Heads up! To view this whole video, sign in with your Courses account or enroll in your free 7-day trial. Sign In Enroll
Well done!
You have completed Express Basics!
You have completed Express Basics!
Preview
Let's talk about what Express is and how it can help you build a web application.
Courses on Treehouse for Learning Other Web Frameworks
Related Discussions
Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.
Sign upRelated Discussions
Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.
Sign up
[MUSIC]
0:00
Hello, and welcome to Express Basics.
0:04
I'm Andrew, a Treehouse teacher, lifelong
learner, and JavaScript developer, and
0:07
I'm so excited to share with you
the power and simplicity of Express.
0:12
Express is a web application framework for
0:17
Node.js that allows you to rapidly
build dynamic web applications.
0:20
Web applications have a lot of
commonalities between them.
0:25
Commonalities in software
are called patterns.
0:28
A web framework provides lots of
solutions for making web applications.
0:32
The solutions can differ
from framework to framework.
0:37
But the most common ones include,
templating for dynamic layouts and
0:39
content, mapping URL's to content.
0:44
URL mapping is often
referred to as routing.
0:47
Processing input provided by users and
serving appropriate responses.
0:50
Using a web framework allows you to
build your application quicker since you
0:56
are not focusing on the mundane details
of developing a web application.
1:00
Using a framework, allows you to
focus on the code that make sure your
1:05
application is different
from someone else's.
1:09
The difference between
your application and
1:11
someone else's is often
called business logic.
1:13
Knowing a web framework allows you
to jump into other codebases using
1:17
the same framework and
get up and running quickly.
1:22
The same goes for other developers
collaborating on your project.
1:26
If they're already familiar
with the web framework,
1:30
they can get to
the business logic quicker.
1:33
The principles you will learn here
are transferable to other languages and
1:35
frameworks.
1:40
Python based Flask, Java based Spark, and
1:41
Ruby based Sinatra all
have similar conventions.
1:44
If you understand one of these frameworks,
you'll be able to get up and
1:48
running with another quickly.
1:52
You can learn all of these on Treehouse,
check the teacher's notes for links.
1:54
In this course, we'll use Express to build
a personalized flash card application.
2:00
The app accepts the name of the user and
it greets them.
2:06
From the homepage you can launch
a flash card study session,
2:12
the app will give you flash
cards in a random order.
2:16
You can flip them front to back and
back again.
2:20
Clicking Next shows the next card.
2:25
Finally, a user can clear
their name from the site.
2:28
While building this flash card app,
you'll learn the nuts and
2:33
bolts to building any web application.
2:36
This course will cover how
to install Express, and
2:40
get a basic Hello World
application running.
2:43
You'll learn to render HTML for
our application,
2:46
we'll use the Pug template engine.
2:50
Template engines let you
inject variables into HTML,
2:52
use conditionals and
make your HTML more flexible.
2:56
The principles you'll learn in Pug
are universal across over templates and
3:00
engines.
3:05
You'll also learn about routing, one of
the co-components of the web framework.
3:06
Routing is how you specify what content is
to be returned based on the URL requested.
3:11
The Express Static Server is how
Express loads styles, scripts,
3:18
images and
other static files to the browser.
3:22
Later on in this course,
we'll get this static server set up and
3:25
when we do,
our app will look a lot better.
3:29
Middleware is the other
core component of Express.
3:33
If routing provides the pathways
through our app, middleware functions,
3:37
our work is that craft the responses
to user requests on the way through.
3:41
Finally, you'll use what you've learned
to finish building the flash card app.
3:46
By the end of this course,
3:51
you'll not only have a solid
understanding of how Express works,
3:52
you'll also have a study aid reinforcing
your JavaScript and Express knowledge.
3:56
We've got a lot of ground to cover so
let's get started.
4:02
You need to sign up for Treehouse in order to download course files.
Sign upYou need to sign up for Treehouse in order to set up Workspace
Sign up