How to Build a Node.js Server

Creating a Git Repository & Adding Dependencies

Create a directory for your server to live

• mkdir < server-directory-name >
• git init //if download from a repo, use git remote -v to view the repo list may include mine and origin make sure push to the correct repo if the repo is forked from another one (to point/change the project to the correct repo, use git remote set-url )
• npm i -g gitignore //install gitignore file globally (optional if gitignore was installed globally)
• npx gitignore node //creates git.ignore for node
• npm init -y //creates package.json

Add your dependencies

• npm i express dotenv helmet cors knex sqlite3 pg** bcryptjs* jsonwebtoken*
• npm i nodemon jest supertest knex-cleaner*** -D

* only if using database with login/register ** only if using Postgres for production *** only if need seeding cleaner

• Update package.json scripts to include server, start and test script(s):

"scripts": {
	"server": "nodemon index.js",  //defaults to index.js
	"start": "node index.js", (optional, for production)
  "test": "jest --watch"
}
"jest": {
  "testEnvironment": "node"  //optional if not using Jest.config file
}

Adding Migrations & Seeding

• (npx) knex init //creates an abstracted knexfile.js, optional to use npx if knex is not globally installed

• Update knexfile.js to:

module.exports = {
  development: {
    client: 'sqlite3',
    useNullAsDefault: true,
    connection: {
      filename: './data/auth.db3',
    },
    pool: {
      afterCreate: (conn, done) => {
        conn.run('PRAGMA foreign_keys = ON', done);
      },
    },
    migrations: {
      directory: './data/migrations',
    },
    seeds: {
      directory: './data/seeds',
    },
  },
  production: {  //optional if use Postgres for production
    client: "pg",
    connection: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
    migrations: {
      directory: "./data/migrations",
    },
    seeds: {
      directory: "./data/seeds",
    },
  },
  testing: {  //optional if use sqlite3 for testing
    client: "sqlite3",
    useNullAsDefault: true,
    connection: {
      filename: "./data/auth.db3"
    },
    pool: {
      afterCreate: (conn, done) => {
        conn.run("PRAGMA foreign_keys = ON", done);
      }
    },
    migrations: {
      directory: "./data/migrations"
    },
    seeds: {
      directory: "./data/seeds"
    }
  },
};

Create a table within a migration folder:

• knex migrate:make table_name

• Example schema for a user table:

exports.up = function(knex) {
    return knex.schema.createTable('users', users => {
      users.increments();

      users
        .string('username', 128)
        .notNullable()
        .unique();
	.index();  //this creates index for username

      users
        .string('password', 128)
        .notNullable();
    });
  };

  exports.down = function(knex) {
    return knex.schema.dropTableIfExists('users');
  };

• knex migrate:latest (creates .db3 file)
• knex migrate:rollback (deletes .db3 file)

Seeding (optional):

• knex seed:make 000-cleanup (optional: to clean up all the tables)

• Example 000-cleanup.js

const cleaner = require('knex-cleaner');

exports.seed = function(knex) {
  return cleaner.clean(knex, {
    mode: 'truncate', //resets ids
    ignoreTables: ['knex_migrations', 'knex_migrations_lock'], //don't empty migration tables
  });
};

• knex seed:make 001-seedName (makes a new seed)

• Example seeds > 001-exampleSeed.js file(password should be hashed, this is just example):

exports.seed = function(knex, Promise) {
  // Deletes ALL existing entries
  return knex('table_name').truncate()
    .then(function () {
      // Inserts seed entries
      return knex('table_name').insert([
        { username: 'Amanda', password: '123' },
        { username: 'Jojo', password: 'password'  },
        { username: 'Boo', password: 'hello'  }
      ]);
    });
};

• knex seed:run (runs/resets seed)

Creating Server, Routes and Helper Functions

• In the data directory, create a file called "dbConfig.js" and include the following code:

const knex = require('knex');
const config = require('../knexfile.js');

const environment = process.env.DB_ENV || 'development';

module.exports = knex(config[environment]);

Testing

• There is a sample testing file written for server.js inside API folder

• Review the code in this repository for more information.

< -------- after forking and cloning this repo ---------->

• run command npm install to get your dependencies listed above.
• If you fork and clone this repo you do not need to follow README steps, they are already completed.