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🌤️ Node.js Weather Application

📌 Project Overview

This is a full-stack, server-rendered web application that provides real-time weather updates. Users can search for a specific city's weather or allow the browser's Geolocation API to automatically fetch the weather for their current location.

The backend is powered by Node.js and Express, utilizing the OpenWeatherMap API to fetch weather data. The frontend is dynamically rendered using the Handlebars (hbs) templating engine.

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🛠️ Tech Stack

• Backend: Node.js, Express.js
• Frontend: HTML5, CSS3, Vanilla JavaScript
• Templating Engine: Handlebars (hbs)
• External APIs: OpenWeatherMap API (Weather Data), OpenStreetMap Nominatim API (Reverse Geocoding for Geolocation)

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🚀 Key Features Implemented

1. Dynamic Rendering: Implemented Handlebars to serve dynamic HTML pages (index, 404) and reuse layout partials (header).
2. Browser Geolocation: Integrated the native navigator.geolocation API on the client side. When granted permission, it finds the user's coordinates, converts them to a city name using OpenStreetMap, and fetches the local weather automatically.
3. City Search: A fully functional search bar allowing users to query the weather of any global city.
4. Custom UI Widget: Designed a responsive, gradient-styled weather card that updates icons dynamically based on weather conditions (using weather-icons).
5. Custom Backend API Endpoints: Built a dedicated /weather endpoint in Express to keep the OpenWeatherMap API key secure on the server side and format the data before sending it to the client.

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🐛 Bugs Squashed & Code Improvements

During the final phases of development, we addressed several critical issues to make the app secure, modern, and crash-resistant:

• Environment & Dependency Fixes: Resolved immediate Node server crashes by ensuring all core dependencies (express, hbs) were properly installed and port conflicts were cleared.
• Security & Vulnerability Patching: Removed the deprecated request package, completely eliminating 4 npm vulnerabilities (2 critical, 2 moderate).
• Modernization to Native Fetch: Refactored the utils/weatherData.js file to use Node 22's native, built-in fetch API, combined with async/await syntax for cleaner, more modern asynchronous code.
• Eliminated the "Double-Callback" Bug: Fixed a logical flow issue where an API error would trigger a callback but allow the function to continue running, which previously caused ERR_HTTP_HEADERS_SENT crashes in Express.
• Standardized Error Handling: Ensured that error messages from the OpenWeatherMap API are properly caught, formatted as JSON, and safely transmitted to the client UI without crashing the server.

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💻 How to Run the Project

1. Install Dependencies Ensure you are in the root directory of the project and run:

npm install

2. Configure API Keys Ensure your OpenWeatherMap API key is active. (Note: For future development, it is recommended to move the SECRET_KEY inside utils/weatherData.js to a .env file).

3. Start the Server Run the start script defined in your package.json:

npm run start

4. View the App Open your web browser and navigate to: http://localhost:3000