Express VS TypeScript

First, we will install Express.js and Socket.io using the below command:

Node.js with Express (https://expressjs.com/)

So that’s the first big downside of building a REST API without using packages like express.js - you have to build all the route handling yourself, plus add some support for middlewares.

Express.js Documentation

Express.js was created around the time callbacks were _the_ architecture in Node.js. The world, including UI, quickly found callbacks do not compose well, and void return values are hard to test because of side-effects. Promises were created so you could compose functions, but still have control where your side-effects go. This negates the need for middlewares / callbacks.

The Devvit team just announced a new experimental way to build WebView based apps for Reddit. Previously only static HTML/JS/CSS could be used. With this new version, it is possible to run server-side code through Node including spinning up an Express server.

Basic knowledge of JavaScript and Express

With that set, we can import callOpenAI on a controller. I am using express to manage the API endpoint.

The basis of my small API proxy is the NPM package http-proxy-middleware from Steven Chim, which I utilized to build a system that can be used via configuration for various endpoints and that runs on a server under the Node.js framework Express.

Fiber: Go framework inspired in express.

If you are not intending on publishing and if all your libraries/framework support ESM, which Jest does do quite well right now, I would recommend to setting the type property to module and use the .mts file extension. You will notice that you have to use .mjs when importing a relative file. Do not worry, you are not importing a javascript file, Typescript will automatically search for any .mts file with the same module name. It is confusing, people have complained about this behavior, but it is what it is.

TypeScript - Type safety

Frontend: TypeScript + React + Vite + pnpm

N.B. If you are working with TypeScript and want to get the best DX possible, a types package that simplifies your work and enables IntelliSense for these APIs exists. @types/dom-chromium-ai This is the name of the package, and we have to thank you, Christian Liebel and Thomas Steiner, for it.

TypeScript for type safety in complex applications

This article assumes the reader is a developer that knows their way around Markdown, TypeScript, React.js, and [Next.js] https://nextjs.org/). Familiarity with Tailwind-css would also be useful.