Question

I have downloaded Node.js from their site in my windows xp os. I have installed it through the microsoft installer. I didn’t know how to write my first application, where to save them and how to execute them in Windows. I have got a node.js command prompt but I can’t use it.
I have searched a lot but there is only instruction for linux and mac. I didn’t find any suitable tutorial or example that I can start a node application from scratch.

If anybody can put some documentation or steps or any such tutorial where I can get help of this, it will be great for me.

Answer 1

As this blog entry by Eric, it is ridiculously easy to get a node.js server setup and responding to requests on 127.0.0.1:#port#.

Really easy. I just did it all in… Longer than write this text.

1. Download an OS-appropriate node.js¹: http://nodejs.org/

2. Now, create a .txt (plaintext) file in the same folder as your node.exe and rename that to server.js.

3. Put this Javascript in that file:

   var http = require('http');
   
   http.createServer(function (request, response) {
       console.log('request starting...');
   
       response.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/html' });
   
       var html = '<p>Hello World!</p>';
   
       response.end(html, 'utf-8');
   }).listen(8125);
   
   console.log('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8125/');
   

4. Open a cmd.exe and cd c:\path\to\the\node\executable, where node.exe resides.

5. From there, run:

   node server.js
   

   You should see it say:

   Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8125
   

6. Open a browser and put http://127.0.0.1:8125/ in the address bar.

   You should see it say:

   Hello World!
   

That’s it. That’s pretty easy. The proverbial Hello World! in 15 seconds or less. Now how to get it to parse a Javascript file and return that output instead of simple HTML…

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_{^1. Note, I got the executable, node.exe, made a folder somewhere, put the executable in that folder. No installer. Works like a charm.}