In this guide, we'll cover how to set up your Node.js development environment for an Express project. We'll also walk through some helpful tools that we recommend for all Node.js applications that use Twilio: ngrok and the Twilio Node.js SDK
How you install Node.js varies depending on your operating system.
Operating System | Instructions |
---|---|
OS X | The easiest way to install Node.js on OS X is to use the official installer from nodejs.org. You can also use Homebrew if you prefer. To manage and switch between versions of Node.js on your machine, we recommend using nvm. |
Windows | The easiest way to install Node.js on Windows is the official installer from nodejs.org. You can also use Chocolatey if you prefer. To manage and switch between versions of Node.js on your machine, we recommend using nvm-windows. |
Linux | The Node.js installation method varies by distribution. To manage and switch between versions of Node.js on your machine, we recommend using nvm. |
Before we can start a Node.js project, we'll need a place to write our code.
If you already have a code-writing tool of choice, you can stick with it for developing your Node.js application. If you're looking for something new, we recommend trying out a few options:
If you're new to programming, we highly recommend getting off to a good start with Visual Studio Code. Many developers here at Twilio and in the wider JavaScript ecosystem are extremely happy using it.
Before starting any new Node.js project we should run npm init
to create a new package.json
file for our project.
Create a new empty directory in your development environment and run npm init
. You'll then answer a few basic questions about your project, and npm will create a new package.json
file for you when you're done.
_36$ npm init_36This utility will walk you through creating a package.json file._36It only covers the most common items, and tries to guess sensible defaults._36_36See `npm help init` for definitive documentation on these fields_36and exactly what they do._36_36Use `npm install <pkg>` afterward to install a package and_36save it as a dependency in the package.json file._36_36Press ^C at any time to quit._36package name: (my-project)_36version: (1.0.0)_36description: A sample Twilio project_36entry point: (index.js)_36test command:_36git repository:_36keywords:_36author: Jane Doe_36license: (ISC)_36About to write to /Users/<your-username>/my-project/package.json:_36_36{_36 "name": "my-project",_36 "version": "1.0.0",_36 "description": "A sample Twilio project",_36 "main": "index.js",_36 "scripts": {_36 "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"_36 },_36 "author": "Jane Doe",_36 "license": "ISC"_36}_36_36_36Is this OK? (yes) yes
Now we're ready to install our Node.js dependencies.
You can quickly initialize your project and skip the above prompts by running npm init -y
We're almost ready to write an Express web application, but first, we need to install the Express package using npm
.
_10# Use npm to install the express and Twilio packages_10$ npm install express twilio_10# List the installed dependencies and their versions_10$ npm ls_10my-project@1.0.0 /Users/<your-username>/my-project_10├── express@4.17.1_10└── twilio@3.67.2
Node.js uses npm to manage dependencies, so the command to install Express and the Twilio SDK to our development environment is npm install express twilio
.
Installing these packages tells npm to add the Express and Twilio packages to the dependencies
object in our project's package.json
file. When we want to install these same packages again in the future - like on a production server - we can just run npm install
.
We can test that we configured our development environment correctly by creating a simple Express application. We'll grab the ten-line example from Express's documentation and drop it in a new file called index.js
.
_11const express = require('express');_11const app = express();_11const port = 3000;_11_11app.get('/', (req, res) => {_11 res.send('Hello World!');_11});_11_11app.listen(port, () => {_11 console.log(`Example app listening at http://localhost:${port}`);_11});
We can then try running our new Express application with the command node index.js
. If you open http://localhost:3000 in your browser, you should see the "Hello World!" response.
If you're using a virtual machine for your development environment, like Vagrant, you might not see your Express application at the localhost
hostname. Continue to the ngrok section for an easy way to fix this.
Once you see your sample Express application's "Hello World!" message, your development environment is ready to go. However, for most Twilio projects you'll want to install one more helpful tool: ngrok.
Most Twilio services use webhooks to communicate with your application. When Twilio receives an incoming phone call, for example, it reaches out to a URL in your application for instructions on how to handle the call.
When you're working on your Express application in your development environment, your app is only reachable by other programs on the same computer, so Twilio won't be able to talk to it.
Ngrok is our favorite tool for solving this problem. Once started, it provides a unique URL on the ngrok.io domain which will forward incoming requests to your local development environment.
To start, head over to the ngrok download page and grab the binary for your operating system: https://ngrok.com/download
Once downloaded, make sure your Express application is running, and then start ngrok using the command ./ngrok http 3000
. You should see output similar to this:
_12ngrok by @inconshreveable (Ctrl+C to quit)_12_12Session Status online_12Account <Your name> (Plan: Free)_12Version 2.3.40_12Region United States (us)_12Web Interface http://127.0.0.1:4040_12Forwarding http://6e81-2601-1c0-6100-5087-309b-c292-5e5f-1f.ngrok.io -> http://localhost:3000_12Forwarding https://6e81-2601-1c0-6100-5087-309b-c292-5e5f-1f.ngrok.io -> http://localhost:3000_12_12Connections ttl opn rt1 rt5 p50 p90_12 0 0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Your unique ngrok domain name will be visible on the "Forwarding" line. Here, ours is "https://6e81-2601-1c0-6100-5087-309b-c292-5e5f-1f.ngrok.io".
If everything is working correctly, you should be able to open that domain name in your browser and see your Express application's "Hello World!" message displayed at your new ngrok URL.
Anytime you're working on your Twilio application and need a URL for a webhook, use ngrok to get a publicly accessible URL like this one.
You're now ready to build out your Express application! Here are a few other sample applications we've built: