I am fairly new to the web development and I am still learning.
I am trying to build a back end for my web application. I am currently using react with redux for my front end. My question is, in order to create a back end do I need to use the react-router or do I have to use a completely different platform like Node.js. Thank you in advance!!
In order to create a backend, you will need to build a server-side application using Node, .NET Core, Java, PHP... and the list goes on. Seems like you're into JS, so Node would likely be your choice. You have a few options, such as embedding your frontend application in views served by your backend, or keeping them separate, like a frontend talking to API endpoints using the Fetch API.
React-router, on the other hand, will allow you to move through the different screens of the single-page app you've created. It won't help you to make API endpoint calls.
So, as you can see, the two things aren't related even though they sound similar. In short, use react-router to navigate around your app, and use the Fetch API (or a component like Axios that has better compatibility for older browsers) to make your API endpoint requests.
Related
I just finished my JavaScript course and I understand pretty well how things work.
I have started my React journey with a project in mind
So I want to create a mobile application using React Native and I also want that same application to be a website with domain and url since I want the website to work with with Google adsense.
I'm a little bit confused about things cause I want to use mysql database, node for back end and React for the front end, but I don't know if this is possible to just create one application that work as both mobile app and a website.
Thank for your assistance and advice in advance.
A way to use practically the same code for a web frontend and mobile app is using tools like Capacitor. It make it quite simple, and also allow you to use some mobile native API's.
Here's how to integrate it with react js Using Capacitor with React
I have a question already search on google but not find a good answer.
What is the job of nodejs & ExpressJS in mean stack development ? Like is it some thing like php to create api and angular will call it ? Or something else
You're exactly right, Node.js is used in MEAN stack to create backend code and APIs that are called from a frontend Angular app.
Angular is the way to create an SPA (Single Page Application).
Wikipedia:
A single-page application (SPA) is a web application or web site that
interacts with the user by dynamically rewriting the current page
rather than loading entire new pages from a server.
ExpressJS
What is Express.js. Express is a fast, assertive, essential and
moderate web framework of Node.js. You can assume express as a layer
built on the top of the Node.js that helps manage a server and routes.
It provides a robust set of features to develop web and mobile applications.
So on top of node-js which is your server side application where you can build your apis that your angular SPA will consume, you have Express JS which is a ready solution to help you.
This way, you will not need to solve problems like routing which have already been solved by the framework in an "optimal" or at least commonly agreed "good enough" way.
There is an excellent answer on express js in stackoverflow here
Yes, you right it is like so. NodeJs is used to create a server, then APIs and Angular call those API from the Front-End.
Detailed Description:
What is NodeJs
You can create a server using NodeJs where you will have a bunch of APIs.
These APIs can be called from an Angular app.
Official Definition: Node.js is a runtime environment that executes JavaScript code outside of a browser. Outside of a browser means Server.
What is ExpressJs
ExpressJS is a prebuilt NodeJS framework that can help you in creating server-side web applications faster and smarter.
Note: It is not necessary to use ExpressJs if you are using NodeJs.
What is Angular
Angular is a framework for building Single Page Application(SAP) web
applications.
SAP means your site does not reload the page when you move from one page to another.
Your Angular app calls NodeJs API.
Angular is a library for building Single Page Applications which (typically) run inside a web browser.
Node.js is a way of running software written in JavaScript outside of a browser. It has many uses.
Software written to run under Node.js — that is strictly relevant to the topics you are asking about — includes:
Build tools used with Angular (converting code is written in ways optimal for developers to edit and debug to ways optimal for delivering to and running in a browser).
Other helper tools for software development (such as #angular/cli which creates a skeleton set of code for an Angular project)
HTTP servers used to provide web services (a type of API) for client applications (which may be written in Angular) to access
Express.js is a library for Node.js which provides prewritten solutions for many of the tasks an HTTP server needs to perform.
You can write many kinds of software in Node.js. I have some code lurking around that loops over all the images in a directory and spits out a PDF of them. It doesn't even go near the Internet.
I'm starting out on my Node.JS journey and I discovered a fantastic boilerplate over at https://github.com/azouaoui-med/pro-sidebar-template. I'm unsure though how to turn the static html into a web app. Just wondering how someone with more experience would do this?
Do I take the html and translate it into a PUG template file? I'm guessing to then make the onclick / links actually run some code, i'd need to point them at the routes setup in the web app?
