How to setup MERN project on github

Please read the guide carefully and don't skip any parts without reading them. This guide is here to help mainly people new to the mern stack (or full-stack dev in general). Only move onto the next step once you have completed the sub-steps to the previous step!

You can use this guide to work through the full-stack, however it doesn't specify anything about pushing to github. This is why this guide is here to help with that.

Starting from Scratch:

1. Create main root directory (This will be your "project" folder. Either in terminal: mkdir [project-name] or manually)
   • Go into the created directory: cd [project-name]
2. Create client dir:
   • npx create-react-app client
   • Once React installs, delete the .git folder manually or look up command rm -rf .git¹².
   • Once done, cd back out to root.
3. Now create a server dir (mkdir server)
   • Use this --> MongoDB guide³ to setup the back-end.
4. Once the above points are complete, cd out to root dir
   • Use git init to initialize the local repo (for the entire project)
     • Now: git add . -> git commit -m 'first commit' -> git remote add [remote_name] [YOUR_GH_REPO_URL]
       • git push [remote_name] master⁴ -> You might be asked for username and password. Use gh username and password requires a personal access token (found in developer settings).⁵⁶
5. You now have a full-stack app on GitHub CONGRATS!

P.S. REMEMBER TO SAVE THAT PERSONAL ACCESS TOKEN BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO REGEN EACH TIME YOU WANT TO SEE IT!!!

Footnotes

1. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/61573115/rm-rf-equivalent-for-windows-powershell ↩

2. https://www.theserverside.com/blog/Coffee-Talk-Java-News-Stories-and-Opinions/delete-local-git-repository-repo-command-windows-linux-rm#:~:text=If%20you're%20familiar%20with,files%20and%20folders%20it%20contains. ↩

3. https://www.mongodb.com/languages/mern-stack-tutorial ↩

4. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60152507/how-to-upload-a-full-stack-reactjs-nodejs-socketio-project-to-github-by-gi ↩

5. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17659206/git-push-results-in-authentication-failed ↩

6. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/68775869/message-support-for-password-authentication-was-removed-please-use-a-personal ↩