Open a new folder in VSCode (a new project with no content)
(All commands below are written at the terminal bash prompt in VSCode)
Create a package.json folder with basic contents
$npm init
View what version has been installed if you want to
$ npm –version
Install express server
$ npm install express
Create a small index.js file as follows
const express = require("express");
const app = express();
app.listen(3000, () => console.log("Listening on port 3000"));
Start express server
$ node index.js
When the above is typed you’ll see ‘Listening on port 3000’ in the console.
To install ‘prettier’ code formatter
$ npx prettier –write index.js
(if prettier is not installed this will now automatically install prettier)
Now add the following line to your package.json file
“editor.defaultFormatter”: “esbenp.prettier-vscode”
Now when you save a js file it will be automatically formatted
To ensure prettier does not format specific files or a content of for example the node_modules folder, create a file
.prettierignore
In that file type:
node_modules
This will now prevent any formatting within the node_modules folder
We could get prettier to ignore all js files by typing
*.js
In the .prettierignore file
If we’re working on a team, we want everyone to be using the same version of prettier, so to do this we need to add it as a dependency to the package.json file as below
{
"name": "jamesdatabase",
"version": "1.0.0",
"description": "Management of monthly budget",
"main": "index.js",
"scripts": {
"test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
},
"author": "",
"license": "ISC",
"dependencies": {
"express": "5.1.0",
"prettier": "11.0.0"
},
"editor.defaultFormatter": "esbenp.prettier-vscode"
}