API starter kit: Node JS

This is a starter kit to speedup your initial setup time and provide a well structured backend for the better code readability and manageability.

Prerequisites

• Node JS installed
• VS Code (Or any of your other favorite code editors)
• MySQL Database with at least one table inside it (you may use schema provided inside utils)
• Docker (Latest Stable) when opting for containerized approach

Project structure

The project follows a clean, modern structure, centralizing all core application logic within the src/ directory.

api-starter-kit
├──src/
|  ├──models/
|  |  └──model-classes
|  ├──routers/
|  |  ├──super-admin/
|  |  |  └──super-admin-related-routes
|  |  └──user/
|  |  |  └──user-related-routes
|  └──services/
|  |  └──helper-services
├──utils/
|  └──util-files
├──.env-files
├──Dockerfile
├──docker-compose-file
├──package.json
└──readme.md

Setup

This project has already provided you means to integrate different .env files based on the 'NODE_ENV' for different stages of the application viz.

• A .env file inside the root directory, this file holds common configurations for all stages of application (mandatory for all environments)
• A .env.dev file inside the root directory (relating to development environments)
• A .env.prod file inside the root directory (relating to production environments)
• A .env.stage file inside the root directory (relating to staging environments)
• Provide entries mandatory to connect with the database

Initialize

Use following command to initialize by installing all the required dependencies

npm install

The starter kit provides seamless commands for both local execution and comprehensive containerized development via Docker, all managed through npm scripts

1. Standard Local Execution (Host Machine)

These commands run the application directly on your local Node.js environment.

Command	Environment	Live Reload	Description
npm run dev	Development	Enabled (via nodemon)	Starts the application for rapid development cycles.
npm start	Production	Disabled	Runs the compiled application optimized for performance.

2. Comprehensive Containerized (Docker)

You can also run this app using containerized docker, by using following commands:

Command	Description	Notes
npm run docker	Build & Start All Services	Runs docker compose up --build --force-recreate -d. Use this for initial setup or after configuration changes.
npm run docker:down	Gracefully Stop and Remove containers and networks.
npm run docker:down:volumes	Stop, Remove containers, networks, and volumes.	Caution: This deletes all associated data (e.g., database contents).
npm run docker:logs	View live logs for the primary server container.
npm run docker:logs:all	View live logs for all running services with timestamps.
npm run docker:ps	List the status of all running containers defined in compose.yaml.