Sorry to ask such inexperienced questions, web apps seem to take a vastly different approach to the desktop apps i'm familiar with programming
I'm wanting to create a web app that runs on a server, which I will later put on the desktop via electron.
thanks
The project you have is using browser-sync which indirectly uses NodeJS to run a local server and host the web application files.
Do I take the HTML and translate it into a PUG template file?
I am not sure about this question unless you specifically want to use server-side rendering I am not sure I would recommend this to start with especially if you plan to later convert this to a desktop application.
[Note* - Assuming you are referencing this library PUGJS in statements above ]
Now For this requirement I'm wanting to create a web app that runs on a server, which I will later put on the desktop via electron.
This will require you to make your data serving layer which is most commonly called backend separate from that of the data viewing layer which is most commonly referred to as front-end. Thus a case for using the same data layer across different types of clients viz. A web application and/or A desktop application ( electron if you choose so )
Step 1 - Define what sort of web application architecture you want to follow or use. This will be based on your project and business requirements. From what information I have so far I would suggest a simple client-server architecture where your frontend or web-application is the client which makes REST API calls to the backend (API Server) and thus produces a meaningful result.
Step 2 - Start with the creation of 2 projects a frontend where your HTML, CSS JS, etc will be and a simple NodeJS script to serve this static web app when deployed on the server. I am going with NodeJS since the context of this question is suggesting the same.
Step 3 - The other project which will only be an API Server or Backend. This server will provide only REST API to the frontend. This server will talk to the database and provide other services like authentication and logging etc. You can use expressJS for this also in the frontend project.
Here is a simplistic representation of the client-server model which you can reference.
Some additional links for you to digest.
What is the difference between a web application and a client/server application?
https://medium.com/codiumclub/web-application-architecture-part-1-guide-to-become-full-stack-developer-cc9526a3519b
Can you tell me more about the relationship between the two? I want to (for example) write a little tool which plays audio files on my raspberry pi. Would I then do the player and the players interface completely in React, and then just connect to node in order to get the actual files?
Or, more generally but the same thing, if I would want to write an application that does certain things (writes files, records audio, changes system settings etc.) that would all be done in nodejs, but if I want to have an interface I would use something like React?
I am a bit confused, but I hope this question is valid!
Node and React can be used together.
There is even the MERN stack that helps with that:
MERN is a scaffolding tool which makes it easy to build universal apps using Mongo, Express, React and NodeJS. It minimises the setup time and gets you up to speed using proven technologies.
See: http://mernjs.org/
But you can use React with any other Node framework, not only with Express. React can work with any REST API so whatever you use to build a REST API can be consumed by the frontend written in React.
Some other options include: Hapi, Restify, LoopBack. For more see:
http://nodeframework.com/
from the official React Documentation React is "a JavaScript library for build user interfaces". In very watered down terms (and I mean watered down) React could be thought of as a templating library (please don't shoot me for that).
What I've learned about React is it is more like the "V"iew in MVC. It provides you a way to present the user interface using JavaScript and JSX. With the little I know about from various tutorials, I really like working with React.
Yes, this two thinks can work together, I am currently working at such project. I will point out main think here. That is where you put your routing. Does it goes to Node.js server or to React Router. This is important because it defines where you application logic should be.
ReactTS is a scaffolding engine for React on ASP.NET Core. Very powerful, and very fast - will generate your entire application with a single button click. You can also customize the templates. Check it out here... http://bssdev.biz/DevTools/React-Turbo-Scaffolding-Free-Download
I planned to design a web app that provides apis and web site, this is because the app can be used with mobile.
I'm currently using node-restify to provide the api, but now I need a way to serve dynamic pages of the app.
My initial idea was to use just ExpressJS to provide pages and APIs but I've read node-restify is much faster. Now my problem is that with restify I cannot serve html pages rendered in ejs.
Is there a way to have one app only and integrate express with restify.
Any suggestion?
It's interesting what you've written here, because according to this benchmark (16th March 2012):
http://blog.perfectapi.com/2012/benchmarking-apis-using-perfectapi-vs-express.js-vs-restify.js/
Restify is a lot slower then Express.
Express can easily handle ~1500 requests per second while Restify only ~250 per second.
But even if they already improved Restify I doubt that it can be faster then Express which is already extremely fast. Not to mention that it is entire framework with very useful other tools.
Concluding: use Express.js.
Check this out for api:
https://github.com/rahpal/RestOnNode
RESTful framework on NodeJS
This project is build using the same project archutecture which is followed by ASP.Net WebApi 2.0. That means it will be having controllers, authentication mechanism etc. to start with. All you need to do is create your own controllers.