CRUD Todo App with authentication - Node.js, Express, MongoDB

Getting started

To get the Node server running locally:

• Clone this repo
• npm install to install all required dependencies
• Install MongoDB Community Edition and run it
• node server.js to start the local server

Code Overview

Dependencies

• expressjs
• jsonwebtoken
• mongoose
• morgan
• bcrypt
• bcrypt.js
• body-parser
• cors
• dotenv

Error Handling

In backend/middleware, a middleware was added as an error handler for Mongoose's validation errors.

Authentication

After a user is registered, a token will be given when they login. Requests are authenticated by adding x-auth-token with its token as a value in the header with a valid JWT.

It was my first time working with authentication. I used bcrypt to apply a salt and hash the passwords.

Database

It was also my first time working with a database, and I decided to use MongoDB for this application. The folder models/ contains the schema definitions for the Mongoose models.

Routes

Users must be registered and logged in to edit or delete a task. Users may also search for and access tasks by id, username, or the status of completion.

• Register new user

method: "POST"
url: "/api/register"
body: {
    "username": <String>,
    "password": <String>,
}

• User Login

method: "POST"
url: "/api/login"
body: {
    "username": <String>,
    "password": <String>
}

• Validate token

method: "POST"
url: "/api/tokenIsValid"
header: {
    key: x-auth-token,
    value: <token given at login>
}

• View all todo tasks: GET /api/todos

method: "GET"
url: "/api/todos"

• View tasks by username

method: "GET"
url: "/api/todos/username/:username"

• View tasks by id

method: "GET"
url: "/api/todos/:id"

• View tasks by status of completion

  • Completed tasks:

    method: "GET"
    url: "/api/todos/isCompleted/true"

  • Incompleted tasks:

    method: "GET"
    url: "/api/todos/isCompleted/false"

• Add/create a new task

method: "POST"
url: "/api/todos/"
body: {
    "username": <String>,
    "task": <String>,
    "isCompleted": <Boolean>
}

• Edit/update a task by id: after getting token validated

method: "PUT"
url: "/api/todos/:id"
body: {
    "username": <String>,
    "task": <String>,
    "isCompleted": <Boolean>
}

• Edit/update task by username: after gettting token validated

method: "PUT"
url: "/api/todos/username/:username"
body: {
    "username": <String>,
    "task": <String>,
    "isCompleted": <Boolean>
}

• Delete a task: after getting token validated

method: "DELETE"
url: "/api/todos/:id"

Other

I did attempt to incorporate GraphQL with a schema and resolver, but since MongoDB and authentication were both new to me already, I eventually took out GraphQL to ensure the rest of it was working.

Overall, as someone who was always more comfortable with the front-end, it felt good for me to learn more and practice working with the back-end through this exercise. I hope I didn't miss too many points with this! Thank you for reviewing.