- Web Application Routing: Express.js simplifies the process of defining routes for handling different HTTP requests (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.). You can define routes for various URLs and HTTP methods, making it easy to organize and structure your application logic.
- Middleware: Express.js middleware functions are functions that have access to the request and response objects, and they can modify these objects or perform tasks before passing control to the next middleware function in the stack. Middleware can be used for tasks such as logging, authentication, error handling, and more. Express.js provides a rich ecosystem of middleware that can be easily integrated into your application.
- Template Engines: Express.js supports various template engines (such as EJS, Pug, Handlebars, etc.) that allow you to dynamically generate HTML pages on the server-side. This is useful for building dynamic web applications where the content of the web pages varies based on user input or other factors.
- Static File Serving: Express.js makes it easy to serve static files (such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, etc.) using its built-in middleware. This is useful for serving client-side assets like CSS and JavaScript files, as well as static HTML files for the front-end of your application.
- RESTful APIs: Express.js is well-suited for building RESTful APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that follow the principles of Representational State Transfer (REST). With Express.js, you can define routes and middleware to handle API requests and responses, making it easy to build scalable and maintainable API services.
- Integration with Node.js Ecosystem: Express.js seamlessly integrates with other modules and packages from the Node.js ecosystem, allowing you to leverage existing libraries for tasks such as database access, authentication, session management, and more.
To use Express.js in a Node.js project, you typically start by installing it via npm or yarn:
npm install express or yarn add express