ExpressJS Starter Boilerplate

A full fledeged ExpressJS REST API Boilerplate! This repository serves as a foundation for kickstarting your Express.js + mongodb + SPA projects. Features organized code structure, comprehensive API documentation, error handling, and more.

installation

1git clone https://github.com/AbyerAli/express-mongodb-spa-boilerplate.git
2cd expressjs-starter-boilerplate
3yarn install
4yarn start

or

1npm i express-mongo-spa-boilerplate

or

1npx express-mongo-spa-boilerplate

Features

• Dotenv Validation: Environment variables are meticulously validated through the config.js file, ensuring a robust configuration setup.

• Graceful Error Handling: Easily craft false responses by utilizing the error throwing mechanism. For example:

  1throw new Error('Some error XYZ occurred');
  2
  3

• dotenv variables are validated at config.js

• throw error in the API to send false reponse e.g. throw new Error('some error xyz occured')

• apidoc is generated at /public/apidoc, so remember to update docs before pushing to production with yarn run apidoc

• yarn run apidoc will generate the docs in /public/apidoc

• apidocs usage:

1
2/**
3    * @api {post} /v1/users/login user login
4    * @apiVersion 1.0.0
5    * @apiName login user
6    * @apiGroup users   
7    * @apiPermission authenticated user
8    * @apiBody {String} email should follow the email format.
9    * @apiBody {String} password should be at least 8 characters long.
10    * @apiExample {js} Example usage 1:
11    * const user = {
12    *   "email": "John Doe",
13    *   "password": "xyz"
14    * }
15    * $http.defaults.headers.common["Authorization"] = token;
16    * $http.post(url, data)
17    *   .success((res, status) => doSomethingHere())
18    *   .error((err, status) => doSomethingHere());
19    * @apiExample {js} Example usage 2:
20    * const user = {
21    *   "email": "John Doe",
22    *   "password": "xyz"
23    * }
24    * axios.defaults.headers.common["Authorization"] = token;
25    * axios.post(url, data)
26    *  .then((res, status) => doSomethingHere())
27    * .catch((err, status) => doSomethingHere());
28    *
29    * @apiSuccess (Success 200) {String} token token to access the api
30    * @apiSuccessExample {json} Success response:
31    *     HTTPS 200 OK
32    *     {
33    *      "status": true,
34    *      "message": "Task saved successfully!",
35    *       "data": {
36    *           token: "xyz"
37    *      },
38    *    }
39    * @apiUse UnauthorizedError
40*/
41router.post('/login', validateUser, userController.userlogin);

• public contains any static files that will be served to the client.
• routes contains all the routes for the application.
• controllers contains all the controllers for the application.
• models contains all the models, schemas for the application.
• services contains all the services for the application like S3, Multer, Mailer etc.
• helpers contains all the utility functions for the application.
• api data response format:

1{
2    "status": true,
3    "message": "Task saved successfully!",
4    "data": {
5        "token": "xyz"
6    },
7}

• api error response format:

1{
2    "status": false,
3    "message": "error message",
4    "error": {
5        "some error": "xyz"
6    },
7}

• from every route either success or error response will be used provided in helper/methods.js, in case of error, error middleware will be used as all the errors are handled in the error middleware (centralized).
• Validation is done using express-validator and joi, before any route is hit, validation is done and if any error is found, express-vaidator is used to pluck out the error and send it to the user.
• logs are generated and stored in logs folder via use of logs middleware used in server.js
• any environment variables are stored in .env file and are validated and exported at config.js
• config.js contains all the configuration for the application.
• server.js is the entry point for the application.