ExpressJS - MongoDB - JWT API

This is small project I had to develop as an example. The idea was to develop a Web Application similar to a blog.

As I mostly develop using the Meteor framework, I wanted for this project to be (re-)usable as a boilerplate for ExpressJS projects. I read a really nice tutorial you can find here with its source on this GitHub repo both were great inspiration as you can see. So kudos go to @CROSP !

What is it ? Started as an exercise...

So let's get to the point of this exercise. And what is expected to be able to achieve.

Back end

Develop a REST API, that will allow a user to login. Once logged in the user will be able to:

• Read a post
• Write a post
• Edit his own posts only if the user add a tag #EDIT
• Delete a post only when conditions are met (1)
• Write comments on posts
• Edit his own comments only if the user add a tag #EDIT
• Delete his own comments only when conditions are met (2)

(1) In this example the trigger is "if the post has no answer and has been posted in the past 2 hours"

(2) In this example the trigger is "if the post has been posted in the past 23 hours 42 minutes"

Of course, timeouts values were just part of the exercise and the proof of concept was to find a proper way to add your own rules with the assurance of good code maintenability while keeping everything proper.

Front end

No front end developped, not the point as it is pure API 😄

## How it works ?

You can have a look at the API for detailed view on routes and the operations allowed. I am currently also writting a more in depth documentation on how it works here.

Technologies

• For the API:

  • NodeJS (tested with v6+)
  • ExpressJS
  • MongoDB with Mongoose
  • JWT (JSON Web Token)

• For the tests:

  • Mocha
  • Chai

• For all:

  • CoffeeScript
  • Docker

Caveats

I committed private keys as this is supposed to be an example, not production ready code !

It is up to you to clear them if you want and use this code as your base for your own piece of software ! 🚀

As the Dockerfile stipulates, every time the container is built a new set of public/private key pairs are generated. 😉

How to run ?

# To run the test suite
$ docker-compose up test

# To run the application itself
$ docker-compose up staging

TODO

Well, complete testing, and maybe enhance some parts ! What could be done first is to complete a fully compliant RESTful API with HATEOAS for fun. 😉

• implement PATCH methods
• separate process workflow with PUT method

Then, so many things can be done, like front end, additional features, and why not write a blog article based on that piece of software 😆

Feedback

Feel free to use this code sample as a base of your ExpressJS applications, comments, issues, and pull requests are most welcome ! 🍺