NodeJS Web Server

- First steps in learning Node.js. Creation of a simple Node.js web server to handle HTTP requests.

TECH STACK & TOOLS

- Visual Studio Code
- HTML5
- JavaScript
- Node.js
- github.dev

GOALS

- get to know how to use GitHub together with VS Code
- introduction to node.js through a simple example
- create a web server using node.js

WHY

- a way to run JavaScript outside of the browser
- desktop apps, servers, anything that you want to do with JS

STEPS

- create a server
- require a module/library called http
    used to start the server
- tell it to start listening to a port
- enrich it or refine with other things too after the above basic steps

RUN SERVER

@ terminal > node app.js

KILL SERVER

@ terminal > ctrl + c

RESTART SERVER

- everytime you make a change > restart the server

TERMINAL

- if terminal is not shown in VS Code, goto View > Terminal

How To Use GitHub with Visual Studio Code | GitHub VSCode showtime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUhl3B6ZweQ&ab_channel=CoderDave
1) Source Control Management
source control > clone repo > clone from GitHub > login > choose repo > choose local folder
--> after doing changes
source control > stage changes (+) > write message > commit code locally (checkmark)
--> if changes are ready for github too
> ... > Push > code uploaded to github

Node.js INSTALLATION

- DOWNLOAD from nodejs.org the LTS (long term support) version
- follow INSTALLation steps
- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19202007/making-sure-usr-local-bin-is-in-my-path-on-mac
echo $PATH 
/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Users/alberteinstein/apache-maven-3.8.4/bin

SERVER RESPONDING [PLAIN TEXT]

- implement function
- return a response object
    'Hello Node'
- first RUN the SERVER
- then OPEN BROWSER & GO to localhost:3000 where server is listening
    see 'Hello Node'
- killing the server & refreshing the page gives you 'The site cannot be reached'

RENDER HTML

- render html from our web server rather than plain text
- create a HTML file, index.html, that we want to render
- generate outline of html document [boilerplate code]
    @ index.html > ! + enter

SEND HTML

- tell browser that we are going to write html
- 200 is a good status code
- tell browser to parse it as html
- import library/module fs for file handling that we need
- 404 status --> means NOT FOUND
- data: all the information inside index.html

GITHUB.DEV UTILIZATION

- from GitHub > use github.dev to make changes online to a repo
- like an online version of local VS Code Editor

CHOOSE BRANCH

- when using github.dev to the bottom left of VS Code you can choose the BRANCH
- when working alone you should use only a main BRANCH
- no need to create a development BRANCH