Preparing the workspace
The first thing we have to do is set up our workstation; it won't be difficult because we only need a small set of essential tools. These include Visual Studio 2019, an updated Node.js runtime, a development web server (such as the built-in IIS Express), and a decent source code control system such as Git. We will take the latter for granted as we most likely already have it up and running.
In the unlikely case you don't, you should really make amends before moving on! Stop reading, go to www.github.com, www.bitbucket.com, or whichever online SCM service you like the most, create a free account, and spend some time learning how to effectively use these tools; you won't regret it, that's for sure.
In the next sections, we'll set up the web application project, install or upgrade the packages and libraries, and build and eventually test the result of our work. However, before doing that, we're going to spend...