tutorials/nodejs-deployment/express.md

---
Order: 2
Area: nodejsdeployment
TOCTitle: Create the application
PageTitle: Create the application
MetaDescription:
MetaSocialImage:
DateApproved: 10/5/2017
ShortDescription:
---
# Create your Node.js Application

In this step, you will create a very simple Node.js application that can be deployed to the Cloud. You will use an application generator to quickly scaffold out the application from a terminal.

> **Tip:** If you have already completed the [Node.js tutorial](/docs/nodejs/nodejs-tutorial.md), you can skip ahead to [Create the Website](/tutorials/nodejs-deployment/create-website.md).

## Install the Express Generator

[Express](https://www.expressjs.com) is a very popular framework for building and running Node.js applications. You can scaffold (create) a new Express application using the [Express Generator](https://expressjs.com/en/starter/generator.html) tool. The Express Generator is shipped as an npm module and installed by using the npm command line tool `npm`.

```bash
$ npm install -g express-generator
```

The `-g` switch installs the Express Generator globally on your machine so you can run it from anywhere.

## Scaffold a New Application

We can now scaffold a new Express application called `myExpressApp` by running:

```bash
$ express myExpressApp --view pug --git
```

The `--view pug --git` parameters tell the generator to use the [pug](https://pugjs.org/api/getting-started.html) template engine (formerly known as `jade`) and to create a `.gitignore` file.

To install all of the application's dependencies, go to the new folder and run `npm install`.

```bash
$ cd myExpressApp
$ npm install
```

## Run the Application

Last, let's ensure that the application runs. From the terminal, start the application using the `npm start` command to start the server.


```bash
$ npm start
```

Now, open your browser and navigate to [http://localhost:3000](http://localhost:3000), where you should see something like this:

![Running Express Application](images/nodejs-deployment/express.png)

----

<a class="tutorial-next-btn" href="/tutorials/nodejs-deployment/create-website">I created the Node.js application</a> <a class="tutorial-feedback-btn" onclick="reportIssue('node-deployment', 'express')" href="javascript:void(0)">I ran into an issue</a>