WeChat Mini Program Development Tutorial: Building a Mini Program Backend Server Based on Node.js

Building a WeChat applet backend server based on Node.js involves several main steps. Here is a simple tutorial to help you set up a Node.js server from scratch. It is recommended that you use WebStorm software for nodejs development. I will continue to write this later in the tutorial.

Preparation

Before you begin, make sure your development environment meets the following conditions:

• Node.js and npm (Node.js package manager) installed
• Have a text editor installed (such as Visual Studio Code)
• Postman installed (for testing API interface)

Step 1: Initialize the project

1. Create a new directory as the project folder and navigate to that directory in the terminal (or command prompt).
2. Run the following command to initialize a new Node.js project:

npm init -y

This will create a package.json file that contains the project's metadata.

Step 2: Install Express

Express is a popular Node.js web application framework for building servers and APIs. To install Express, run the following command:

npm install express --save

Step 3: Create server files

1. Create a file named server.js in the project root directory.
2. Open server.js and add the following code to set up a basic Express server:

const express = require('express');
const app = express();

app.use(express.json()); // 用于解析 JSON 请求体

const PORT = process.env.PORT || 3000;

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  res.send('Hello World!');
});

app.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`Server is running on port ${PORT}`);
});

Step 4: Run the server

Start the server by running the following command in the terminal:

node server.js

If everything is fine, you should see the output: "Server is running on port 3000".

Step 5: Create an API route

1. Create a new folder named routes in the project directory.
2. Create a file named  in the routes folder. api.js
3. In the api.js file, set up a simple route to simulate the WeChat applet background interface:

const express = require('express');
const router = express.Router();

// 假设这是一个获取用户信息的接口
router.get('/userinfo', (req, res) => {
  res.json({
    id: 1,
    name: 'John Doe',
    age: 30
  });
});

module.exports = router;

1. Introduce and use this route in server.js :

const apiRoutes = require('./routes/api');

// ... 其他代码

app.use('/api', apiRoutes);

// ... 其他代码

Step 6: Test the API

Use Postman or another API testing tool to send a GET request to http://localhost:3000/api/userinfo to see if you receive the expected JSON response.

Step 7: Deploy the server

In order for your WeChat applet to connect to your server, you need to deploy it to the Internet. You can use cloud service providers such as Tencent Cloud or Alibaba Cloud to deploy your applications.

Step 8: Configure WeChat applet

In the mini program management interface of the WeChat public platform, add your server address to the whitelist of server domain names to ensure that the mini program can communicate with your server correctly.

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Now, you have a basic Node.js server that can be used as the backend of the WeChat applet. You can continue to add more routes, middleware, database connections, etc. to expand the functionality of your server. Remember to take care of security and performance optimization issues in a production environment.