10.13. Building a Basic REST API with NodeJS and ExpressJS: API Deployment

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Once you have created a basic REST API with NodeJS and ExpressJS, the next step is to deploy the API. Deploying an API is the process of putting it on a web server so that other people can access it over the internet. In this section, we'll cover the process of deploying a basic REST API built with NodeJS and ExpressJS.

First, it's important to understand that in order to deploy an API, you need a server. There are many hosting providers that offer servers that can be used for this purpose. Some popular examples include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Heroku. For this tutorial, we will be using Heroku as it is easy to use and offers a free tier which is sufficient for our needs.

To get started, you need to create a Heroku account. After creating your account, you can create a new app. Heroku will ask you to name your app and choose a server region. After creating the application, you will be taken to the application's dashboard page, where you can configure application settings and deploy your code.

Before deploying your code, you need to make some changes to your project. First, you need to add a file called Procfile to the root of your project. This file tells Heroku how to launch your app. For an API built with NodeJS and ExpressJS, the contents of the Procfile file should be:

web: node index.js

Replace "index.js" with the name of the file that starts your server.

Next, you need to modify your package.json file to include a start script. This script will be used by Heroku to launch your app. Add the following line to the scripts section of your package.json file:

"start": "node index.js"

Again, replace "index.js" with the name of the file that starts your server.

Once you've made these changes, you can deploy your code to Heroku. Heroku supports several deployment methods, but the simplest one is using Git. If you don't already have Git installed, you'll need to install it. You can then initialize a new Git repository in your project root with the following command:

git init

Once you have initialized the Git repository, you can add all your project files to the repository with the following command:

git add .

You can then commit your changes with the following command:

git commit -m "Initial commit"

You can now deploy your code to Heroku with the following commands:

heroku login
git push heroku master

The first command will ask you to login to your Heroku account. The second command will deploy your code to Heroku.

After deploying your code, you can access your API over the internet. Your API URL will be something like "https://your-application-name.herokuapp.com". You can test your API by making an HTTP request to this URL.

Congratulations! You've just deployed a basic REST API with NodeJS and ExpressJS. Now other people can access your API over the internet. This is an important step in creating APIs as it allows other people to use your API to create their own applications.

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