res.send for general responses in Express - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Using res.send for General Responses in Express

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple web server using Express. You want to send different types of responses to the client using res.send.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to use res.send to send text, HTML, and JSON responses in an Express server.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an Express app

Set up a route that sends a plain text response using res.send

Set up a route that sends an HTML response using res.send

Set up a route that sends a JSON response using res.send

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Web servers often need to send different types of responses like text, HTML pages, or JSON data to clients. Knowing how to use <code>res.send</code> helps you build flexible APIs and web apps.

💼 Career

Express is a popular web framework for Node.js used in many jobs. Understanding how to send responses correctly is a fundamental skill for backend developers.

1

Create an Express app and a text response route

Create an Express app by requiring express and calling express(). Then create a route for GET /text that sends the plain text response 'Hello, this is a text response!' using res.send.

Express

const express = require('express');
const app = express();

// Create GET /text route that sends plain text
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use app.get to create the route and res.send to send the text.

2

Add a route that sends an HTML response

Add a new route for GET /html that sends a simple HTML string '

Welcome to the HTML page

' using res.send.

Express

const express = require('express');
const app = express();

app.get('/text', (req, res) => {
  res.send('Hello, this is a text response!');
});

// Create GET /html route that sends HTML
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use app.get with the path /html and send the HTML string with res.send.

3

Add a route that sends a JSON response

Add a new route for GET /json that sends a JSON object { message: 'This is a JSON response' } using res.send.

Express

const express = require('express');
const app = express();

app.get('/text', (req, res) => {
  res.send('Hello, this is a text response!');
});

app.get('/html', (req, res) => {
  res.send('Welcome to the HTML page');
});

// Create GET /json route that sends JSON
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use app.get with the path /json and send the JSON object with res.send.

4

Start the Express server

Add code to start the Express server listening on port 3000 using app.listen. Log the message 'Server is running on port 3000' when the server starts.

Express

const express = require('express');
const app = express();

app.get('/text', (req, res) => {
  res.send('Hello, this is a text response!');
});

app.get('/html', (req, res) => {
  res.send('Welcome to the HTML page');
});

app.get('/json', (req, res) => {
  res.send({ message: 'This is a JSON response' });
});

// Start the server on port 3000
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use app.listen with port 3000 and a callback that logs the message.