CSE 341 | Course Setup

W01 Setup: Tools

Overview

Purpose: Set up the tools needed for this course.
Task: Follow the instructions below to install and configure each required tool.

Before you begin Week 1 learning activities, make sure your development tools are installed and working. This setup page helps you install the tools used throughout the course.

If you already installed a tool in a previous course and it still works, you can verify it and move to the next item.

Course Tools

Tool	Purpose
Visual Studio Code (VS Code)	Write, edit, and organize your project code.
Microsoft Teams	Communicate with your team and instructor.
Node.js and npm	Run JavaScript outside the browser and install project packages.
Git and GitHub account	Track code changes, collaborate with your team, and submit project work.
Render.com account	Hosting provider where you will deploy your web services.
MongoDB Atlas account	Create and manage the cloud database used by your web services.

Activity Instructions

Install VS Code

Complete the following:

Install Visual Studio Code if it is not already installed.

Sign into Microsoft Teams

Complete the following:

Install and sign into Microsoft Teams by following these instructions: Introduction to Microsoft Teams.
- A Microsoft Teams team has been set up for this course, and you have been added as a course member. To access it, you need to install Microsoft Teams and sign in with your byupathway.edu account.
Sign into Microsoft Teams using your byupathway.edu account.
Find the Microsoft Teams organization that matches this course name ("Web Services").
Verify that you can see the general channel.

Install and verify Node.js

Complete the following:

Download and install Node.js from the official Node.js downloads page.
Open a terminal and run node -v.
Run npm -v.
Confirm both commands return version numbers.

Install and verify Git, then sign in to GitHub

Complete the following:

Install Git from git-scm.com/downloads.
Run git --version to confirm installation.
Create a GitHub account at github.com if you have not already created one.

Render and MongoDB

For this course, you will also need to create accounts at Render.com for deploying your web services and MongoDB.com for managing your database, and MongoDB Atlas for your cloud database. The learning activities this week will guide you through setting up these accounts.