How to set up a Node.js project with a clean folder structure (TypeScript)

A step-by-step guide to creating a Node API server

(image from datasoft)

In this step-by-step tutorial, we will learn how to initialize a node project. Node is not a programming language but a run-time environment that enables JavaScript to run on server-side. However, JavaScript is a weakly typed language, and often in large code-base it is difficult to read, understand codes/logics and find bugs.

TypeScript is a super-set of JavaScript which is a strongly typed language. A TypeScript project is written and later transpiles into JavaScript which then can be run by node run-time environment.

Prerequisites

• A basic knowledge of JavaScript/TypeScript
• Postman or similar tool to test API
• A basic understanding of MongoDB or any other database
• VS Code or any code editor of your choice
• Node.js installed on your operating system (Install Node.js)

Step 1: Create a folder and initialize with npm

Open up your terminal, create a folder and move into that:

mkdir node-tutorial
cd node-tutorial