Nodemon for development reloading in Express - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Nodemon for development reloading

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple Express server for a small web app. To make development easier, you want the server to restart automatically whenever you change your code.

🎯 Goal: Set up a basic Express server and configure nodemon to reload the server automatically during development.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a basic Express server in index.js that listens on port 3000

Add a start script in package.json to run the server with node

Add a dev script in package.json to run the server with nodemon

Install nodemon as a development dependency

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Developers use nodemon to automatically restart their Node.js servers when they change code, saving time and avoiding manual restarts.

💼 Career

Knowing how to set up nodemon is a common skill for backend developers working with Node.js and Express to speed up development.

1

Create a basic Express server

Create a file called index.js. Inside it, write code to import express, create an app, and make it listen on port 3000. Use console.log to print 'Server running on port 3000' when it starts.

Express

# Your code here to create an Express server listening on port 3000

Need a hint?

Use import express from 'express' to import Express. Then create app by calling express(). Use app.listen(3000, ...) to start the server.

2

Add a start script in package.json

In package.json, add a start script that runs node index.js to start the server normally.

Express

{
  "name": "my-express-app",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "scripts": {
    // Add start script here
  }
}

Need a hint?

Inside the scripts object, add a line: "start": "node index.js".

3

Add a dev script to run nodemon

In package.json, add a dev script that runs nodemon index.js to start the server with automatic reload on code changes.

Express

{
  "name": "my-express-app",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node index.js",
    // Add dev script here
  }
}

Need a hint?

Inside the scripts object, add a line: "dev": "nodemon index.js".

4

Install nodemon as a development dependency

Run the command npm install --save-dev nodemon in your terminal to install nodemon as a development dependency.

Express

# Run the npm install command in your terminal
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Open your terminal and type exactly npm install --save-dev nodemon to install nodemon.