node.js beginner tutorials? [closed]

Question

I'm working on creating my first real node.js http server, and I'm sort of drowning in it. As a good teacher of mine always said, "I'll just shove you in the water for now, and then I'll show you how to swim." Fortunately, she wasn't a swimming instructor, but it's a good analogy nonetheless. I feel like I've jumped into node.js and I've only found a ping pong ball to help, that is to say, most of the tutorials I've read stop shortly after the "Hello World" example and I've mostly been trying to make sense of copied and pasted code (or they assume I have knowledge of lower level HTTP and webserver concepts that have been done for me as an Apache/PHP developer). I have experience in both client-side Javascript and PHP, but node seems to be a beast all of its own. I don't quite have the low-level knowledge that seems necessary for creating a node server, and connect, which seems to be a nice module for simplifying things, seems quite sparsely explained, even in the docs on its Git. Where could I find some tutorials to help me in this situation?

TL;DR - Are there any tutorials for node.js that go beyond "Hello World" but don't require much low-level knowledge? Or any tutorials that explain lower-level HTTP and webserver concepts that I would need to effectively create a node HTTP server?

Answer 1

Over at DailyJS they've got a long-running Node tutorial called Let's Make a Web App. There are 8 parts so far:

• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Installation and Skeleton App, source code commit: 4ea936b
• Part 3: RESTful Methods and Testing, source code commit: 39e66cb
• Part 4: Templates, Partials, Creating and Editing Documents, source code commit: f66fdb
• Part 5: Authentication, Sessions, Access Control Middleware, source code commit: 03fe9b
• Part 6: Interface Basics, source code commit: f2261c
• Part 7: Node Library Versions, Jade Tricks, Error Pages, source code commit: 929f5
• Part 8: Flash Messages, Helpers, Feedback Display, source code commit: df0b954

It's a great blog for keeping up with Node news and tips as well as other general javascript topics.

Answer 2

I know I'm a bit late to the party, but I still wanted to point you at my current work, The Node Beginner Book. It's exactly targeting at people like you:

http://www.nodebeginner.org/

Answer 3

See these tutorial sites:

• http://howtonode.org/
• http://nodetuts.com/

Answer 4

Take a minute and have a look at these videos from recent Node.js Camp.

• Opening Remarks: Tom Hughes-Croucher
• Introduction to Node: Ryan Dahl
• Getting Started with npm: Isaac Schlueter
• Routing Workshop: Guillermo Rauch
• Game Client Workshop: Tim Caswell
• Introduction to Redis: Matt Ranney

Answer 5

Have a look at Express: http://expressjs.com/

Answer 6

If you're still looking for some tutorials that build up from the core Node.js library, I've been writing a series of posts on that:

1. Extending the Node example - GitHub commit monitor
2. Leveraging Connect
3. Enter the Express lane

There are more articles in the series than that, but RandomEtc is right that there isn't a great deal to cover when you're looking at the HTTP-related features specifically.