js, and package.json. The routes directory defines different routes and handles requests while the views directory contains templates written in the Jade templating language.
Route handling is essential in an Express application and we have code snippets illustrating how to handle GET requests and show an index page. You can modify the response type from HTML to JSON using the res.send() function.
To expand your application’s capabilities, add a new endpoint that accepts a parameter. The application will respond with the parameter’s value in JSON.
To deploy your Express application to Kinsta, push your code and files to your chosen Git provider and follow the steps to deploy your application on Kinsta’s dashboard.
For most production-level applications, having a database is essential. Kinsta simplifies this process by providing fully managed database services that are easy to set up. This tutorial explains how to create a database on Kinsta and connect it to your application.
The tutorial then covers how to write the application code that accepts a GET request with an id parameter and returns the information in the database associated with that id. We also add the necessary database packages to the project.
Finally, the tutorial concludes by showing how to connect to the hosted database and execute SQL statements against it. These instructions allow you to integrate database functionality with your Express application.
