basic app + express + mongodb + how to not use the port? - express

Question

This is a basic app I have got that uses express for setting up routes and and also does some query on a mongo db
If I go to http://localhost:8080/ whatever is in the views/hello.html will be displayed in the browser.
If i go to http://localhost:8080/test 'This is a test Page' will be displayed in the browser.
My question is why do I have to specify the port 8080 in the address? Or put another way how do I display what i want at this address http://localhost/ without specifying the port?
I know I can change the port by changing the value of 8080 here
app.listen(8080);
basic app below:
var express = require('express'),
app = express(),
cons = require('consolidate'),
crypto = require('crypto'),
MongoClient = require('mongodb').MongoClient;
app.engine('html', cons.swig);
app.set('view engine', 'html');
app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
MongoClient.connect('mongodb://localhost:27017/m101', function(err, db) {
if(err) throw err;
//set up a route to go to the page http://localhost:8080/ to see 'This is a test Page'
app.get('/', function(req, res){
db.collection('hw1_3').findOne(function(err, doc) {
//do stuff here
return res.render('hello', { "name" : decrypted });
});
});
//set up a route to go to the page http://localhost/test to see 'This is a test Page'
app.get('/test', function(req, res){
return res.send('This is a test Page!!', 200);
});
app.listen(8080);
console.log('Express server started on port 8080');
});

Answer 1

The default port for http traffic is 80. If you bind to any port other than 80, you need to specify the port in the URL. app.listen(80) will take care of your problem.
On Unixy systems, root (administrator) access is required to bind to any port less than 1024, so you'll have to run your server like sudo node server.js to get port 80. You should bind to a higher port (like 8080) in this case while developing on your machine.

Answer 2

I'm pretty noob, but I'd say that localhost:8080 displays in place of www.somesite.com. I wouldn't get too wrapped up in the port number. If you deploy it to heroku or something you wont see it.