Backend Starter - Express.js REST API

A professional, production-ready Express.js REST API with JWT authentication, MySQL database, and comprehensive error handling.

🚀 Features

• Authentication & Authorization: JWT-based authentication system
• Database: MySQL with Sequelize ORM
• Security: Helmet, CORS, Rate limiting
• Validation: Request validation with Joi
• File Upload: Multer for handling file uploads
• Error Handling: Centralized error handling
• Logging: Morgan for HTTP request logging
• Testing: Jest testing framework
• Code Structure: Clean architecture with services, controllers, middleware

📁 Project Structure

src/
├── config/          # Database and application configuration
├── controllers/     # Request handlers
├── middleware/      # Custom middleware functions
├── models/         # Database models (Sequelize)
├── routes/         # API routes
├── services/       # Business logic layer
├── utils/          # Utility functions and helpers
├── app.js          # Express application setup
└── server.js       # Server entry point

public/
└── uploads/        # File upload directory

tests/              # Test files

🛠️ Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone <repository-url>
   cd whatsapp-gateway-backend

2. Install dependencies

   npm install

3. Environment Setup

   cp .env.example .env

   Update the .env file with your configuration:

   PORT=3001
   NODE_ENV=development
   
   DB_HOST=localhost
   DB_PORT=3306
   DB_NAME=backend_starter
   DB_USERNAME=root
   DB_PASSWORD=your_password
   
   TOKEN_SECRET=your_jwt_secret_key

4. Database Setup

   • Create a MySQL database named backend_starter
   • The application will automatically sync the database schema

5. Start the application

   # Development
   npm run dev
   
   # Production
   npm start

📚 API Documentation

Authentication Endpoints

Register User

POST /api/auth/register
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "name": "John Doe",
  "email": "john@example.com",
  "password": "password123"
}

Login User

POST /api/auth/login
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "email": "john@example.com",
  "password": "password123"
}

Refresh Token

POST /api/auth/refresh
Authorization: Bearer <token>

User Endpoints

Get Profile

GET /api/users/profile
Authorization: Bearer <token>

Update Profile

PUT /api/users/profile
Authorization: Bearer <token>
Content-Type: multipart/form-data

{
  "name": "John Updated",
  "email": "john.updated@example.com",
  "phone": "1234567890",
  "picture": <file>
}

Todo Endpoints

Get All Todos

GET /api/todos?page=1&limit=10&status=pending
Authorization: Bearer <token>

Create Todo

POST /api/todos
Authorization: Bearer <token>
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "title": "Complete project",
  "description": "Finish the backend API development",
  "deadline": "2024-12-31T23:59:59.000Z",
  "status": "pending"
}

Get Todo by ID

GET /api/todos/:id
Authorization: Bearer <token>

Update Todo

PUT /api/todos/:id
Authorization: Bearer <token>
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "title": "Updated title",
  "status": "completed"
}

Delete Todo

DELETE /api/todos/:id
Authorization: Bearer <token>

Get Todo Statistics

GET /api/todos/stats
Authorization: Bearer <token>

Example Endpoints

Health Check

GET /api/example/health

Test Endpoint

GET /api/example/test
Authorization: Bearer <token>

🧪 Testing

# Run tests
npm test

# Run tests in watch mode
npm run test:watch

# Run tests with coverage
npm run test:coverage

🔧 Development

Code Style

• Use ES6+ features
• Follow consistent naming conventions
• Write descriptive commit messages
• Add JSDoc comments for functions

Database Migrations

# Generate migration
npx sequelize-cli migration:generate --name migration-name

# Run migrations
npx sequelize-cli db:migrate

# Undo last migration
npx sequelize-cli db:migrate:undo

🚀 Deployment

Environment Variables for Production

NODE_ENV=production
PORT=3001
DB_HOST=your_production_db_host
DB_NAME=your_production_db_name
DB_USERNAME=your_production_db_user
DB_PASSWORD=your_production_db_password
TOKEN_SECRET=your_strong_jwt_secret
CORS_ORIGIN=https://yourdomain.com

PM2 (Recommended for production)

# Install PM2
npm install -g pm2

# Start application
pm2 start src/server.js --name "backend-api"

# Monitor
pm2 monit

# Logs
pm2 logs backend-api

📝 Error Handling

The API uses consistent error response format:

{
  "success": false,
  "message": "Error description",
  "timestamp": "2024-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"
}

🔐 Security Features

• JWT Authentication: Secure token-based authentication
• Password Hashing: bcrypt with salt rounds
• Rate Limiting: Prevents API abuse
• CORS: Configurable cross-origin resource sharing
• Helmet: Security headers
• Input Validation: Joi schema validation

🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

📄 License

This project is licensed under the ISC License.

👥 Authors

• Fajri Rinaldi Chan - Initial work

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Express.js community
• Sequelize documentation
• JWT.io for token handling
• All contributors and testers