Creating a Node.js Server Application for Customer Data Maintenance

How can we create a Node.js server application to maintain customer data?

What are the requirements for implementing CRUD operations and utilizing AJAX for communication between the client page and the Node.js server?

Answer:

To create a Node.js server application for maintaining customer data, we need to carefully follow the requirements outlined for CRUD operations and AJAX communication between the client page and the server. This involves setting up the server.js file to handle HTTP requests and responses using the Express framework and implementing functionality on the client-side HTML page to interact with the server.

Detail Explanation:

To start, we will create a server.js file that defines routes and endpoints for CRUD operations such as adding new customers, updating existing data, deleting customers, and finding a specific customer by their unique customer number. This file will utilize the Node.js Express framework to handle incoming requests from the client page.

On the client-side, the index.html page will include input fields for customer data like customer number, first name, last name, address, city, province, and postal code. Additionally, buttons for different actions, such as New, Add, Update, Delete, and Find, will be included for user interaction.

UI Requirements:

1. The New button will clear all input fields when clicked to allow users to enter new customer data.

2. The Add button will verify that all fields have data before sending a POST request to the server with a JSON string containing the customer data. A new file will be created in the "data" folder on the server if the customer number is unique.

3. The Update button will send a POST request to update the customer data after verifying that all fields have data. If the file for the customer number exists, it will be overwritten with the new JSON data.

4. The Delete button will confirm the deletion with the user before sending a POST request to the server to delete the relevant file. Once the server responds, all input fields will be cleared.

5. The Find button will retrieve the JSON data from the file for the current customer number and populate the input fields with the data received.

Implementation Steps:

1. Implement CRUD operations for maintaining customer data using the web page.

2. Use AJAX to issue POST requests between the client page and the Node.js server.

3. Utilize jQuery AJAX to manage client-side requests and response callbacks for seamless communication.

By following these steps and meeting the requirements outlined, we can successfully create a Node.js server application for customer data maintenance using server.js and index.html.