ExpressJS - Scaffolding

Scaffolding allows us to easily create a skeleton for a web application. We manually create our public directory, add middleware, create separate route files, etc. A scaffolding tool sets up all these things for us so that we can directly get started with building our application.

We can use express-generator to create application skeleton easily −

npx install express-generator

npx is available node 8.2.0 onwards. In case of earlier version, we can use npm as follows:

npm install -g express-generator
express

Once express-generator is installed, then run the command as follows and it will create a skeleton project as shown below−

E:\Dev\express-apps>npx express-generator

  warning: the default view engine will not be jade in future releases
  warning: use `--view=jade' or `--help' for additional options


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

   install dependencies:
     > npm install

   run the app:
     > SET DEBUG=express-apps:* & npm start

Now to install dependencies, run following command.

E:\Dev\express-apps>npm install

This will install the relevant dependencies and project is ready to start development with.