Ready to code my own project

#1

Hey all, I’m partially through a few different skill paths (back-end with node and express, front end with react) and I’m ready to stack a personal project on top of the day to day lessons on Codecademy. My question is - I’m a little unclear as to what’s required to reproduce the environment of Codecademy, but locally on my machine.

Here’s what I (think I) know:

  • I’ll be creating a folder that contains at least an index.html, a front end javascript file, and a server javascript file.
  • I’ll be installing packages and libraries via terminal (is there a better way/tool to download and install packages?)
  • my server.js file will help me display my code locally in a browser and help route requests my project may need. I’ll be importing express to help with routing.
  • my front end js file will help me with the layout and visual styling of the content using the js, react, and jsx i’ve learned *with a healthy dose of googling!

Does this sound right? Is there any other files or environments or steps I need to take to start coding and seeing my project displayed locally?

Also - is there a tutorial on Codecademy on how to take your project from a local environment, and translate it to a hosting server for the world to see?

Many thanks for any help!!

#2

The browser doesn’t understand react/jsx, it needs transpiling to javascript.

i would recommend npm (node package manager), and create react app:

https://github.com/facebook/create-react-app

this contains all the tools you need for front-end

i have never used expressJS, but it seems you also need to install that:

https://expressjs.com/en/starter/installing.html

first time installation does indeed involve a lot of googling

also, many of these guides are written for Linux and macOS. So if you are on windows, that presents an additional challenge

1 Like
#3

Ok - thank you! Im on macOS so all good there.

#4

you might need homebrew for certain things, but that is all i know about macOS. Good luck! :slight_smile: