When we use http.createServer() in Node.js

Question

I just started learning Node.js, and I'm wondering when developer should/need to use http.createServer()

My process of thinking is: "When I want to catch data from server I use: http.request and http.get methodes.

When I want to POST on server I will use http.request with POST method options parameter.

I just can't figure out, when I should use http.createServer() method?

If I work on remote server (server is already exists).

I red documentation: This class is used to create a TCP or IPC server.

w3School says: The http.createServer() method turns your computer into an HTTP server.

If you can, give me comprehensive explanation with real world example.

Thanks

Answer 1

When you use something like http.request() , you're connecting to another HTTP server and requesting data from it. If you wanted to be that server yourself, you would need to use http.createServer() to do that.

For example, a common use case of Node.js is to create an API server that receives HTTP requests from web pages and fetches or manipulates data in a database. It takes the resulting data and sends it as an HTTP response.

The Node.js documentation you read seems to be for net.createServer() . While http.createServer() does create an underlying TCP server, it also accepts a callback for listening for HTTP requests.

See also: https://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_http_createserver_options_requestlistener