Backend skel

Base skeleton for Backend Apps using Node, Express and MongoDB. Developed by the LateralView team.

The app allows user sign-up, account activation, login, logout and profile edition. The activation process uses mail confirmation with the Sendgrid library. If you don't set the Sendgrid API key, you'll see the activation link in the console.

...
GET /favicon.ico 304 2.113 ms - -
ACTIVATION LINK: http://localhost:8085/activate/E1JpEbZw
POST /api/users/ 200 388.902 ms - 27
...

Installation

$ git clone git@github.com:LateralView/backend-skel.git
$ cd backend-skel
$ npm install

Configuration

Before running the app, set the database host, base URL, Sendgrid API key and S3 keys in a .env file, so they are accesible by environment variables. You can use as an example the .env.test file, used for tests

If S3 keys and/or bucket name are not set no errors will be thrown, but the files will not upload at all (for example in profile picture upload). Also, don't forget to run the mongoDB server.

Run the App

$ node server.js

Apidoc

The apidoc is created with grunt post-install script. It can be accessed through http://localhost:8085/apidoc

Tests

Tests are written with Mocha, Chai, Supertest and Nock.

$ npm test

We also use Factory Girl and Faker.js to create model instances. If you need to define new factories add them inside the register function present on /test/factories.js file.

...
var register = function() {
    // User factory
    factory.define('user', User, {
        email: function() {
            return faker.internet.email();
        },
        password: faker.internet.password(),
        firstname: faker.name.firstName(),
        lastname: faker.name.lastName()
    });
}
...

Directory Structure

backend-skel
│   .gitignore
│   package.json
│   README.md
│   server.js
|   .env
|   .env.test
│
└───app
    │   ...
    │
└───node-modules
    │   ...
    │
└───test
    │   ...
└───apidoc
    │   ...

• App Folder -> Backend logic.
• Test Folder -> Unit Tests.
• Apidoc Folder -> Auto-generated API documentation.
• .env -> Backend configuration depending on the environment (ouside the repo, you must create the file).
• .env.test -> Environment variables for tests.
• server.js -> Express server.

App

app
└───handlers
    │   usersHandler.js
    │   ...
    │
└───helpers
    │   mailer.js
    │   ...
    │
└───middleware
    │   auth.js
    │   ...
    │
└───models
    │   user.js
    │   ...
└───routes
    │   routes.js

• Handlers Folder -> Request handlers executed in each route in routes.js. New handlers must be registered in server.js file:

...
// Request Handlers
var handlers = {
    users: require('./app/handlers/usersHandler'),
    // Add new one here
};
...

• Helpers Folder -> Shared functions within the backend
• Middleware Folder -> Express middleware. Add new middleware to the Express App in server.js or routes.js. The auth.js file cotains a middleware to authenticate routes with the authentication token. If authentication succeeds, it saves the current user in the request object
• Models Folder -> Mongoose models
• Routes Folder -> Express routes

Happy coding!