Kubilay Erdogan

Readline module, which comes with the Node.js core reads user input so that you can use it as an interaction.

In this example, the user will tell how many glasses of water he/she drinks each day and we’ll say if it’s healthy enough or not.

In the script.js file, require the module like:

var rl = require("readline");

Create the prompts variable:

var prompts = rl.createInterface(process.stdin, process.stdout);

Request user input with a question:

prompts.question("How many glass of water do you drink each day?", function (glasses) {
    var message = "";
    if (glasses > 5) {
        message = "Great! Water is the key of a healthy life.";
    } else {
        message = "Are you drinking just " + glasses + " glass of water? You should drink at least " + (6 - glasses) + " more.";
    }
    console.log(message);
    process.exit();
});

Output will be like:

$ node script.js
$ How many glass of water do you drink each day?
$ 5
$ Are you drinking just 5 glass of water? You should drink at least 1 more.
$ node script.js
$ How many glass of water do you drink each day?
$ 7
$ Great! Water is the key of a healthy life.

In this post, I’ll share some code about how to use modules in Node.js. I will use a custom module (user-defined) and a public module (Markdown module). The code samples are form Lynda.com’s Node.js lessons.

——

Defining a local module (A module that returns Fibonacci numbers)

1- In the root of Node.js application, navigate to node_modules folder and then create a dir for your module:

cd node_modules
mkdir data_module

2- Create module file:

nano fibonacci.js

And edit its content like this:

exports.data = [1,1,2,3,4,8,13,21];

Save and exit the editor.

3- In app root folder, create the main file:

cd ..
nano script.js

And edit like this:

// './' prefix tells that the module is local, not global
var sequence = require("./fibonacci");
console.log(sequence.data);

Note: “Local modules are useful for when you want to separate your data from your code.”

——

Markdown module simple usage

First, create a Node.js app with Markdown module dependency enabled and install these dependencies as I talked about here.

In your script.js file:

var parser = require("node-markdown");
var html = parser.Markdown("This is a **markdown** text.");
console.log(html);

Not so long ago I’ve started to study lessons about Node.js. There’s no need to praise or to talk about it or why I want to learn it, it just excites me as a new platform and I intend to keep studying unless I don’t feel like it’s not worth it -which I doubt.

Here I want to share my Node.js notes regularly, from very basic to the complex(hopefully).

———

Running Node.js scripts

Download and install from:

http://nodejs.org/

To build (run) a Node.js script:

node file.js

———

Initializing a node app and build it with dependencies

1- Initialize:

npm init

2- After initialization, package.json contains project information. You can add “dependencies” to this file like:

"dependencies": {
    "node-markdown": "0.1.0"
}

If you want to require latest version of a dependency module:

"node-markdown": "*"

3- Install these dependencies:

npm install

———

Some other useful stuff about managing the app

Update these dependencies to latest versions:

npm update

Update node.js global libraries:

npm update -g

Remove an installed library:

# remove from "dependencies" object in package.json, then:
npm prune

Search through node.js modules available for free:

npm search
# better not to use it without grep or it may take quite long time
npm search | grep markdown
# or find from http://npmjs.org

Tail changes of a file and execute it automatically on console after each change:

# -g installs as global
sudo npm install node-dev -g
node-dev script.js

———

No “Hello, world!” yet. These are just basics that we’ll probably do quite seldom.