SI 679 Week 01 — Course Intro, Express Intro
Source: https://umich-mia.atlassian.net/wiki/external/MmNjZTg1NDkyNDQzNDM1MDg1OTI2NTRmZmE3MzEzMTA
Author: Mark W Newman. Page last updated Sept. 08, 2026.
Captured from the fully rendered public Confluence page Sept. 29, 2026.
This is a detailed extraction of the rendered page, including every exercise requirement. It is not a verbatim transcript of lecture prose.

HEADINGS AND LECTURE FLOW
Welcome to SI 679! (Slide Deck)
Getting Started with Express
  Create an Express project
  A First Route: Hello World
  Routes
  Getting data through POST
  Implement a POST handler
  Serve an HTML form
  Add Middleware for Form-handling
  Getting data through Query Strings
  Getting data from Route Params
  Errors & Status Codes
  Now You Try #1
Break!
Announcements
Postman
  POST with Postman
Now You Try #2

EXPRESS SETUP AND EARLY ROUTES
- In a course code directory, create week1hello; run npm init -y and npm install express@latest.
- In package.json use "type": "module", "main": "server.js", and a start script equivalent to "node --watch server.js". The page's example dependency is express ^5.2.1.
- In server.js import express from 'express', construct app = express(), choose port 3000, define app.get('/', handler) that sends 'Hello World!', then app.listen(port). Run node ./server.js and visit http://localhost:3000.
- Observe that /about fails until an app.get('/about', ...) handler is added. The sample sends 'Welcome to the About page!'.
- POST /submit uses app.post rather than app.get. Visiting /submit in a browser address bar sends GET, so it does not reach the POST handler.
- GET /contact serves a form with first and last name fields, method="post", action="/submit". Submitting it reaches the POST route.
- app.use(express.urlencoded()) before route definitions parses form-encoded request data; destructure fname and lname from req.body and include them in the response. Middleware sits in the request-response loop and can rewrite the request object before the handler.
- A query string follows ? and contains key=value pairs separated by &; URL encoding such as %20 can represent a space. Read it through req.query. The /people example searches an array by first letter. Try letter values c, f, and 3; then missing/wrongly named/malformed parameters (ltr=c, an unusual multi-? string, and no query). The sample directly indexes letter[0], demonstrating why missing input needs validation.
- Route parameters are in the path, e.g. app.get('/person/:id') reads req.params.id and app.get('/league/:leaguename/team/:teamname') reads both. The page shows /person/:id but asks the reader to try /people/33, a path mismatch in the source.
- res.status(code).send(content) sets response status. Default is 200. The example returns 400 when /person/:id is not numeric; 500 is a generic server failure.

NOW YOU TRY #1 — WEEK 1 REPO
Accept the Week 1 NYT Classroom50 assignment, clone the resulting repo, implement as many routes as time allows, and push the work. The route/response cases shown are:
1. GET /catalog?itemid=222 -> "Oh, you’re looking for item 222?"
2. GET /catalog?itemid=3 -> "Oh, you’re looking for item 3?"
3. GET /catalog?itemid=xyz -> status 400, "Error: itemid must be a number"
4. GET /play/artist/Radiohead/song/Creep -> "You want to listen to Creep by Radiohead?"
5. GET /play/artist/The%20Clash/song/London%20Calling -> "You want to listen to London Calling by The Clash?"
6. GET /getform renders an HTML form with Address, City, Zipcode, and Submit; the form action is /submitform. The submitted sample response is "Great! Your package will be shipped to 123 Main St, Smallville, 01234".
7. GET /browse/frozen?keywords=organic+corn -> "Searching for organic corn in the frozen category". Use both a route parameter and a query string.
8. GET /browse/meat?keywords=rotisserie+chicken -> "Searching for rotisserie chicken in the meat category". Use the same route pattern.
The linked solution repo is https://github.com/SI679-internal/week1-nyt.

POSTMAN LECTURE
- Postman permits testing HTTP requests other than browser address-bar GETs. The page asks the reader to create a collection SI 679, folder Week1, and a GET request named hello for http://localhost:3000/. Start the lecture server and confirm Hello World! in Postman.
- Create a request postData with method POST and a raw JSON body. Before its route exists, expect Not Found. Add app.use(express.json()) before routes, then POST /postData reads firstName and lastName from req.body and responds "Hello <firstName> <lastName>!".
- These Postman activities are in the lecture project, while Now You Try continues in the NYT repo.

NOW YOU TRY #2 — CONTINUE WEEK 1 NYT REPO
Add routes matching the following request/response cases:
1. GET /hithere?name=Mark+Newman -> "Hi there, Mark Newman".
2. POST /tracks with raw JSON {"artist":"The Cure","title":"In Between Days","album":"The Head on the Door","year":"1985"} -> JSON with status:"success", trackAdded containing the submitted fields, and a timestamp in ISO form (the page illustrates 2026-09-03T12:30:51.899Z).
3. POST /tracks missing artist -> status 400 and "artist must be a valid, non-empty string".
4. POST /tracks missing title -> status 400 and "title must be a valid, non-empty string".
5. GET /products/electronics/tvs?keywords=lcd,smart,sony -> "You are looking for [lcd AND smart AND sony] in electronics/tvs, aren't you?"
6. GET /products/household/kitchen?keywords=timer,analog -> "You are looking for [timer AND analog] in household/kitchen, aren't you?" The page explicitly says the two product examples should use the same route.
The same solution repo is linked: https://github.com/SI679-internal/week1-nyt.

ANNOUNCEMENTS SHOWN ON THE PAGE
TypeScript Basics was an in-class/Canvas/Classroom50 assignment due Sept. 14 at 11:59pm. Two About Me assignments were listed for Sept. 10. The instructor said the first homework would begin a pizza restaurant backend series. These are historical page announcements, not current deadlines.