Part 2: Navigation​ Setup with Node + Express ​

Chris Berry JavaScript, Microservices, Node.js, Single-Page Application, solidfoundationsseries, Tutorial, Vue.js Leave a Comment

This is an in-depth learning series focused on a specific application: a JavaScript-based suite of single-page applications optimized for use in a microservice environment. We focus on telling the story of “why” and “how” it was built.

In part one, we reviewed how the base application was created by using the Express Generator command line tool. We also reviewed the folder layout, look and feel, and an overview of what each section of the application does. In this post, we’re going to dive in a little deeper to the application and explain the why and how of the navigation setup for this application….

Part 3: Using Node​ and Markdown​ + the Package Showdown

Chris Berry JavaScript, Node.js, Single-Page Application, solidfoundationsseries, Tutorial, Vue.js Leave a Comment

This is an in-depth learning series focused on a specific application: a JavaScript-based suite of single-page applications optimized for use in a microservice environment. We focus on telling the story of “why” and “how” it was built. 

In Part 2 of our Solid Foundations Learning Series, we covered quite a bit of ground surrounding the discovery of Handlebars files, creating navigation based off of those files, and the routing back to the server based on those files.

Now we’re going to dive back into the Handlebars pages and find out how we’re getting content into the pages when they’re rendered by the server.

Part 1: JavaScript Application Introduction

Chris Berry Development Technologies, JavaScript, Node.js, Single-Page Application, solidfoundationsseries, Vue.js 2 Comments

Part of the Solid Foundations Learning Series
This is the introductory post to an in-depth series of articles that will tell the story of why and how a specific web application was built. In a nutshell, it is a JavaScript-based suite of single-page applications optimized for use in a microservice environment.

In this post, we will set the stage for the series and introduce the overall design and structure of this application. In future posts of this series, there will be technical discussions about certain parts of the application and there will be theory discussions for other aspects of the application.

The web application we will be talking about started its life as a simple NodeJS and Express application….

Building a Node.js Service with AWS Lambda, DynamoDB, and Serverless Framework

Matthew Brown AWS, Cloud, JavaScript, Node.js, Tutorial 3 Comments

My favorite new technology as a developer is serverless computing. The convenience and cost make it a very compelling choice for running options in the cloud. Especially for proof of concepts or quick ways to prove out ideas. Using serverless computing to get up and running takes very little effort and the costs of running an application in the cloud are minimal. Serverless really empowers developers to act on ideas as quickly as possible.

In this post, I’m going to briefly touch on what serverless computing is and the pros and cons of using it. Then I will build a Node.js service to do CRUD operations using AWS Lambda, DynamoDB, and the Serverless Framework. You can view the finished product on Github.

Advanced Node.js Process Management with PM2

Matthew Brown Development Technologies, JavaScript, Node.js, Tutorial 3 Comments

If you’ve worked on any front end applications recently, you have likely had some contact with a Node/Express application. What you may not be familiar with is how these applications are managed in production.

I recently had a project where I needed to set up a Node application on an AWS server. I needed a tool to solve the technical challenges of managing the Node processes and deploying the application in a very efficient manner.

I chose PM2, which is a handy process management tool for running Node.js applications in production environments. PM2 provides a simple command line interface that makes it easy to get started. This powerful Node module has tools for managing application processes, logging, and more.

In this article, I provide an introduction to PM2, showing why it is such a valuable tool for managing Node.js applications. By way of a reference example application, we show the basic features and commands for using PM2 and give examples of generating configuration files for both running and deploying applications.