crud-api-node

Building a Restful CRUD API with Node.js, Express and MongoDB

Creating the Application

1. Fire up your terminal and create a new folder for the application.

   $ mkdir crud-api

2. Initialize the application with a package.json file

   Go to the root folder of your application and type npm init to initialize your app with a package.json file.

   $ cd crud-api
   $ npm init

3. Install dependencies

   We will need express, mongoose and body-parser modules in our application. Let’s install them by typing the following command -

   $ npm install express body-parser mongoose --save

   Our application folder now has a package.json file and a node_modules folder -

   crud-api
   - node_modules/ - package.json
   

Setting up the web server

Let’s now create the main entry point of our application. Create a new file named server.js in the root folder of the application with the following contents -

const express = require('express'); const bodyParser = require('body-parser'); const path = require('path'); const app = express();

const api = require('./server/routes/todo.route.js');

app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 3000);

app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false }))

app.use(bodyParser.json())

app.get('/', function(req, res){
res.json({"message": "I am working"});
});

var server = app.listen(app.get('port'), function() {
var port = server.address().port;
console.log('Magic happens on port ' + port);
});

All right! Let’s now run the server and go to http://localhost:3000 to access the route we just defined.

$ node server.js Server is listening on port 3000

Configuring and Connecting to the database

I like to keep all the configurations for the app in a separate folder. Let’s create a new folder config in the root folder of our application for keeping all the configurations -

$ mkdir config <br>
$ cd config

Now, Create a new file database.config.js inside config folder with the following contents -

module.exports = {
url: 'mongodb://localhost:27017/test'
}

Defining the toDo model in Mongoose

Next, We will define the todo model. Create a new folder called app inside the root folder of the application, then create another folder called models inside the app folder -

$ mkdir app/models
$ cd app/models

Now, create a file called todo.model.js inside app/models folder with the following contents -

const mongoose = require('mongoose');

const Schema = mongoose.Schema;

const toDoSchema = new Schema({
title: String,
url: String,
description: String
});

module.exports = mongoose.model('todo', toDoSchema , 'todo')

Defining Routes using Express

Next up is the routes for the Notes APIs. Create a new folder called routes inside the app folder.

$ mkdir app/routes
$ cd app/routes

Now, create a new file called todo.route.js inside app/routes folder with the following contents -

const express = require('express'); const router = express.Router(); const mongoose = require('mongoose'); const todos = require('../models/todo.model'); var configDB = require('../config/database.js');

mongoose.Promise = global.Promise;

mongoose.connect(configDB.url, function (err) {
if(err){ console.error('Error! '+err); }else{ console.log("Database connected") } });

// middleware that is specific to this router router.use(function timeLog (req, res, next) { console.log('Time: ', Date.now()) next() })

router.get('/todos', function(req, res, next) { todos.find({}).exec(function(err, todos){ if(err){ console.error("Error " +err); }else{ res.json(todos); } }); });

router.get('/todos/:id', function(req, res, next) { todos.findById(req.params.id).exec(function(err, todo){ if(err){ console.error("Error " +err); }else{ res.json(todo); } }); });

router.post('/todo', function(req, res, next){ var newTodo = new todos(); newTodo.title = req.body.title; newTodo.description = req.body.description; newTodo.completed = req.body.completed newTodo.save(function(err, insertedTodo){ if(err){ console.log(err); }else{ res.json(insertedTodo); }
}) });

router.put('/todo/:id', function(req, res, next){ todos.findByIdAndUpdate(req.params.id , { $set : { title : req.body.title, description : req.body.description, completed : req.body.completed } }, { new : true }, function(err, updatedTodo){ if(err){ res.send(err); }else{ res.json(updatedTodo) } } ) });

router.delete('/todo/:id', function(req, res, next){

todos.findByIdAndRemove(req.params.id, function(err, deletedTodo) {
    if(err){
        res.send("Error " +err)
    }else{
        res.json(deletedTodo)
    }  
})

}) module.exports = router;

API Complete

That’s it! You have a working Node API with each of the four major CRUD operations.

The goal of this tutorial was to give you a familiarity with Express, Node, and MongoDB — you can use your simple app as a launching pad for more complex projects.