Chronas API

Overview

This API provides authentication and CRUD operations for data used by the Chronas application. It is based on Node.js using ES6 and Express with Code Coverage and JWT Authentication. It implies an underlying MongoDB.

Technologies used

Feature	Summary
ES6 via Babel	ES6 support using Babel.
Authentication via JsonWebToken	Supports authentication using jsonwebtoken.
Code Linting	JavaScript code linting is done using ESLint - a pluggable linter tool for identifying and reporting on patterns in JavaScript. Uses ESLint with eslint-config-airbnb, which tries to follow the Airbnb JavaScript style guide.
Auto server restart	Restart the server using nodemon in real-time anytime an edit is made, with babel compilation and eslint.
Swagger	Using swagger-ui-express Path to Docu /api-docs
Postman	Here you can find the Postman Dokumentation and the Postman test collection and environment can be found here
ES6 Code Coverage via istanbul	Supports code coverage of ES6 code using istanbul and mocha. Code coverage reports are saved in coverage/ directory post npm test execution. Open coverage/lcov-report/index.html to view coverage report. npm test also displays code coverage summary on console. Code coverage can also be enforced overall and per file as well, configured via .istanbul.yml
Debugging via debug	Instead of inserting and deleting console.log you can replace it with the debug function and just leave it there. You can then selectively debug portions of your code by setting DEBUG env variable. If DEBUG env variable is not set, nothing is displayed to the console.
Promisified Code via bluebird	We love promise, don't we ? All our code is promisified and even so our tests via supertest-as-promised.
API parameter validation via express-validation	Validate body, params, query, headers and cookies of a request (via middleware) and return a response with errors; if any of the configured validation rules fail. You won't anymore need to make your route handler dirty with such validations.
Pre-commit hooks	Runs lint and tests before any commit is made locally, making sure that only tested and quality code is committed
Secure app via helmet	Helmet helps secure Express apps by setting various HTTP headers.
Infrastructure Information	MongoDB Restore in K8s to Azure, Create MongoDB in K8s

• CORS support via cors
• Uses http-status to set http status code. It is recommended to use httpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR instead of directly using 500 when setting status code.
• Has .editorconfig which helps developers define and maintain consistent coding styles between different editors and IDEs.

Getting Started

Clone the repo:

git clone https://github.com/Chronasorg/chronas-api

Install dependencies:

cd chronas-api
npm i

Set environment (vars):

cp .env.example .env

Start an local mongoDB instance e.g. with an docker container:

docker run -d --name mongodatabase -p27017:27017 mongo

Start:

npm start

# Selectively set DEBUG env var to get logs
DEBUG=chronas-api:* npm start

Refer debug to know how to selectively turn on logs.

Tests:

# Run tests written in ES6 
npm test

# Run test along with code coverage
npm run test:coverage

# Run tests on file change
npm run test:watch

Lint:

# Lint code with ESLint
npm run lint

# Run lint on any file change
npm run lint:watch

Other gulp tasks:

# Wipe out dist and coverage directory
gulp clean

# Default task: Wipes out dist and coverage directory. Compiles using babel.
gulp

Deployment

# compile to ES5
1. npm run build

# upload dist/ to your server
2. scp -rp dist/ user@dest:/path

# install production dependencies only
3. npm install --production

# Use any process manager to start your services
4. pm2 start dist/index.js

In production you need to make sure your server is always up so you should ideally use any of the process manager recommended here. We recommend pm2 as it has several useful features like it can be configured to auto-start your services if system is rebooted.

API logging

Logs detailed info about each api request to console during development.

Error logging

Logs stacktrace of error to console along with other details.

Docker

The Dockerfile contains a multistage build. It installs node models and builds the application on a base node image and copy it to an node-alphine image.

To run the application use docker-compose as it will start also a mongodb:

docker-compose up

If you want to run it without docker-compose use this commands:

docker run -d -p27017:27017 --name mongodatabase mongo

docker build -t chronas-api-local . && docker run -it --link mongodatabase:mongodatabase -e MONGO_HOST='MONGO_HOST=mongodb://mongodatabase/chronas-api' --name chrona-api -p 80:80 chronas-api-local