Creating a server with Express

In this example, we will create a simple server with Express a fast, unopinionated, minimalist web framework for Node.js.

Getting started with Express

Let's start with adding dependency:

yarn add express

Deploy with Now

First we need to create a now.json configuration file to instruct Now how to build the project.

For this example we will be using our newest version Now 2.0.

By adding the version key to the now.json file, we can specify which Now Platform version to use.

We also need to define each builders we would like to use. Builders are modules that take a deployment's source and return an output, consisting of either static files or dynamic Lambdas.

In this case we are going to use @now/node in order to start a Node.js server using Express, also we will need to add a routes key instructing Now to forward and handle all routes on Express.

We will also define a name for our project (optional).

{
    "version": 2,
    "name": "nodejs-express",
    "builds": [
        { "src": "index.js", "use": "@now/node" }
    ],
    "routes": [
        { "src": "/(.*)", "dest": "index.js" }
    ]
}

Visit our documentation for more information on the now.json configuration file.

We are now ready to deploy the app.

now