nx/docs/shared/recipes/add-stack/add-express.md

Add a New Express Project

Supported Features

Because we are using an Nx plugin for Express, all the features of Nx are available.

{% pill url="/core-features/run-tasks" %}✅ Run Tasks{% /pill %} {% pill url="/core-features/cache-task-results" %}✅ Cache Task Results{% /pill %} {% pill url="/core-features/remote-cache" %}✅ Share Your Cache{% /pill %} {% pill url="/core-features/explore-graph" %}✅ Explore the Graph{% /pill %} {% pill url="/core-features/distribute-task-execution" %}✅ Distribute Task Execution{% /pill %} {% pill url="/core-features/integrate-with-editors" %}✅ Integrate with Editors{% /pill %} {% pill url="/core-features/automate-updating-dependencies" %}✅ Automate Updating Nx{% /pill %} {% pill url="/core-features/enforce-module-boundaries" %}✅ Enforce Module Boundaries{% /pill %} {% pill url="/core-features/plugin-features/use-task-executors" %}✅ Use Task Executors{% /pill %} {% pill url="/core-features/plugin-features/use-code-generators" %}✅ Use Code Generators{% /pill %} {% pill url="/core-features/automate-updating-dependencies" %}✅ Automate Updating Framework Dependencies{% /pill %}

Install the Express Plugin

{% tabs %} {%tab label="npm"%}

npm i --save-dev @nx/express

{% /tab %} {%tab label="yarn"%}

yarn add --dev @nx/express

{% /tab %} {% /tabs %}

Create an Application

Use the app generator to create a new Express app.

nx g @nx/express:app my-express-api

Serve the API by running

nx serve my-express-api

This starts the application on localhost:3333/api by default.

Create a Library

The @nx/express plugin does not have a library generator, but we can use the library generator from the @nx/js plugin. To create a new library, install the @nx/js package and run:

nx g @nx/js:lib my-lib

Once the library is created, update the following files.

export function someFunction(): string {
  return 'some function';
}

/**
 * This is not a production server yet!
 * This is only a minimal backend to get started.
 */

import express from 'express';
import * as path from 'path';

const app = express();

app.use('/assets', express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'assets')));

app.get('/api', (req, res) => {
  res.send({ message: 'Welcome to my-express-app!' });
});

const port = process.env.PORT || 3333;
const server = app.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`Listening at http://localhost:${port}/api`);
});
server.on('error', console.error);

Now when you serve your API, you'll see the content from the library being displayed.

More Documentation

• @nx/express
• @nx/js
• Express