What is npm and how is it useful?

npm is the package manager for JavaScript and the world’s largest software registry. npm is distributed with Node.js- which means that when you download Node.js, you automatically get npm installed on your computer.

Test if you have installed Node.JS and npm. There are lots of versions of Node.JS and npm and be aware of the versions and their compatibility.

NodeNmpInstalled.png

npm registry has the largest(millions) number of packages of free, reusable code.
Depending on your needs you may choose one of these account types for using npm.

Node_NpmAccTypes

It provides an huge registry with many different programs like jQuery, AngularJS etc.

For exmple, if you are installing Cordova pacakge you can do so from command-line like in here;

 C:\>npm install -g cordova

The -g switch means globally, otherwise it will be installed in the node_modules subdirectory.

Here is how you run the help file for npm:

Node_npmHelp

npm master reference here:
https://www.npmjs.com/

How do I work with Apache Cordova using Visual Studio 2015?

Intel XDK has great resources for HTML5 Web apps targeting mulitple platforms. Additonally it has debugging support for iOS and Android devices but not for Windows platform.

The free version of Visual Studio 2015 called the Visual Studio 2015 Community has excellent support for everything from web to data; on-site, cloud and hybrid applications including Business Intelligence. This support is out of the box for Windows platform. However, for open source and third party there are extensions that can be used.

You can add extensions to work with Apache Cordova based apps. Here are some of the extenions presently available online.

The Cordova Multiplatform is well suited for HTML5 but the language used is TypeScript. I am not sure if there is one in JavaScript.



More information here.