Installing Node.js and Other Packages

Keeping up with technology can be a job in itself.  Learning is fun, but is quickly forgotten so writing things down can always save you time later.  This thread goes over various was of installing Node.js and other packages.

Installing Node.js

There are 2 ways in which you can install Node.js.  Node.js comes with node package manager now so it will not need to be installed independently.

Installer (recommended): Go to node.js.org and use the installer for your OS.  Run the installer.

Homebrew (Mac only): Run the command “brew install node”.  You will have to have homebrew installed.

 

Other Node packages t

Installation will use node package manager.  You can list the node modules for your node application by listing the directory of “node_modules”.

Express – web application framework for node

npm install -g express --save

NOTE: once you create a application with express (i.e. express AppName) you will have to navigate to AppName folder and run the command “npm install” to install the components defined in node’s package.json.

Yeoman – front end tool focused on scaffolding (yo), building/testing (grunt), and dependency management (bower)

npm install -g yo --save

npm install -g generator-webapp --save

coffee-script – scripting language that builds down to javascript.

npm install coffe-script --save

node-dev – a tool for node that will monitory files and auto restart the node app when a file has changed.

npm install node-dev –save

NOTE: When using this you will want to separate development dependencies from production ones.  In the package.json, you can create a “devDependencies” like so:

{
    "name": "application-name",
    ...,
    "dependencies": {
        "express": "2.5.8",...
    },
    "devDependencies": {
        "node-dev": "~0.2.2"
    }
}

mocha – javascript test framework for node

npm install mocha –save

NOTE: put this in your dev dependencies

REQUIRES: request

request – modeule that simplifies the process of making http calls

npm install requets --save

Redis – open source advanced key-value store

npm install redis hiredis connect-redis --save

REQUIRES: Installation of Redis backend.  On a Mac use homebew “brew install redis”, Windows see redis.io.

connect-assets – transparent file compilation and dependency management for Node’s connect framework

npm install connect-assets --save

socket-io – simplifies the use of IO on all browsers.  See WebSockets for information on this topic.

npm install socket-io --save

AngularJS – front end web application framework dealing with models, views, collections, and events

npm install angular --save

Backbone – front end structured for web applications dealing with models, views, collections, and events

npm install backbone --save

RELATED: Marionettejs (npm install backbone.marionette --save)