Course Content

Backend Development with Node.js and Express.js

1. Introduction to Node.js and Backend Development

The Role of the Backend in Web Development What is Node.js?Key Advantages of Using Node.js Installing Node.js Creating Your First Node.js App Challenge: Build Your First Node App Key Takeaways

2. Building Console Applications with Node.js

Introduction to Console Applications in Node.js What are Console Applications?Working with the File System in Node.js Challenge: File System Operations Building Command Line Interface (CLI) Apps Using the Commander Module for CLI Apps Working with the Readline Module Building a Guessing Game Console App Managing Directories in Node.js Directory Inspection Tool Summary of Console Applications in Node.js

3. Developing Web Applications with Express.js

Introduction to Express.js in Web Development Why Use Express.js for Web Development?Understanding HTTP Requests Setting Up an Express.js Application Creating and Managing Routes in Express.js Testing APIs with Postman Introduction to Middleware in Express.js Using Built-in Middleware in Express.js Creating Custom Middleware Summary of Key Express.js Concepts

4. Building REST APIs with Node.js and Express.js

Introduction to REST API Development Core Concepts of REST APIs Setting Up the Project Structure Defining the Entry Point of the API Building the GET All Posts Endpoint Building the GET Post by Id Endpoint Building the CREATE Post Endpoint Building the UPDATE Post by Id Endpoint Building the DELETE Post by Id Endpoint Running and Testing the REST API Final Thoughts and Next Steps

Building the DELETE Post by Id Endpoint

We'll dive into the implementation of the "DELETE POST BY ID" route within the postsRoutes.js file. This route allows clients to delete a specific post by providing its unique ID.

Route Definition

The code below defines the "DELETE POST BY ID" route using router.delete():

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This route handles HTTP DELETE requests with a parameterized :id in the route path. The :id parameter is used to identify the post to be deleted. We don't need extra middleware like dataValidation as we get all the necessary information from the URL parameter.

Extracting the Post ID

We extract the post ID from the request parameters using req.params.id:

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This line captures the :id value from the URL, allowing us to work with it in the subsequent code.

Delete the Post

Here's how we delete the post:

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We begin by reading the existing data from the JSON file using the asynchronous readData function, as explained earlier.
We find the index of the post to delete in the data array by comparing post IDs.
If the post is not found (i.e., postIndex === -1), we return a 404 (Not Found) response with an error message.
Using the splice method, we remove the post data from the data array. The postIndex variable determines the position of the post to delete.
The updated data array, with the post removed, is then written back to the JSON file to save the changes made during the deletion.

Sending a Response

A JSON response with a status code of 200 (OK) is sent to the client, indicating a successful deletion. The response includes a message confirming that the post was deleted successfully:

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Error Handling

We wrap the route code in a try-catch block to handle potential errors during data retrieval or request processing. Any errors that occur are logged to the console for debugging purposes:

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Complete code of the postsRoutes.js file at this step

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Section 4. Chapter 9

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