How to create API in NodeJS?

 

How to create API in NodeJS

Creating an API in Node.js is relatively simple, here are the general steps you can follow:

1. Install necessary modules: To create an API in Node.js, you will need to install a few modules such as express (a web framework) and body-parser (a middleware for parsing incoming request bodies). You can install these modules using npm (Node Package Manager) by running the command npm install express body-parser in your terminal.

2. Create a new file for your API: Create a new file for your API and name it something like server.js or app.js. This file will contain the code for your API.

3. Set up express: In your server.js or app.js file, require the express module and create an instance of it.

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

4. Set up body-parser: In the same file, require the body-parser module and use it as middleware for your express app.

const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
app.use(bodyParser.json());

5. Define routes: To handle different types of requests, you will need to define routes for your API. You can do this using the app.get(), app.post(), app.put(), and app.delete() methods. For example, to handle a GET request to the route '/', you can write:

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

6. Start the server: To start the server, you need to tell express to listen on a specific port. This can be done using the following code snippet:

const PORT = 3000;
app.listen(PORT, () => {
    console.log(`Server is running on port ${PORT}`);
});

7. Test your API: You can test your API using a tool like Postman by sending requests to the different routes you have defined and checking the responses.

That's it! With these steps, you have created a basic API using Node.js and express. You can now add more routes, connect to a database, and build out the functionality of your API as needed.