Introduction

This project is the backend of Vidly, an imaginary video rental app. I've used Vidly as an example in several of my online programming courses, such as:

• https://codewithmosh.com/p/mastering-react
• https://codewithmosh.com/p/the-complete-node-js-course
• https://codewithmosh.com/p/asp-net-mvc

This is the implementation of Vidly in Node.js.

Setup

Make sure to follow all these steps exactly as explained below. Do not miss any steps or you won't be able to run this application.

Install MongoDB

To run this project, you need to install the latest version of MongoDB Community Edition first.

https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/installation/

Once you install MongoDB, make sure it's running.

Install the Dependencies

Next, from the project folder, install the dependencies:

npm i

Populate the Database

node seed.js

Run the Tests

You're almost done! Run the tests to make sure everything is working:

npm test

All tests should pass.

Start the Server

node index.js

This will launch the Node server on port 3900. If that port is busy, you can set a different point in config/default.json.

Open up your browser and head over to:

http://localhost:3900/api/genres

You should see the list of genres. That confirms that you have set up everything successfully.

(Optional) Environment Variables

If you look at config/default.json, you'll see a property called jwtPrivateKey. This key is used to encrypt JSON web tokens. So, for security reasons, it should not be checked into the source control. I've set a default value here to make it easier for you to get up and running with this project. For a production scenario, you should store this key as an environment variable.

On Mac:

export vidly_jwtPrivateKey=yourSecureKey

On Windows:

set vidly_jwtPrivateKey=yourSecureKey