Building an Express App with an HTTPS Server

In this tutorial, we will walk through the process of building a basic Express application with an HTTPS server. The code provided will enable you to run your application over a secure HTTPS connection, allowing for encrypted communication between the client and the server.

Prerequisites

To follow along with this tutorial, you should have a basic understanding of Node.js and Express.js. Make sure you have Node.js and npm (Node Package Manager) installed on your machine.

Setting up the Project

1. Start by creating a new directory for your project and navigate into it using the command line.

2. Initialize a new Node.js project by running the following command:

npm init -y

This will create a new package.json file for your project.

1. Install the required dependencies by running the following command:

npm i express dotenv morgan

This will install the necessary packages: express, dotenv, and morgan.

Writing the Code

Create a new file named index.js and open it in a text editor. Copy the following code into the file:

const express = require("express");
const dotenv = require("dotenv").config();
const https = require("https");
const fs = require("fs");
const path = require("path");

const app = express();
const morgan = require("morgan");
const port = process.env.PORT || 4500;

// Middleware
app.use(morgan("dev"));

// Routes
app.get("/", (req, res) => {
  res.send("WELCOME TO THE BASIC EXPRESS APP WITH AN HTTPS SERVER");
});

// Read SSL certificate and key files
const options = {
  key: fs.readFileSync(path.join(__dirname, "localhost-key.pem")),
  cert: fs.readFileSync(path.join(__dirname, "localhost.pem")),
};

// Create HTTPS server
const server = https.createServer(options, app);

server.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`App listening on https://localhost:${port}`);
});

Now let's go through the code and understand each section:

• We import the necessary modules: express, dotenv, https, fs, path, and morgan.
• An instance of the Express app is created using express().
• We set up the middleware using morgan for logging our requests.
• A single route is defined for the root URL ("/") to send a welcome message.
• The SSL certificate and key files (localhost-key.pem and localhost.pem) are read using the fs.readFileSync() method. Make sure these files are present in the same directory as the index.js file or adjust the file paths accordingly.
• An options object is created with the key and certificate, which will be used to create the HTTPS server.
• Finally, the HTTPS server is created using https.createServer() and listens on the specified port.

Now To The Very Important Part

Generating our localhost-key.pem and localhost.pem. We use this commands on our terminals in the same directory as the index.js file

openssl genrsa -out localhost-key.pem 2048

openssl req -new -x509 -sha256 -key localhost-key.pem -out localhost.pem -days 365

And that's it, start your server and listen on the port you've choosen.

Do not forget to create a .env file and add your PORT