Node JS setup

Core installation

• Node || NodeJS ==> NodeJS server runtime
• NPM ==> NodeJS libraries manager

Automatic installation

sudo apt-get install nodejs nodejs-legacy npm

Check versions

nodejs --version
npm --version

Manual installation

The package version is usually quite "late" compare to the current one. I recommand you to use the manual installation. It's also easier to manage version evolutions ; as 'apt-get upgrade' might mess up your current settings.

Download NodeJS

Go to http://nodejs.org/download/ and get the latest binary version for your system.

Extract it into a dedicated folder and create symlinks

tar xzvf node-v0.10.33-linux-x64.tar.gz
rm node-v0.10.33-linux-x64.tar.gz
mv node-v0.10.33-linux-x64/ nodeJs-v0.10.33
ln -s /home/guillaume/Dev/nodeJs-v0.10.33 /home/guillaume/Dev/nodeJs
sudo ln -s /home/guillaume/Dev/nodeJs/bin/node /usr/bin/node
sudo ln -s /home/guillaume/Dev/nodeJs/bin/npm /usr/bin/npm

Check versions

node --version
npm --version

Libraries

Bower

Official website: http://bower.io/

Bower is used to managed project's dependencies ~ like Maven on the Java world.

Installation

sudo npm install -g bower

Usage

Go to the root of your project and simply execute:

bower install

Project configuration

You need to create a bower.json at the root of your project. Set your projects settings & dependencies in that file.

You can find the list of available packages: http://bower.io/search/

Example - source code from official AngularJS tutorial:

{
  "name": "angular-phonecat",
  "description": "A starter project for AngularJS",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "homepage": "https://github.com/angular/angular-phonecat",
  "license": "MIT",
  "private": true,
  "dependencies": {
    "angular": "1.3.x",
    "angular-mocks": "1.3.x",
    "jquery": "1.10.2",
    "bootstrap": "~3.1.1",
    "angular-route": "1.3.x",
    "angular-resource": "1.3.x",
    "angular-animate": "1.3.x"
  }
}

HTTP server

Official website: https://github.com/nodeapps/http-server

http-server is a lightweight server.

Installation

npm install -g http-server

Usage

Go to the root of your project, then run:

http-server -p 8000 -c-1

Now you can go to http://localhost:8000 ; you should see your project.

Key options:

• -p Port to use (defaults to 8080)
• -a Address to use (defaults to 0.0.0.0)
• -c Set cache time (in seconds) for cache-control max-age header, e.g. -c10 for 10 seconds. To disable caching, use -c-1.

Jasmine

Jasmine is a test framework. That's the one used by the official AngularJS team && some related libraries. You should get familiar with that framework if you plan to use AngularJS.

Official website: http://jasmine.github.io/

Karma

Karma is a tool to run your tests inside some real browsers and devices (phones, tab, ...).

Installation

npm install -g karma

By default Karma register itself into:

• Your current project as a "node-modules" directory
• Common NodeJs modules into /usr/lib/node_modules/

NPM does not create a standard symlink in /usr/bin/! That's because you can use different version of Karma, depending on your projects.

You can create a link manually:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/node_modules/karma/bin/karma /usr/bin/karma

Project configuration

karma init karma.conf.js

Answer the following questions:

• Which testing framework do you want to use ? > jasmine
• Do you want to use Require.js ? > no
• Do you want to capture a browser automatically ? > Chrome > Firefox
• What is the location of your source and test files ? > test/unit/**/*.js
• Should any of the files included by the previous patterns be excluded ? >
• Do you want Karma to watch all the files and run the tests on change ? > yes

Config file generated at "[...]/karma.conf.js".

You need to adjust the configuration to set the basePath and other parameters.

vim karma.conf.js

Since your configuration is in myProjet/test/ you should set a relative path:

    basePath : '../',

Usage

Go to your project's test folder and run:

karma start karma.conf.js

Hints

Karma provides advanced feature for AngularJS. You can use the following methods:

dump(myVariable)