CoderDojo - Start Node - Candy v Fruit

This is an introduction to server side programming in Node.js and was created for CoderDojo members. The aim of this game is to teach the fundamentals of programming and server side prorgamming in a fun way.

Step 1 Install Node

Install Node from http://nodejs.org

Step 2 Setup the project

Create the project folder

mkdir coderdojo-start-node

Now create a folder called public, this is the folder whereyou will add the html, css and javascript code

cd coderdojo-start-node
mkdir public

Install express

npm is Node Package Manager allows you to install Node Packages, to run a web server we are going to use a node package called express will enable us to create a server easily that can accept web requests.

Now run

npm install express

Turn it into a communication, multiplayer game with socket.io

Socket.io is a technology that allows browsers to easily communicate with the server over streams.

Now run

npm install socket.io

Now lets create our Node.js file

Now in the home directory candy-v-fruit save a new file called app.js. Inside app.js add the following code

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


var server = app.listen(3000, function() {
    console.log('Listening on port %d', server.address().port);
});

This code creates your first server and first http call

Run your code

From inside directory candy-v-fruit open a command terminal and run

node app

We are running app because the file is called app.js

You should see the following output from this command

$ node app
Listening on port 3000

This is tell you that a server has started on your machine at port 3000

You can stop the server at any time by running CTRL+C

Open your browser

Navigate to

http://localhost:3000

Now see what happens

We now need update app.js to read your html code from the public folder

Update app.js with the following code

var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var path = require('path');

var server = app.listen(3000, function() {
    console.log('Listening on port %d', server.address().port);
});

var io = require('socket.io')(server);


app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));

app.get('/coderdojo', function(req, res){
  res.send('Be cool');
});

io.on('connection', function (socket) {
  console.log('emitting');
  socket.on('chat', function (data) {
  	console.log('emitting 2');
    console.log(data);
    socket.broadcast.emit('chat',  data);
  });
});

Now open your browser and navigate to

http://localhost:3000