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Posted by Kasra Kayvani
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Kasra Kayvani
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 2,086 Points

Running a web project straight from VS Code?

I was wondering whether or not it's possible to run a project from VS Code, instead of copying the path and running in a web browser? When I attempt to run my project by clicking on "Run Without Debugging",it prompts me to select the environment.Once I select Node.js I get the following error message.

Cannot find runtime 'node' on PATH.Is 'node' installed?

4 Answers

Emre K.
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Emre K.
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 16,409 Points
Emre K.
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Emre K.
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 16,409 Points

Hello, Kasra,

Yes, it is definitely possible to run JavaScript exclusively on the terminal with Node. It might be that Node is not installed on your workstation just yet. The error message is indicating that it cannot find the runtime, Node.

I am going to provide you the link so you can pick the appropriate package for your Operating System (OS) https://nodejs.org/en/download

This portion is from Treehouse

Once you're in the file's directory, simply type node your-filename.js into the terminal and hit enter. Any output from your file will be displayed in the terminal.

Therefore, what I currently do (after making sure Node is installed) is right-clicking on the current JavaScript file in the file explorer sidebar in Visual Studio Code, and picking 'Open in Terminal' (it may be different depending on your OS), it will open up the terminal where you can simply type node yourJavaScriptFile.js to run it.

varlevi
varlevi
8,113 Points
varlevi
varlevi
8,113 Points

While Emre Kayan's answer is valid, I don't think it is addressing your problem. If I'm not mistaken, I think that you're trying to run a website with html, css, and javascript in VS Code, as opposed to just javascript in the form of node.js, which is what Emre appears to be addressing in her answer. Unfortunately, I don't think there is a way to run a graphical website inside VS Code.

Fred Young
Fred Young
15,523 Points
Fred Young
Fred Young
15,523 Points

You will need to create a 'launch.json' file first. Please, see this link.