How to deliver a node.js website to clients

#1

Hello! So I’ve been learning website development for a while, and I thought it would be nice to finally put it to use. I’ve been offered to develop a website, but I have no idea what to do to deliver the website.

It is a node.js website so I’m not even sure how to show them the website either.

I’ve heard things about zipping files, hosting websites, and other things along those lines, but I don’t really know how to or which is the right way.

What is the professional way of delivering a website to a client (and how do you do it?)

Thank you!

#2

It depends on how you have things set up. “Node” isn’t usually a website, unless you are doing server side rendering. There are different ways to do a web site.

  1. A static frontend - you host the files somewhere and they are accessed by the client computers. But it’s a static server - no computations - it just sends back files. These are the kind of sites you build on codepen. The file structure will be a little different, but basically you have server somewhere with a file like index.html and that is what the internet grabs and all your information is there. You may have other html files in other directories that hyperlink together.

  2. Server side rendering - you host a server somewhere and when it gets a request for a page it does some calculations, builds the page, and sends it back. Often they use templating languages like ejs or handelbars or jade. There are ways to SSR things like React too.

  3. Separate server and client. Here you do the client (front end) like in example one but you have a server (backend) running that it can call for information or make updates to databases, etc.

This is a simplified explanation. Which is best will depend on what you are doing.

#3

There are a lot of places to host the frontend, too many to list. Hosting a node server will take something more specific. For option three, those could be on the same or different hosts.