# Get Started
In this guide we’ll create a basic chat application. It requires almost no basic prior knowledge of Node.JS or Socket.IO, so it’s ideal for users of all knowledge levels.

## Introduction
Writing a chat application with popular web applications stacks like LAMP (PHP) has normally been very hard. It involves polling the server for changes, keeping track of timestamps, and it’s a lot slower than it should be.

Sockets have traditionally been the solution around which most real-time chat systems are architected, providing a bi-directional communication channel between a client and a server.

This means that the server can push messages to clients. Whenever you write a chat message, the idea is that the server will get it and push it to all other connected clients.

# The Web Framework
The first goal is to set up a simple HTML webpage that serves out a form and a list of messages. We’re going to use the Node.JS web framework `express` to this end. Make sure *Node.JS* is installed.

First let’s create a `package.json` manifest file that describes our project. I recommend you place it in a dedicated empty directory (I’ll call mine `chat-example`).

```
{
  "name": "socket-chat-example",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "description": "my first socket.io app",
  "dependencies": {}
}
```