What is the difference between Node.js and adding a framework like Express.js?

Question

I come from a networking background and I'm fairly new to web development but I want to experiment with Node.js and other modern web technologies. I would like to know what the difference is between using "stock" Node.js and adding a framework like Express.js.

I think this might be a better fit for programmers.stackexchange.com , as it's more a question of practices rather than a specific bug or algorithm problem, but the quick answer is that node.js' collection of core modules is pretty basic. Express.js, among other things, wraps itself around the HTTP module and gives you things like URL routing (deciding what to serve when it's sent a GET request, based on the shape of the URL), template parsers, and basic multipart/form-data parsing. Just gets you up-and-running quicker. — Paul d'Aoust
– Paul d'Aoust, Commented Oct 19, 2011 at 17:07
Frameworks can make things easier, like routing, templating (or complicate them - depending on how you look at it) — chovy
– chovy, Commented Oct 19, 2011 at 22:19

Raynos · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-19 22:20:43Z

3

node has a low level HTTP API,

Express offers useful things like routing, view engines and http handler flow control.

Basically express is a nice abstraction it also offers a set of common http handlers like routing static content or handling errors or parsing the body of a HTTP post.

It's basically a comparison of a library and a framework.

answered Oct 19, 2011 at 22:20

Raynos

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