Exercise - Configure the package.json

4 minutes

You're a Node.js developer at Tailwind Traders. Knowing how to set up a new Node.js project is an important skill to have. Setup includes generating a manifest file and creating some common scripts that you're likely to use throughout the project lifecycle.

Set up a new Node.js project

Open a terminal window.
Clone the https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/node-essentials/ repo by running this command:
```
git clone https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/node-essentials/
```
Change to the folder that has the cloned files for this exercise:
```
cd node-essentials/node-dependencies/3-exercise-package-json
```
In this folder, you should see a src subfolder with an index.js file:
```
-| src/
---| index.js
```

Run the following command to initialize a Node.js project:

npm init -y

This command generates a package.json file that looks similar to this example:

{
  "name": "<your project>",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "script.js",
  "dependencies": {},
  "devDependencies": {},
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "keywords": [],
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC"
}

Edit the package.json file and modify these property values:

name: "tailwind-trader-api"
description: "HTTP API to manage items from the Tailwind Traders database"
main: "index.js"
keywords: ["api", "database"]
author: "Sam"

Your package.json file should now look like this code:

{
  "name": "tailwind-trader-api",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "HTTP API to manage items from the Tailwind Traders database",
  "main": "index.js",
  "dependencies": {},
  "devDependencies": {},
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "keywords": ["api", "database"],
  "author": "Sam",
  "license": "ISC"
}

In the scripts section, add this definition for the start action before the definition for the test action:
```
"start": "node ./src/index.js",
```
Save your changes and close the package.json file.
Start your project with the start action by entering this command:
```
npm start
```
You should see this output:
```
Welcome to this application
```

You now have a good file structure that you can build upon as your project grows.

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