Let's Talk About Express
Registered members can download the FREE Get Started App. This is the project I used to compose articles about setting up VS Code and developing Node with Express and the Embedded JavaScript (EJS) view engine.
I have been working with ASP.NET for almost 20 years. I developed quite a few websites which allow users to register and log in to the website. All required Windows, SQL Server, and IIS hosting. Along came Node.js and Express. These open source and cross platform JavaScript frameworks with MySQL database server allow less expensive Linux(Ubuntu) hosting. I developed EJS With Users implementing my user management experience and modern ECMAScript standards.
When I decided to learn Express, I found a lot of articles and AI suggestions which did not implement ES6 standards. ES6 or ECMAScript 2015 changed the landscape of JavaScript with the ability to create promises for asynchronous programming. I am familiar with ASP.NET Core and C# web applications and SQL Server databases. I developed this Express application with KenHaggerty.Com as a model. Registered members can download the FREE Get Started PostgreSQL app and Get Started MySQL app which implement this getting started with Express EJS tutorial.
Let's Talk About Express
Development Environment Setup
Features Since ECMAScript 2015(ES6)
Express EJS Template Engine
Express EJS Views, Layouts, and Partials
Express Error Handling
Express Routers and Controllers
Express Environment Variables
MySQL and Services
PostgreSQL and Services
EmailSender With Nodemailer
I modeled this website from KenHaggerty.Com which serves articles about developing web applications with ASP.NET Core. The V8 JavaScript Engine compiles and executes JavaScript on servers without the need of a browser. After I developed a prototype with public access, user registration and login, and an admin role with restricted access to user management, I decided to add articles. I am still implementing more advanced features but I wanted to deploy the application to collect analytics and evaluate real world performance. So here is the first article series which describes how to get started developing Express with Embedded JavaScript (EJS) templating on Windows.
Development Environment Setup
This article describes how to set up node.js and express.js, with Visual Studio Code on Windows 11.
Features Since ECMAScript 2015(ES6)
The ES6 standard is widely supported but too much documentation does not implement key features which improve the syntax and performance for server-side applications. This article describes standards which all new Express applications should implement.
Express EJS Template Engine
A template engine enables you to use static template files in your application. Express Embedded JavaScript (EJS) is a simple templating language that lets you generate HTML markup with plain JavaScript. This article describes EJS templating set up and workflow.
Express EJS Views, Layouts, and Partials
Views in Express EJS are a lot like views in MVC and pages in Razor Pages. Layouts and partials are like _Layouts and _Partials in ASP.NET Core. This article describes the implementations.
Express Error Handling
Proper error handling prevents the application from crashing. This article describes implementing not found and error handling middleware.
Express Routers and Controllers
Routers handle the request endpoints. Controllers handle the response. This article describes how routers and controllers implement the separation of concerns principle.
Express Environment Variables
Environment variables are not just secrets. NODE_ENV is typically set to "development", "staging", "test", or "production". Using the NODE_ENV variable you can set different conditions at runtime.
MySQL and Services
This article describes MySQL installation and connection pool implementation to integrate with Express. I use services for the data layer.
EmailSender With Nodemailer
This article describes how to implement an EmailSender utility with the nodemailer library configured to use an existing SMTP server.