3. Express application generator

Express application generator

Use the application generator tool, express-generator, to quickly create an application skeleton.

The express-generator package installs the express command-line tool. Use the following command to do so:

$ 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
        --version       output the version number
    -e, --ejs           add ejs engine support
        --hbs           add handlebars engine support
        --pug           add pug engine support
    -H, --hogan         add hogan.js engine support
    -v, --view <engine> add view <engine> support (ejs|hbs|hjs|jade|pug|twig|vash) (defaults to jade)
    -c, --css <engine>  add stylesheet <engine> support (less|stylus|compass|sass) (defaults to plain css)
        --git           add .gitignore
    -f, --force         force on non-empty directory

For example, the following creates an Express app named myapp. The app will be created in a folder named myapp in the current working directory and the view engine will be set to Pug:

$ express --view=pug myapp

   create : myapp
   create : myapp/package.json
   create : myapp/app.js
   create : myapp/public
   create : myapp/public/javascripts
   create : myapp/public/images
   create : myapp/routes
   create : myapp/routes/index.js
   create : myapp/routes/users.js
   create : myapp/public/stylesheets
   create : myapp/public/stylesheets/style.css
   create : myapp/views
   create : myapp/views/index.pug
   create : myapp/views/layout.pug
   create : myapp/views/error.pug
   create : myapp/bin
   create : myapp/bin/www

Then install dependencies:

$ cd myapp
$ npm install

On MacOS or Linux, run the app with this command:

$ DEBUG=myapp:* npm start

On Windows, use this command:

> set DEBUG=myapp:* & npm start

Then load http://localhost:3000/ in your browser to access the app.

The generated app has the following directory structure:

.
├── app.js
├── bin
│   └── www
├── package.json
├── public
│   ├── images
│   ├── javascripts
│   └── stylesheets
│       └── style.css
├── routes
│   ├── index.js
│   └── users.js
└── views
    ├── error.pug
    ├── index.pug
    └── layout.pug

7 directories, 9 files