This version uses React, Redux, Express, Passport, and PostgreSQL (a full list of dependencies can be found in package.json
).
We STRONGLY recommend following these instructions carefully. It's a lot, and will take some time to set up, but your life will be much easier this way in the long run.
- Don't Fork or Clone. Instead, click the
Use this Template
button, and make a copy to your personal account.
Before you get started, make sure you have the following software installed on your computer:
Create a new database called prime_app
and create a user
table:
CREATE TABLE "user" (
"id" SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
"username" VARCHAR (80) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
"password" VARCHAR (1000) NOT NULL
);
If you would like to name your database something else, you will need to change prime_app
to the name of your new database name in server/modules/pool.js
- Run
npm install
- Create a
.env
file at the root of the project and paste this line into the file:While you're in your newSERVER_SESSION_SECRET=superDuperSecret
.env
file, take the time to replacesuperDuperSecret
with some long random string like25POUbVtx6RKVNWszd9ERB9Bb6
to keep your application secure. Here's a site that can help you: https://passwordsgenerator.net/. If you don't do this step, create a secret with less than eight characters, or leave it assuperDuperSecret
, you will get a warning. - Start postgres if not running already by using
brew services start postgresql
- Run
npm run server
- Run
npm run client
- Navigate to
localhost:3000
To debug, you will need to run the client-side separately from the server. Start the client by running the command npm run client
. Start the debugging server by selecting the Debug button.
Then make sure Launch Program
is selected from the dropdown, then click the green play arrow.
To use Postman with this repo, you will need to set up requests in Postman to register a user and login a user at a minimum.
Keep in mind that once you using the login route, Postman will manage your session cookie for you just like a browser, ensuring it is sent with each subsequent request. If you delete the localhost
cookie in Postman, it will effectively log you out.
- Start the server -
npm run server
- Import the sample routes JSON file by clicking
Import
in Postman. Select the file. - Click
Collections
andSend
the following three calls in order:POST /api/user/register
registers a new user, see body to change username/passwordPOST /api/user/login
will login a user, see body to change username/passwordGET /api/user
will get user information, by default it's not very much
After running the login route above, you can try any other route you've created that requires a logged in user!
Before pushing to Heroku, run npm run build
in terminal. This will create a build folder that contains the code Heroku will be pointed at. You can test this build by typing npm start
. Keep in mind that npm start
will let you preview the production build but will not auto update.
- Start postgres if not running already by using
brew services start postgresql
- Run
npm start
- Navigate to
localhost:5000
There are a few videos linked below that show a walkthrough the client and sever setup to help acclimatize to the boilerplate. Please take some time to watch the videos in order to get a better understanding of what the boilerplate is like.
Directory Structure:
src/
contains the React applicationpublic/
contains static assets for the client-sidebuild/
after you build the project, contains the transpiled code fromsrc/
andpublic/
that will be viewed on the production siteserver/
contains the Express App
This code is also heavily commented. We recommend reading through the comments, getting a lay of the land, and becoming comfortable with how the code works before you start making too many changes. If you're wondering where to start, consider reading through component file comments in the following order:
- src/components
- App/App
- Footer/Footer
- Nav/Nav
- AboutPage/AboutPage
- InfoPage/InfoPage
- UserPage/UserPage
- LoginPage/LoginPage
- RegisterPage/RegisterPage
- LogOutButton/LogOutButton
- ProtectedRoute/ProtectedRoute
- Create a new Heroku project
- Link the Heroku project to the project GitHub Repo
- Create an Heroku Postgres database
- Connect to the Heroku Postgres database from Postico
- Create the necessary tables
- Add an environment variable for
SERVER_SESSION_SECRET
with a nice random string for security - In the deploy section, select manual deploy
Customize this ReadMe and the code comments in this project to read less like a starter repo and more like a project. Here is an example: https://gist.github.com/PurpleBooth/109311bb0361f32d87a2