Use the application generator tool, express-generator, to quickly create an application skeleton. Install express-generator with the following command: $ npm install express-generator -g Display the command options with the -h option: $ express -h Usage: express [options] [dir] Options: -h, --help output usage information -V, --version output the version number -e, --ejs add ejs engine support (defaults to jade) --hbs add handlebars

app.locals The app.locals object has properties that are local variables within the application. app.locals.title // => 'My App' app.locals.email // => 'me@myapp.com' Once set, the value of app.locals properties persist throughout the life of the application, in contrast with res.locals properties that are valid only for the lifetime of the request. You can access local variables in templates rendered within the application. This is useful for providing helper functions to templates, as

req.cookies When using cookie-parser middleware, this property is an object that contains cookies sent by the request. If the request contains no cookies, it defaults to {}. // Cookie: name=tj req.cookies.name // => "tj" For more information, issues, or concerns, see cookie-parser.

app.mountpath The app.mountpath property contains one or more path patterns on which a sub-app was mounted. A sub-app is an instance of express that may be used for handling the request to a route. var express = require('express'); var app = express(); // the main app var admin = express(); // the sub app admin.get('/', function (req, res) { console.log(admin.mountpath); // /admin res.send('Admin Homepage'); }); app.use('/admin', admin); // mount the sub app It is similar to the baseU

req.accepts(types) Checks if the specified content types are acceptable, based on the request’s Accept HTTP header field. The method returns the best match, or if none of the specified content types is acceptable, returns false (in which case, the application should respond with 406 "Not Acceptable"). The type value may be a single MIME type string (such as “application/json”), an extension name such as “json”, a comma-delimited list, or an array. For a list or array, the method returns the bes

Overview The term “production” refers to the stage in the software lifecycle when an application or API is generally available to its end-users or consumers. In contrast, in the “development” stage, you’re still actively writing and testing code, and the application is not open to external access. The corresponding system environments are known as production and development environments, respectively. Development and production environments are usually set up differently and have vastly differe

req.app This property holds a reference to the instance of the Express application that is using the middleware. If you follow the pattern in which you create a module that just exports a middleware function and require() it in your main file, then the middleware can access the Express instance via req.app For example: //index.js app.get('/viewdirectory', require('./mymiddleware.js')) //mymiddleware.js module.exports = function (req, res) { res.send('The views directory is ' + req.app.get('v

Events

app.route(path) Returns an instance of a single route, which you can then use to handle HTTP verbs with optional middleware. Use app.route() to avoid duplicate route names (and thus typo errors). var app = express(); app.route('/events') .all(function(req, res, next) { // runs for all HTTP verbs first // think of it as route specific middleware! }) .get(function(req, res, next) { res.json(...); }) .post(function(req, res, next) { // maybe add a new event... });

router.use([path], [function, ...] function) Uses the specified middleware function or functions, with optional mount path path, that defaults to “/”. This method is similar to app.use(). A simple example and use case is described below. See app.use() for more information. Middleware is like a plumbing pipe: requests start at the first middleware function defined and work their way “down” the middleware stack processing for each path they match. var express = require('express'); var app = expre