Serving HTML files using Node.js on Ubuntu

In this article, We'll going to host a Node.js Application on Ubuntu.

Node.js is an open source, javascript runtime environment used to create of backend of any application.

To get started

Install Node.js
```
sudo apt-get install nodejs
```
Install NPM (NPM is a package manager for Node.js packages)
```
sudo apt-get install npm
```

Create new project directory

mkdir node_application && cd node_application

Initialize NPM in your project directory
```
npm init
```
It will ask some details related to your application.
Install Express.js It is a standard server framework for node to create single-page, multi-page & hybrid applications
```
npm install express --save
```

Create "app.js" file inside in your project directory and add some code in it

var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var path = require('path');
app.get('/', function(req, res) {
 res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname + '/views/index.html'));
});
app.listen(80);

Create a new folder inside your root project directory.
```
mkdir views && cd views
```

Create a new file "index.html" inside "views" folder and add some code in it.

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
   <!-- Required meta tags -->
   <meta charset="utf-8">
   <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
   <!-- Bootstrap CSS -->
   <link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.0.0-beta1/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" integrity="sha384-giJF6kkoqNQ00vy+HMDP7azOuL0xtbfIcaT9wjKHr8RbDVddVHyTfAAsrekwKmP1" crossorigin="anonymous">
   <title>Hello, world!</title>
</head>
<body>
   <nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light bg-light">
      <div class="container-fluid">
         <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
         <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarSupportedContent" aria-controls="navbarSupportedContent" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
         <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
         </button>
         <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarSupportedContent">
            <ul class="navbar-nav me-auto mb-2 mb-lg-0">
               <li class="nav-item">
                  <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Home</a>
               </li>
               <li class="nav-item">
                  <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
               </li>
               <li class="nav-item dropdown">
                  <a class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" href="#" id="navbarDropdown" role="button" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-expanded="false">
                  Dropdown
                  </a>
                  <ul class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="navbarDropdown">
                     <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Action</a></li>
                     <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Another action</a></li>
                     <li>
                        <hr class="dropdown-divider">
                     </li>
                     <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Something else here</a></li>
                  </ul>
               </li>
               <li class="nav-item">
                  <a class="nav-link disabled" href="#" tabindex="-1" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
               </li>
            </ul>
            <form class="d-flex">
               <input class="form-control me-2" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search">
               <button class="btn btn-outline-success" type="submit">Search</button>
            </form>
         </div>
      </div>
   </nav>
   <h1>Hello, world!</h1>
   <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.0.0-beta1/dist/js/bootstrap.bundle.min.js" integrity="sha384-ygbV9kiqUc6oa4msXn9868pTtWMgiQaeYH7/t7LECLbyPA2x65Kgf80OJFdroafW" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
</body>
</html>

Now run this command in your root project directory

//if you are inside views folder
cd ..
//else simply run
node app.js

We can see our website in our browser :)

Our project directory will look like this

app.js
node_modules
package.json
package-lock.json
views -> index.html

Concusion

Express is a minimal and flexible Node.js web application framework that provides a robust set of features to develop web and mobile applications. It facilitates the rapid development of Node based Web applications.

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