node-girls/node-workshop

Build a CMS in Node with no frameworks.

presents...

Node.js CMS workshop

What?

Build your own Node.js project

Today you'll be building your very own platform to write blog posts. You will be able to write blog posts and save them.

This is often referred to as a content management system (CMS).

This is a very basic tutorial to get you started with Node.js. At the end of the tutorial, there are optional stretch goals to introduce more advanced concepts.

Why?

We believe in learning by doing!

How?

Structure of the workshop

You will be working on this project with your team. Your mentor will be with you to help you out and answer any questions.

First, fork this repository and clone onto your own machine

The project has been split into steps, which are documented in separate files here on the master branch.

Each step builds progressively on top of the previous step. Just follow the instructions and commit the changes as prompted at the end of each step. Have fun!

Keywords and jargon

You will see code snippets throughout the walkthrough. Try to resist the urge to copy and paste - you will learn much more if you get into the habit of typing things out.

You might want to test out small bits of code and run them before adding it to your project. For this, you can use repl.it if you like.

Throughout each step, we have bolded any jargon that you may or may not be familiar with. At the bottom, you'll find a keywords section, some of them with links to further explanations.

There is also a link to the general Node Girls cheatsheet under Useful links at the end of this README.

Your mentor is there to help you. Don't let them die of boredom - talk to them and ask questions!

Pair programming!

We think learning together is really important. We'd like you to do this workshop in pairs. It's a really effective way to code that is held in high regard by many in the programming world.

One of you can fork this repository and you can take it in turns to 'drive' (i.e. type).

Don't worry, you can both get a copy of your work if the other person forks their partner's version too 😄

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Walkthrough

• Step 1 - set up your project
• Step 2 - building the server
• Step 3 - communicate with the server
• Step 4 - requests/responses
• Step 5 - serving your assets
• Step 6 - sending your blog post to your server
• Step 7 - reorganising your project
• Step 8 - get ready for the CMS project
• Step 9 - build the CMS
• Step 10 - save your blog posts
• stretch - stretch goals

Have fun learning

Useful links

• What is Node?
• Cheatsheet

node-workshop's Issues

Modify Node Girls Workshop & Fix Typos from step #6 to #10

As discussed here I proposed the following changes :

• Fix typos.
• adding links to keyword section
• adding more illustration for some points to be more clear.

Is it ok for me to make a pull request to fix these points?

Error handling

Should we add some links to good tutorials about error handling in Node.js?

Main readme enhancement

Proposition of reformat:

• add node-girls logo
• reformat into what, why and how
• add explanation that this tutorial is very basic for the sake of simplicity
• add bits about stretch goals readme (best practise structure)
• add references to where find more useful tutorials (linked our node-girls tutorials)
• add reference to cheatsheet
• add maybe steps how to install node?

Stretch readme

Proposition:

• Add examples how to modularise project structure
• Add links to our previous workshop from November
• Reformat
• Add references where to go next
• Add best practise example: 'use strict' etc

Create branches

Create branches with relevant code/files

Missing link tag

Step 5 claims that there is a link tag in index.html but there isn't one. Happy to make a pr for this

Add links to keywords

Add links to keywords on each steps.

Do we need to break step 10 into 2 steps?

Do you think we need to break step 10 into 2 steps : saving data in step10, retrieving data step11 and a bit of explanation on frontend side?

No image is provided at step 5

(but it is referenced in the index.html)

Step10 readme

• explain in more detail about what steps they need to take , what they need to be aware, hints

Change name of the handler function to router

From points raised from Founders and Coders students whilst doing this workshop (documented in foundersandcoders/master-reference#781) we would like to change the name of the handler/handler.js function/file to router/router.js.

The reasoning would be that this function is what handles the routing of the request (via the if(endpoint === "/") etc block). The logic for actually handling each request (serving resources etc) can be abstracted into separate functions, but the function directly passed to http.createServer always has to deal with routing.

The work needed for this would be to change all references to the handler function or the handler.js file to router or router.js respectively.

Link to workshop-cms-complete

Do we need to add link to workshop-cms-complete at the bottom of the readme?

Optimise for using course remotely

Hey, I've been trying to follow this workshop but am visiting family and don't have the luxury of a mentor/study-buddy. I think that this workshop could be much improved for independent learning by including what the server.js file contains at the end of the 5th and 6th Stages.

I've got to Stage 5/6 but I can't make sense of what's going on as I don't think my code matches what the workshop is doing at the moment.

CSS file seems to disappear when moving from step 5 to 6

Not sure why that is but many of us lost it at that stage when merging. Might be better to include it also in subsequent steps and not just step 5? I'm not sure how Git deals with merging when files are deleted.

Link specifically to req/res in unclear node http module documentation

In week 7, we found that it is difficult for people to find the authoritative documentation on request objects, as they are described in the node docs as message or IncomingMessage (which is a type which could be either ClientRequest or ServerResponse )
Proposal:
In 'What is a handler function?' in Step 3, include:

(request and response are instances of the two different types of IncomingMessage object)

Make clearer we need to listen for /create-post

At l.29 it could be useful to remind the reader that they'll need to create a way to listen out for the specific url of the form (i.e. a new else if statement).