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JavaScript Build a Simple Dynamic Site with Node.js Creating a Simple Server in Node.js Creating a Simple Server

Posted by Krystal Jackson
Krystal Jackson
8,598 Points

Help understanding the individual parts of createServer code so that I'm not only copying it.

More specifically these parts:

-What does writeHead mean, I'm assuming it's not a header.

-What is the second parameter for writeHead. ie -> {'Content-Type' : 'text/plain'} (an object right?) But what type of props/values does it takes?

-How do you discover the port number to use?

NiKole Maxwell
NiKole Maxwell
11,083 Points

I really like this question and also like the response Andren provided.

The Mozilla document on HTTP headers and the header response documentation on Node.js are both great resources for figuring this out. Andrew did actually link them in the teachers notes on the video. To do more research to help fill in the gaps here are the links that may be useful:

MDN(Mozilla Developer Network) -- HTTP Headers

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers

Node.js API -- response.writeHead

https://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_response_writehead_statuscode_statusmessage_headers

2 Answers

andren
andren
28,558 Points
andren
andren
28,558 Points

What does writeHead mean, I'm assuming it's not a header.

Actually it is a header. It is a function used to write to the HTTP header that the server will respond with when a client connects to it.

What is the second parameter for writeHead. ie -> {'Content-Type' : 'text/plain'} (an object right?) But what type of props/values does it takes?

The key is an HTTP Header field and the value is whatever you want that field to be set to. You can find a list of the HTTP Header fields here.

How do you discover the port number to use?

The port number you specify decides which port on the server the HTTP server will listen to requests from. It can be pretty much any port you want, as long as you use the same port number to actually make requests to the server.

Most HTTP servers run on port 80 when used for production though, since that is considered the standard HTTP port. And is the port browsers will connect to by default when you browse to an HTTP address.