Node.js ReferenceError

Question

This is my first go at NodeJS. I've installed it successfully on an instance at DigitalOcean.

I have the following helloworld.js

require("http");  http.createServer(function(request, response) { response.writeHead(200, {"Content-Type": "text/plain"}); response.write("Hello World"); response.end(); }).listen(8888);console.log('Hello world'); 

When I run it via "node helloworld.js", I get the following error:

/home/jason/helloworld.js:4 http.createServer(function(request, response) { ^ ReferenceError: http is not defined at Object.<anonymous> (/home/jason/helloworld.js:4:1) at Module._compile (module.js:456:26) at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10) at Module.load (module.js:356:32) at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12) at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:497:10) at startup (node.js:119:16) at node.js:901:3 jason@do:~$ 

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Answer 1

require() doesn't work like #include or import does in other languages.

require() returns a reference to the resolved module. That reference must be assigned to a variable.

var http = require('http'); //the variable doesn't necessarily have to be named http http.createServer(function(req, res) {}); 

Or

require('http').createServer(function(req, res) { });