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Node.js Basics

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Solution: Retrieving & Parsing Data

2:19 with Reggie Williams

Check out my solution for the first part of the challenge.

How did it go? 0:00
Great job if you got it and 0:01
it's okay if you didn't because I'll share my solution with you. 0:02
First, we'll need to require the HTTPS module so that we can use our get request. 0:06
We'll create a function named getDef that takes a term from the command line to 0:11
search for from the Merriam Webster Dictionary. 0:15
Now we'll create a request that uses the dictionary API url, 0:20
including the term interpolated and ending with the API key. 0:25
Now we'll take the response, and every time data comes in, 0:31
we'll append the data to an empty string named body. 0:36
Again, we'll use the .on method to do this to handle event listening and 0:42
watching in node. 0:46
And we'll wait for the end of the data using the end of it. 0:49
When all the data has been sent, we'll use JSON parse to parse the data and 0:55
we'll use the console log statement to print the data out. 1:00
The response returned is in the form of an array. 1:05
Our definition is in the first array item under a property name shortdef. 1:08
This is what we'll print out to the screen. 1:14
We'll add some error handling to watch out for errors on request, 1:18
and catch parsing errors. 1:22
Finally, we'll use argv to access our arguments, 1:26
and call forEach on the command line arguments entered. 1:30
We'll save. 1:35
Go back to the terminal, we'll try node app.js imperative, 1:38
and we get the short definition printed to the screen. 1:43
We can try adding another word. 1:49
And we get multiple definitions. 1:53
Great work following along. 1:56
You've created two command line node applications. 1:59
And we've only scratched the surface of what node can do. 2:01
With node, we can add open source code from other developers to our projects, 2:05
build applications that scale, work with powerful libraries. 2:10
And connect our front end projects to databases. 2:13
There's so much more to learn. 2:17