Basic Info Site

Introduction

This project is built with Node.js and TypeScript, using Node's core modules without any framework. It serves as a basic informational site that listens to incoming requests and serves web pages according to the requested URL. This project demonstrates the use of Node.js for server-side development and TypeScript for a statically typed and structured codebase.

Learning Objectives

Throughout the development of this project, I have achieved the following learning objectives:

• Setting up a web server: I have learned how to create a web server that listens to incoming requests and serves appropriate web pages based on the requested URL.

• Handling stylesheets: I have implemented the logic to add stylesheets for requested pages by looking for requests sent by the rendered HTML files with CSS file extensions, thereby demonstrating how to manage client-side styling.

• Using TypeScript with Node.js: I have learned how to use TypeScript on the server-side with Node.js, including installing Node types and configuring TypeScript to compile all TypeScript files into JavaScript.

Installation Instructions

To set up this project on your local machine, follow the steps below:

1. Clone the project: You can either download the project as a zip file and extract it, or use the terminal to clone the project using the following command:

git clone https://github.com/IAmYoungbossy/basic-informational-site.git

2. Install dependencies: Navigate to the project directory in your text editor or terminal and install all the dependencies used in this project by running the following command:

npm install

3. Build TypeScript files: After successfully installing all the dependencies, run the following command to compile all the TypeScript files into JavaScript files in the /dist folder, which will be used in the production environment:

npm run build

4. Set up development environment: To set up a development environment, run the following command to enable watch mode using the nodemon module, which will automatically restart the web server whenever there's a change in the code:

npm run dev

5. Run in production environment: To run the project in a production environment, use the following command:

npm run start

Conclusion

By completing this project, I have gained practical experience in building a full-stack web application using Node.js and TypeScript, adhering to best practices for setting up a web server, handling client-side stylesheets, and using TypeScript on the server-side. This project serves as a solid foundation for further learning and development in Node.js and web application development.