I'm a complete newbie, how can I learn Node.Js + Express + MongoDB?

Welcome to the wonderful world of node.js!

I myself have also just started learning Node.js and often asked myself "what is express?" "Why use express over node?" etc.

Express is a fantastic web framework so you can develop robust applications with having a lot of the hard stuff done for you :)

I highly recommend reading through his examples to have a feel how it all gets put together: https://github.com/visionmedia/express/tree/master/examples

I found this screen cast very helpful in myself learning the basics: http://vimeo.com/38136668

Proloser goes through explaining how to start a new express application, how to connect it to mongodb and explains how and why everything works :) He's created it for new noders.

Us noders hang out on irc.freenode.net in the #node.js channel. Come and ask any questions you have and we will help set you on track :)

• I want to make it clear that I have no prior experience programming,
• I only have experience in HTML and SQL

Based on these two points, first you should learn programming. You want to learn NodeJS+Express+MongoDB which 3 of them are completely different things from what you already know.

1. First start with Javascript. This is more than enough: http://www.w3schools.com/js/
   • Write your scripts to a file named try.js and execute them with node try.js and see the results!
2. Then try to learn how a web application is built. Two basics for you:
   • You request something from server via HTTP, http://myapp.com/users/all
   • Server processes requests, and sends you a result in HTML
   • Your browser displays it.
   • More information at: http://www.slideshare.net/nbrier/how-to-build-a-web-app-for-nonprogrammers
   • Look the ExpressJS web site, and go step by step, and TRY EVERYTHING there
3. Then learn MongoDB, this is not SQL database, it's a NoSQL database, I do not know why you want to learn it, however, experimenting with http://www.mongodb.org/display/DOCS/Tutorial will definetely help. But all you have to do is looking in to examples. To use MongoDB from Node, you can use Mongoose.

I think you should learn the basics of a programming language before getting deep into the frameworks.

Code Year has a series of interactive programming lessons to learn JavaScript. You learn the language step by step from the ground up.

When you have grasped JavaScript you can start using express and mongo and other frameworks.

You have a long way to go, if you only know HTML/CSS. Take a look at http://howtonode.org/express-mongodb

You have to have an advanced understanding of how to code modular JavaScript, JSON, Databases (especially NoSQL databases ).

Cheers!