PostManager - Backend

The backend of the Post Manager project.

Essentially a Node.js REST API backend with authentication and post creation logic, connected to a ReactJS frontend and deployed on the Railway platform.

Technologies

Some of the Languages, Libraries and Packages employed on this backend:

• Node
• Express.js (middleware-based Node.js framework; used for an enhanced backend endpoint setup)
• Node Package Manager (for bootstrapping and managing the Node.js app)
• MongoDB (noSQL database storage solution; storage of user and post objects into collections in a remote MongoDB Atlas database)
• body-parser (needed for the parsing of the JSON data sent by the frontend)
• express-validator (validation of inputted user data, on the backend, with methods such as "isEmpty()" and "isLength()")
• bcryptjs (used for storing encrypted passwords inside of user documents on MongoDB database)
• multer - used for receiving product image files, on the "Add a Product" endpoint (disabled on this demo version of the app)
• jsonwebtoken (for the generation of JSON Web Tokens, which are then stored on the local storage of the user's browser and then checked for authentication)

Project Directory Structure

The REST API backend's directory structure:

.\
│
├── config\
│   ├── dev.js
│   ├── keys.js
│   └── prod.js
│
├── controllers\
│   ├── auth.js
│   └── feed.js
│
├── images\
│   ├── 504c296d-482d-4d6a-8821-9991b3ea47c6-0c64c92d97cf2c5f4ce1be7b81537d55.png
│   ├── 90fd0c3b-533d-4a9a-92c4-ab5af0cb6f6f-nodejs_original_wordmark_logo_icon_146412.png
│   ├── 9409c72d-3fb3-43e3-b499-396752769a5e-Unofficial_JavaScript_logo_2.svg.png
│   ├── aec4a1bc-c807-4b12-8772-dd7d7e4cf309-mongodb_original_wordmark_logo_icon_146425.png
│   ├── ca6cceac-4648-457b-9306-273b22427567-Unofficial_JavaScript_logo_2.svg.png
│   ├── d3ff5457-17c2-4b71-895e-4802b63cdd7a-logo-og.png
│   ├── d980ff73-f1da-488b-bc21-42efffcfa220-0c64c92d97cf2c5f4ce1be7b81537d55.png
│   ├── e17bbaa2-ef31-4d34-ab98-949ffafc7594-Unofficial_JavaScript_logo_2.svg.png
│   ├── eb3f5305-bd34-43e5-baa6-374b19358510-mobile-first-.jpg
│   └── f2036847-ce43-4135-8519-4c5b3d4030c1-Unofficial_JavaScript_logo_2.svg.png
│
├── middlewareHelpers\
│   └── is-auth.js
│
├── models\
│   ├── post.js
│   └── user.js
│
├── routes\
│   ├── auth.js
│   └── feed.js
│
├── .gitignore
├── app.js
├── package-lock.json
└── package.json

Project Configuration Files (package.json)

The package.json file used in the project:

{
  "name": "nodeexpressbackend",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1",
    "start": "node app.js"
  },
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC",
  "dependencies": {
    "bcryptjs": "^2.4.3",
    "body-parser": "^1.19.0",
    "express": "^4.17.1",
    "express-validator": "^6.13.0",
    "jsonwebtoken": "^8.5.1",
    "mongodb": "^4.2.0",
    "mongoose": "^6.0.13",
    "multer": "^1.4.3",
    "uuid": "^8.3.2"
  }
}

Setup

To use this project, clone it using Git:

1. Run git clone to clone the project into your local Git repository
2. Run npm install to install all dependencies (express, bcryptjs, mongodb, etc)
3. Run npm start to spin up the the app
4. Use the server locally or deploy it on the web, with the help of a hosting provider (e.g. Railway)
5. For the purposes of this demo, on the "Get Started" (Authentication) page, input the credentials exemplo@exemplo.com (email) and exemplo (password) to access the apps's various features

Features

• Connected to a Single-Page Application ( no page reloads, REST API); serving of a single HTML file (index.html file, "skeleton" for the ReactJS components)
• Serverside form input validation logic, powered by express-validator
• Simple pagination logic for the list of posts ("Next" and "Previous" buttons)
• For deployment demonstration purposes, only a single user is enabled/created on the serverside, with the credentials exemplo@exemplo.com (email field) and exemplo (password field). Furthermore, the "Posts" made by the user are reset every 1 Hour (MongoDB "Scheduled Trigger" feature)
• Backend uses and manages the "User" and "Post" objects, which are stored on a MongoDB database (MongoDB Atlas service); the Node.js server and MongoDB database also handle the authentication logic (login/signup) implemented on the app
• Usage of environment variables with Railway to hide sensitive information (API_KEYS, Json Web Token secrets, database usernames and passwords, etc.)

Inspiration

Inspired by the "NodeJS - The Complete Guide (MVC, REST APIs, GraphQL, Deno)" and "React - The Complete Guide (incl Hooks, React Router, Redux)" courses by Maximilian Schwarzmüller.