I have a node.js application that run as a application server.
It is deployed on an Ubuntu 20.04 machine running on AWS, uses nginx as a reverse proxy and PM2 as a service starter.
Everything seems perfectly configured.
What looks strange to me, is that I have a React application, in a similar environment, but, before to move it on the server, I run build it, so creating a sort of packed and not easily human readable application.
My question is: Is there the need to do the same with a node.js application?
And, in case of positive answer, How to ‘build’ a node.js application?
2
Answers
No you don’t have to build anything for node.js you just have to run the server. for client side apps you need to build and serve the Dist through web servers like apache or nginx.
There is no need to build a normal nodejs application.
What you mean is the use of a bundler e.g. webpack and a javascript compiler e.g. babel. To create a react application, you usually use a tool like create-react-app that sets up all this stuff for you. For react you need the compilation beacause you use the jsx syntax that browsers do not understand. In addition to that a bundler has some more advantages.
Check out this video if you want to know more about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IG4UmULyoA