The MEAN stack: (MongoDB, ExpressJS, AngularJS and Node.JS) are a group of powerful technologies that allow you to write a completely functional website from back-end to front-end using only Javascript. Using only Javascript allows developers to only in one language instead of managing several different languages (such as PHP or Ruby) from front and back end. Javascript does have its own pitfalls, but it is still a powerful language is utilized correctly.

MongoDB: Open source NoSQL database

ExpressJS: Web application framework for node (serves front end)

NodeJS: Fast efficient nonblocking backend 

AngularJS: Front end for enhancing web apps

For web development, I find Eclipse is very useful as it comes with a visual of the file system and can compile from the IDE. 

http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/packages/eclipse-ide-java-developers/keplersr1

In console type:

npm install express -g

This will install express globally on your machine.

You may need to use 

sudo npm install express -g

Follow instructions at:

http://www.nodeclipse.org/updates/

Follow download instructions at:

http://www.mongodb.org/downloads

For MacOSX you can use homebrew to install mongoDB quickly:

brew install mongodb

Create your first Express project

In Eclipse -> File -> New -> Express Project

Type in your new project name and click finish when done.

You should have a project that looks like this:

public

     |——-   stylesheets

                        |————-styles.css

routes

      |—————index.js

      |—————user.js

view

      |—————layout.jade

      |—————index.jade

app.js

package.json

README.md

Here is an explanation of what each thing does:

public: Everything in the public folder is served to the client by expressJS

stylesheets: Commonly, this folder will contain all the .css files for a website

styles.css: This is the current CSS file for the default webpage

routes: This folder contains the routes files for which requests are directed

index.js: This file contains the routes for index

user.js: This file contains the routes for users [this can be deleted]

view: This folder contains the views of the application

layout.jade: This file is the default template of a webpage

index.jade: This file is the index webpage

app.js This is the main file that node.js runs

package.json: This file tells node the project dependencies to install

README.md: This file tells another developer what the project is

      

The project currently uses the Jade templating engine to render pages. A template engine compiles source files into html files. 

In console type:

node app.js

In your browser, type in the url: http://localhost:3000

If you have done everything correctly, then you should see this:

Express

Bower is a tool for installing other libraries similar to npm.

To install, type the following into a console:

npm install bower -g 

If you have errors, you may need to use 

sudo npm install bower -g 

Create a folder called public/js

This folder is where all the javascript files will be placed for the front end

Create another folder called public/js/vendor

This folder is where all the vendor Javascript libraries will be placed. Vendor means external 3rd party libraries such as AngularJS which we will be installing.

Create a file called .bowerrc in your project directory with the following:

{ “directory” : “public/js/vendor” }

Everything that bower installs will be put into /public/js/vendor.

We use bower to install AngularJS by typing in console:

bower install angular

This should install angularjs into public/js/vendor. At the time of writing this tutorial, the version is 1.2.3.

Install Mongoose

Mongoose is the api to connect to MongoDB.

We can install it by adding a dependency in package.json:

Your tools are ready!

The MEAN stack tools are all ready and installed but the project does not do anything right now.

We will build a MEAN app in the next part of the tutorial.