Node.js, Express & PostgreSQL User API

This project is a RESTful API built with Node.js, Express, and PostgreSQL. It was created as a training project to understand the full development lifecycle of a backend service, including database integration, containerization, and error handling.

📝 About The Project

This repository contains a fully functional CRUD application for managing Users. The goal was to practice building scalable backend architectures and understanding how different technologies interact within a containerized environment.

Key Features:

• RESTful Architecture: Follows standard HTTP methods.
• Database Integration: Persistent data storage using PostgreSQL.
• Automatic Schema Setup: Includes a script (createUserTable) to automatically generate necessary database tables on server start.
• Health Check: Root endpoint checks and displays the active database connection.
• Containerization: Fully containerized with Docker and Docker Compose.
• Management UI: Integrated with pgAdmin 4 for database administration.

🛠️ Technologies & Tools Used

Tech Stack

• Node.js - Runtime environment
• Express.js - Web framework
• PostgreSQL - Relational database
• Docker & Docker Compose - Containerization
• dotenv - Environment variable management

Development & Testing Tools

• Postman - Used for testing API endpoints (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE).
• pgAdmin 4 - Used for visual database management.

🚀 Getting Started

1. Clone the repository

   git clone [https://github.com/hosam221/express-postgres-docker-api](https://github.com/hosam221/express-postgres-docker-api)
   cd express-postgres-docker-api

2. Run with Docker Compose

   docker-compose up -d --build

3. Access the Application

   • API Server: http://localhost:3001
   • pgAdmin 4: http://localhost:5050

📡 API Endpoints

The API is structured under the /api prefix.

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/	Health Check: Returns the name of the connected database.
POST	/api/users	Create a new user (Expects JSON body).
GET	/api/users	Get a list of all users.
GET	/api/users/:id	Get specific user details by ID.
PUT	/api/users/:id	Update an existing user.
DELETE	/api/users/:id	Delete a user.

(Note: The exact paths depend on how userRoutes.js is defined, but these are the standard conventions based on your file structure.)

📚 Learning Outcomes

Through building this project, I learned how to:

• configure dotenv for secure environment variables.
• Implement middleware for CORS and Error Handling.
• Connect Node.js to PostgreSQL using a connection pool.
• Write initialization scripts to create SQL tables automatically.
• Dockerize a Node.js and Postgres stack.