**Course Title:** Mastering Vue.js: Building Modern Web Applications **Section Title:** Introduction to Vue.js and Development Environment **Topic:** Setting up a development environment (Vue CLI, Node.js, NPM) **Overview** In this topic, we will cover the essential tools and setup required to start building Vue.js applications. We will explore the role of Node.js, NPM, and Vue CLI in creating a productive development environment. **Node.js: The JavaScript Runtime Environment** Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment that allows you to run JavaScript on the server-side. It provides an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient. Node.js is a prerequisite for using Vue CLI and other JavaScript development tools. To check if Node.js is installed on your system, open a terminal or command prompt and type: ```bash node -v ``` If you don't have Node.js installed, you can download the latest version from the official website: <https://nodejs.org/> **NPM: The Package Manager** NPM (Node Package Manager) is the package manager for Node.js and JavaScript. It allows you to install, update, and manage packages required for your project. NPM is bundled with Node.js, so you don't need to install it separately. To verify that NPM is installed, run the following command: ```bash npm -v ``` **Vue CLI: The Official Vue.js CLI Tool** Vue CLI is the official Vue.js command-line interface tool. It provides a set of templates and tools to help you create, build, and manage Vue.js projects. Vue CLI uses NPM under the hood to manage dependencies and install packages. To install Vue CLI globally on your system, run the following command: ```bash npm install -g @vue/cli ``` **Setting up a New Vue.js Project** Once you have Vue CLI installed, you can create a new Vue.js project using the following command: ```bash vue create my-first-vue-app ``` This will prompt you to choose a preset, select the features you want to include, and configure the project settings. For this example, we'll choose the "Default" preset. **Project Structure** The resulting project structure will look like this: ```bash my-first-vue-app/ node_modules/ src/ main.js App.vue components/ Hello.vue public/ index.html favicon.ico .gitignore package.json README.md ``` Let's take a quick look at the key files and folders: * `node_modules/`: Contains the dependencies installed by NPM. * `src/`: The source code directory for your Vue.js application. * `main.js`: The entry point of your application, where you import Vue and the main `App` component. * `App.vue`: The main application component. * `components/`: A directory for your application's components. * `public/`: A directory for static assets that shouldn't be processed by Vue CLI. **Running the Development Server** To start the development server, navigate to the project directory and run: ```bash npm run serve ``` This will start a development server on `http://localhost:8080`. Open your browser and navigate to this URL to see your Vue.js application in action. **Practical Takeaways** In this topic, you learned: 1. Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment required for Vue CLI and other JavaScript development tools. 2. NPM is the package manager for Node.js and JavaScript, bundled with Node.js. 3. Vue CLI is the official Vue.js CLI tool that provides templates and tools for creating, building, and managing Vue.js projects. 4. You can create a new Vue.js project using Vue CLI and customize the project settings. 5. The resulting project structure includes key files and folders, such as `node_modules/`, `src/`, `main.js`, `App.vue`, and `components/`. **What's Next?** In the next topic, we'll dive into "Understanding Vue’s reactive data binding." We'll explore how Vue's reactivity system works and how to use it to build robust and efficient applications. **Need Help or Want to Discuss?** If you have any questions or need help with setting up your development environment, please leave a comment below.