ExpressJs-Best-Practices-Boilerplate

Introduction

ExpressJs-Best-Practices-Boilerplate is a boilerplate for building ExpressJs applications with basic user CRUD and login/logout functionality. It uses the Express framework and MongoDB for database storage.

Prerequisites

• Node.js version v20.10.0
• Git
• MongoDB
• Postman

Installation

1. Initialization command:

   npx bootstrap-express-app my-app
   cd my-app

2. Start Project:

   npm start

Documentation

Postman Collection:

• Find the Postman collection in the "postman collection doc" folder.
• Import Postman collection JSON file from postman

Swagger Documentation:

1. Create command:

   • After adding inline documentation comments and schemas to newly created or modified endpoint routes, run the following command to generate the Swagger documentation JSON file.

     npm run create-swagger-doc

   • For Inline documentation comments and schemas click here

2. Usage:

   • For Swagger documentation, first, start the server and navigate to the '/api-docs' route. Ex. http://localhost:3000/api-docs

Usage

Development Environment:

To start the server in the local environment

npm run dev

Production Environment:

To start the server in the production environment

npm run prod

Monitoring Logs:

To watch logs in the production environment

pm2 logs

Reloading Instances:

To reload all instances of the production environment

npm run prod-reload

Stopping Instances:

To stop all instances of the production environment

npm run prod-stop

Authentication Flow

• When a user logs in with valid credentials, the server sends both an access token and a refresh token as cookies.

• All protected routes require token validation for access.

• If a protected route returns a status code of 401 (Unauthorized), the client needs to send a request to the '/auth/refresh_token' endpoint.

• The '/auth/refresh_token' endpoint validates the refresh token, and if valid, generates a new pair of access and refresh tokens.

• If the refresh token is not valid, an error response with a status code of 401 is sent, requiring the user to log in again.

Git Best Practices

Commit Standards

• Atomic Commits: Each commit should represent a single logical change. Avoid combining unrelated changes in a single commit.

• Meaningful Commit Messages: Write clear and concise commit messages that describe the purpose of the change. Follow the imperative mood (e.g., "Add feature" instead of "Added feature").

• Commit Types: Commit type must be following one:

  • feat: A new feature
  • fix: A bug fix
  • style: Changes that doesn't affect meaning of code(semi-colon, indentation, etc)
  • perf: Improve performance
  • refactor: Refactor code
  • test: Add missing test cases
  • docs: Documentation only change
  • chore: Change in auxiliary tools like documentation or seed change

• Reference Issues: If your commit is related to a specific issue or task, reference it in the commit message. For example, fix: #123 or feat: #456. Here #123 or #456 are ticket Id.

Branch Name Standards

• Use Hyphens for Branch Names: Use hyphens to separate words in branch names. For example, use feature-branch instead of feature_branch or featureBranch.

• Prefix Branch Names: Prefix branch names with a category or type. For example:

  • feature/ for feature branches
  • fix/ for fix branches

Thank you 😊