How to Create and Serve an Angular Project Using Node.js and Angular CLI

Are you ready to become an Angular master? In this tutorial, we'll show you how to create and serve an Angular project using Node.js and Angular CLI, step by step. By the end of this tutorial, you'll be able to create, edit, build, and serve an Angular project like a pro.

Let's get started!

Step 1: Installing Node.js and Angular CLI

The first step is to install Node.js and Angular CLI. Node.js is a JavaScript runtime built on Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine, while Angular CLI is a command-line interface tool that makes it easy to create, edit, and build Angular projects.

To install Node.js, head over to the Node.js website and download the latest stable version for your operating system. Once you've installed Node.js, open up your terminal or command prompt and run the following command to install Angular CLI globally:

npm install -g @angular/cli

Step 2: Creating a New Angular Project

Now that we've got Node.js and Angular CLI installed, let's create a new Angular project. Open up your terminal or command prompt and run the following command:

ng new my-angular-app

Angular CLI will generate a default project structure for us, including some sample components and styles. This is where the fun begins!

Step 3: Serving the Angular Project

Alright, it's time to serve our new Angular project. Open up your terminal or command prompt and navigate to the project directory using the following command:

cd my-angular-app

Then, run the following command to start the development server:

ng serve

This will launch the Angular development server and serve our Angular app at http://localhost:4200. Open up your favorite browser and navigate to that URL to see the default Angular app in action.

Step 4: Editing the Angular Project

Let's get creative and start editing our Angular project. Open up your favorite code editor and start making changes to the project files. Feeling adventurous? Try creating a new component with the following command:

ng generate component my-component

This will create a new component named "my-component" that you can customize to your heart's content.

Step 5: Building the Angular Project for Production

Now that we've made some awesome changes to our Angular project, it's time to build it for production. Open up your terminal or command prompt and navigate to the project directory using the following command:

cd my-angular-app

Then, run the following command to build the project for production:

ng build --configuration production

Angular CLI will optimize and minify everything, making our app faster and more secure.

Step 6: Serving the Angular Project for Production

Last but not least, let's serve our built Angular project for production. First, we'll need to install http-server, which is a simple command-line tool that can serve static content:

npm install -g http-server

Then, navigate to the dist/ directory of our Angular project using the following command:

cd dist/my-angular-app

Finally, run the following command to serve the built Angular app:

http-server

This will launch a local server at http://localhost:8080 with our built Angular app running.

Conclusion

Congratulations, you've just become an Angular master! In this tutorial, we showed you how to install Node.js and Angular CLI, create a new Angular project, serve it locally, edit it to your heart's content, build it for production, and serve it for production using http-server.