Node.js is a well established server runtime that many companies are using worldwide. Express.js is a server framework for Node.js used by over 5 million projects. ReasonML is a type-safe functional language that compiles to Javascript.

This playlist collects the basic pieces of information a programmer needs to get started building servers in ReasonML on Node.js and Express.js. Follow along to learn how to get the speed of Node, combined with the added type-safety of Reason.

ReasonML is a fantastic way to write Javascript! But it doesn't yet have a built-in async / await syntax. Furthermore the built-in libraries for working with Javascript promises are awkward to work with, and produce code that's hard to read. This lesson will teach the viewer how to use the "bs-let" language extension (called a PPX) to achieve readable, easy to write promise-based code.

Async / Await in ReasonML

Although ReasonML has built-in libraries for working with JSON, they are low-level and difficult to use by hand. The Decco library offers automatically generated JSON decoders, and produce a result that keeps the programmer safe at runtime by telling them whether the data they got matched the shape of the data they expected. 

Automatically decode JSON into records in ReasonML using Decco

Decco is a great library for automatically generating JSON encoders and decoders, but most real-world projects will quickly run into the need to add custom data types that Decco doesn't ship with support for. This lesson shows how to simply add a custom data type by implementing a codec that reads and writes Javascript dates as floats.

Write a simple custom JSON decoder for Decco in ReasonML

Decco is a language extension that automatically generates JSON encoders and decoders from type signatures. When adding adding custom Decoders, the error messages that the compiler produces can be quite confusing. This lesson shows the viewer how to use explicit type signatures to narrow down where an error might be coming from in custom codec code. This same pattern can be applied whenever confusing error messages come from code that is written without explicit type signatures.

Working with cryptic error messages from ReasonML when writing custom Decco decoders.

This lesson shows how to use the `serbet` npm package to write a simple Node.js http server in ReasonML by implementing a simple "hello world" endpoint. Serbet is a convenient wrapper around Express.js. It's a young library, but its patterns are already used in production code.

Make a basic server with ReasonML and Node.js

This lesson shows how the Serbet server library for ReasonML and Node.js makes handling JSON request bodies, and responding with JSON request bodies a simple task.

Making an HTTP server in ReasonML on top of Node.js

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Course content (6 lessons)

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