Hello everyone, and welcome to my first blog post! Today, I want to teach you how to build your first Node.js app. But before we get started, I want to share a bit about why I started coding in the first place.

A Little Bit About Myself

I started coding because I love the idea of creating something from scratch and making it do what I want it to do. Coding gives me the power to turn my ideas into reality, and that's an incredible feeling. Over the years, I have learned a lot about different programming languages and frameworks, but one of my favorites is Node.js.

Why NodeJS?

Node.js is a powerful runtime environment that allows developers to build fast, scalable, and efficient web applications. It is built on top of the V8 JavaScript engine, and it uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model, which makes it ideal for building real-time applications.

So, without further ado, let's get started building your first Node.js app!

Step 1: Install Node.js

Before we can start building our app, we need to install Node.js on our computer. You can download the latest version of Node.js from the official website at https://nodejs.org/en/download/.

Step 2: Create a New Project

Once Node.js is installed, open up your terminal or command prompt and navigate to the directory where you want to create your new project. Then, type the following command to create a new Node.js project:

npm init

This command will create a new package.json file, which is used to manage your project's dependencies.

Step 3: Install Dependencies

Next, we need to install some dependencies for our project. For this tutorial, we will be using the express framework, which is a popular Node.js web framework. To install express, type the following command in your terminal:

npm install express

Step 4: Create a Server

Now that we have installed our dependencies, we can start building our app. Create a new file called index.js in the root directory of your project, and add the following code:

const express = require('express')
const app = express()

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  res.send('Hello World!')
})

app.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Server started on port 3000')
})

This code creates a new express app, defines a route that responds with "Hello World!" when a user visits the root URL, and starts a server listening on port 3000.

Step 5: Start the Server

To start the server, simply run the following command in your terminal:

node index.js

This will start your Node.js app, and you should see the message "Server started on port 3000" in your console.

Step 6: Test Your App

Finally, open up your web browser and go to http://localhost:3000. You should see the message "Hello World!" displayed in your browser.

Congratulations 🎊 , you have just built your first Node.js app!

In conclusion, I hope this tutorial has helped you get started building your own Node.js apps. Whether you're interested in building real-time web applications or experimenting with the latest technologies, Node.js is a powerful tool that can help you achieve your goals. So go forth and code, and never stop learning!