Building a REST API with ES6 and Express.js

13 Sep 2023

In today’s digital landscape, building a robust and efficient REST API is crucial for any modern application. In this tutorial, we will explore how to build a REST API using ES6 syntax in combination with the popular Node.js framework, Express.js.

Prerequisites

To follow along with this tutorial, you will need:

Node.js installed on your machine
A basic understanding of JavaScript

Setting up the Project

Create a new directory for your project.
```
$ mkdir my-rest-api
```
Navigate to the project directory.
```
$ cd my-rest-api
```
Initialize a new Node.js project.
```
$ npm init -y
```
Install the required dependencies.
```
$ npm install express
```

Creating the Server

Create a new file named server.js in the project directory.
Add the following code to server.js: ```javascript const express = require(‘express’); const app = express(); const port = 3000;

app.listen(port, () => { console.log(Server is running on port ${port}); });

## Creating the API Endpoints

1. Create a new directory named `routes` in the project directory.

2. Inside the `routes` directory, create a new file named `api.js`.

3. Add the following code to `api.js`:
```javascript
const express = require('express');
const router = express.Router();

router.get('/users', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ message: 'Get all users' });
});

router.get('/users/:id', (req, res) => {
  const { id } = req.params;
  res.json({ message: `Get user with ID ${id}` });
});

router.post('/users', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ message: 'Create a new user' });
});

module.exports = router;

In server.js, add the following code to import and use the api router:

const apiRouter = require('./routes/api');
app.use('/api', apiRouter);

Testing the API Endpoints

Start the server by running the following command in your project directory:
```
$ node server.js
```
Open your web browser and navigate to http://localhost:3000/api/users. You should see the JSON response: {"message":"Get all users"}.
Try other API endpoints such as http://localhost:3000/api/users/1 and http://localhost:3000/api/users (using POST method).

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned how to build a basic REST API using ES6 syntax and Express.js. Express.js provides a simple and intuitive way to handle HTTP requests and build scalable APIs. By following this guide, you should now have a solid foundation to expand and customize your own REST API.

#programming #webdevelopment #nodejs #expressjs #restapi