Node.js, Express.js, MongoDB Ready-to-use API Project Structure

A ready-to-use MVC boilerplate for REST API Development with Node.js, Express.js, and MongoDB.

Getting started

This is a basic API skeleton written in JavaScript ES2015. Very useful to building a RESTful web APIs for your front-end platforms like Android, iOS or JavaScript frameworks (Angular, Reactjs, Vue.js etc).

This project will run on NodeJs using MongoDB as database. I had tried to maintain the code structure easy as any beginner can also adopt the flow and start building an API. Project is open for suggestions, Bug reports and pull requests.

Features

• Basic Authentication (Register/Login with hashed password)
• JWT Tokens, make requests with a token after login with Authorization header with value Bearer yourToken where yourToken will be returned in Login response.
• Pre-defined response structures with proper status codes.
• Included CORS.
• Book example with CRUD operations.
• Validations added.
• Light-weight project.

Software Requirements

• Node.js 8+
• MongoDB 3.6+ (Recommended 4+)

How to install

Using Git (recommended)

1. Clone the project from github. Change "myproject" to your project name.

git clone https://github.com/Danielxhxh/mvc-boilerplate-for-node.js.git ./myproject

Using manual download ZIP

1. Download repository
2. Uncompress to your desired directory

Install npm dependencies after installing (Git or manual download)

cd myproject
npm install

Setting up environments

1. You will find a file named .env.example on root directory of project.
2. Create a new file by copying and pasting the file and then renaming it to just .env

   cp .env.example .env

3. The file .env is already ignored, so you never commit your credentials.
4. Change the values of the file to your environment. Helpful comments added to .env.example file to understand the constants.

Project structure

.
├── app.js
├── package.json
├── bin
│   └── www
├── controllers
│   ├── AuthController.js
│   └── BookController.js
├── models
│   ├── BookModel.js
│   └── UserModel.js
├── routes
│   ├── api.js
│   ├── auth.js
│   └── book.js
├── middlewares
│   └──  jwt.js
└── helpers
    └── apiResponse.js

How to run

Running API server locally

npm run dev

You will know server is running by checking the output of the command npm run dev

Connected to mongodb:YOUR_DB_CONNECTION_STRING
App is running ...

Press CTRL + C to stop the process.

Note: YOUR_DB_CONNECTION_STRING will be your MongoDB connection string.

Creating new models

If you need to add more models to the project just create a new file in /models/ and use them in the controllers.

Creating new routes

If you need to add more routes to the project just create a new file in /routes/ and add it in /routes/api.js it will be loaded dynamically.

Creating new controllers

If you need to add more controllers to the project just create a new file in /controllers/ and use them in the routes.

Bugs or improvements

Every project needs improvements, Feel free to report any bugs or improvements. Pull requests are always welcome.

License

This project is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more information.