Third-party middleware usage in Node.js - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Using Third-Party Middleware in Node.js

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple web server using Node.js and Express. You want to add a third-party middleware to log details of every request your server receives. This helps you see what requests come in, like checking a guestbook to know who visited.

🎯 Goal: Build a Node.js Express server that uses the morgan middleware to log HTTP requests to the console.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an Express app instance

Install and import the morgan middleware

Configure morgan to log requests using the 'tiny' format

Start the server listening on port 3000

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Logging HTTP requests helps developers monitor and debug web servers by showing who accessed what and when.

💼 Career

Using third-party middleware like Morgan is a common task in backend development jobs to add features quickly and reliably.

1

Create Express app instance

Write code to import express and create an Express app instance called app.

Node.js

const express = require('express');
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use require('express') to import Express and then call express() to create the app.

2

Import Morgan middleware

Add code to import the morgan middleware using require('morgan') and save it in a variable called morgan.

Node.js

const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use const morgan = require('morgan'); to import Morgan.

3

Use Morgan middleware in app

Configure the Express app app to use morgan middleware with the 'tiny' format by calling app.use(morgan('tiny')).

Node.js

const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const morgan = require('morgan');
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use app.use() to add Morgan middleware with the 'tiny' logging format.

4

Start server on port 3000

Add code to start the Express app listening on port 3000 using app.listen(3000).

Node.js

const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const morgan = require('morgan');
app.use(morgan('tiny'));
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use app.listen(3000) to start the server on port 3000.