A boilerplate for Node.js web applications.
Live Demo: http://hackathonstarter.herokuapp.com 
If you have attended any hackathons in the past then you know how much time it takes to get a project started. Decide on an idea, pick a programming language, pick a web framework, pick a CSS framework. A while later, you will have an initial project up on GitHub, and only then can other team members start contributing. Or what about doing something as simple as OAuth 2.0 Authentication? You can spend hours on it if you are not familiar with how OAuth 2.0 works. (As a side-note, over a year ago I had no idea WTF REST or OAuth were, or how to do a simple "Sign in with Facebook". It was a frustrating experience to say the least.)
When I started this project, my primary focus was on simplicity and ease of use. I also tried to make it as generic and reusable as possible to cover most use cases of hackathon web apps, without being too specific. In the worst case you can use this as a guide for your projects, if for example you are only interested in Sign in with Google authentication and nothing else.
Chances are, you might not need all 4 types of OAuth 1.0a/OAuth2 authentication methods, or all 12+ API examples. So, use what you need and delete what you don't need. As of recently, it is possible to selectively enable/disable authentication methods in config/secrets.js.
- Features
- Prerequisites
- Getting Started
- Obtaining API Keys
- Project Structure
- List of Packages
- Useful Tools
- Recommended Design
- Recommended Node.js Libraries
- Recommended Client-Side Libraries
- Pro Tips
- FAQ
- How It Works
- Mongoose Cheatsheet
- Deployment
- Contributing
- License
- Local Authentication using Email and Password
- OAuth 1.0a Authentication via Twitter
- OAuth 2.0 Authentication via Facebook, Google, GitHub or LinkedIn
- Awesome flash notifications with animations by animate.css
- MVC Project Structure
- Node.js clusters support
- Rails 3.1-style asset pipeline (See FAQ)
- LESS stylesheets (auto-compiled via Express middleware)
- Bootstrap 3 + Flat UI + iOS7 Theme
- Contact Form (powered by Mailgun or Sendgrid)
- Account Management
- Gravatar
- Profile Details
- Change Password
- Link multiple OAuth strategies to one account
- Delete Account
- Forgot Password
- API Examples: Facebook, Foursquare, Last.fm, Tumblr, Twitter, PayPal, and more.
- MongoDB
- Node.js
- Command Line Tools
Mac OS X: Xcode (or OS X 10.9 Mavericks:
xcode-select --install)Windows: Visual Studio
Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install build-essentialFedora:
sudo yum groupinstall "Development Tools"OpenSUSE:
sudo zypper install --type pattern devel_basis
❗ Note: If you are new to Node.js or Express framework, I highly recommend watching Node.js and Express 101 screencast by Alex Ford that teaches Node and Express from scratch. Alternatively, here is another great tutorial for complete beginners - Getting Started With Node.js, Express, MongoDB.
The easiest way to get started is to clone the repository:
# Fetch only the latest commits
git clone --depth=1 git@github.com:sahat/hackathon-starter.git my-project
cd my-project
# Install NPM dependencies
npm install
node app.js❗ Note: I strongly recommend installing nodemon sudo npm install -g nodemon.
It will monitor for any changes in your node.js
application and automatically restart the server. Once installed, instead of node app.js use nodemon app.js.
It will save you a lot of time in the long run, because you won't need to manually restart the server each time you make a change.
Next, if you want to use any of the included APIs or OAuth authentication methods, you will need to obtain appropriate credentials: Client ID, Client Secret, API Key, or Username & Password. You will need to go through each provider to generate new credentials.
📌 You could support all 5 authentication methods by setting up OAuth keys, but you don't have to. If you would only like to have Facebook sign-in and Local sign-in with email and password, in secrets.js set googleAuth: false, twitterOauth: false, githubAuth: false. By doing so, Google, Twitter and Github buttons will not show up on the Login page. If you set localAuth: false, users will not be able to login/create an account with email and password or change password in the Account Management page.
💡 Alternatively, if you would like to completely remove authentication methods that you do not plan on using, you will need to manually delete the code yourself. Let's say you want to keep only Local authentication. Start by deleting FacebookStrategy, TwitterStrategy, GitHubStrategy, GoogleStrategy require lines and their corresponding defined strategies in passport.js. Then in login.jade template delete the entire .btn-group, leaving only the form with Email and Password.
Update User.js model by deleting the following fields: facebook, github, google, twitter. In your profile.jade template delete the entire code starting with h3 Linked Accounts. And finally delete the corresponding routes that have /auth/provider and /auth/provider/callback, for example:
app.get('/auth/facebook', passport.authenticate('facebook', { scope: ['email', 'user_location'] }));
app.get('/auth/facebook/callback', passport.authenticate('facebook', { successRedirect: '/', failureRedirect: '/login' }));
❗ Note: When you ready to deploy to production don't forget to add your new url to Authorized Javascript origins and Authorized redirect URI, e.g. http://my-awesome-app.herokuapp.com and http://my-awesome-app.herokuapp.com/auth/google/callback respectively. The same goes for other providers.
❗ Note: After a successful sign in with Facebook, a user will be redirected back to home page with appended hash #_=_ in the URL. It is not a bug. See this Stack Overflow discussion for ways to handle it.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| config/passport.js | Passport Local and OAuth strategies + Passport middleware. |
| config/secrets.js | Your API keys, tokens, passwords and database URL. |
| controllers/api.js | Controller for /api route and all api examples. |
| controllers/contact.js | Controller for contact form. |
| controllers/home.js | Controller for home page (index). |
| controllers/user.js | Controller for user account management. |
| models/User.js | Mongoose schema and model for User. |
| public/* | Static assets (fonts, css, js, img) |
| **public/js/**application.js | Declare which JavaScript files should be loaded, e.g. jQuery, Bootstrap, main.js. |
| **public/js/**main.js | Place your client-side JavaScript here. |
| public/css/styles.less | Main stylesheet for your app. |
| public/css/themes/default.less | Some Bootstrap overrides to make it look prettier. |
| views/account/ | Templates for login, password reset, signup, profile. |
| views/api/ | Templates for API Examples. |
| views/partials/flash.jade | Error, info and success flash notifications. |
| views/partials/navigation.jade | Navbar partial template. |
| views/partials/footer.jade | Footer partial template. |
| views/layout.jade | Base template. |
| views/home.jade | Home page template. |
| app.js | Main application file. |
| cluster_app.js | Runs multiple instances of app.js using Node.js clusters. |
❗ Note: There is no preference how you name or structure your views. You could place all your templates in a top-level views directory without having a nested folder structure, if that makes things easier for you. Just don't forget to update extends ../layout and corresponding res.render() method in controllers.
| Package | Description |
|---|---|
| async | Utility library that provides asynchronous control flow. |
| bcrypt-nodejs | Library for hashing and salting user passwords. |
| cheerio | Scrape web pages using jQuery-style syntax. |
| clockwork | Clockwork SMS API library. |
| connect-mongo | MongoDB session store for Express. |
| connect-assets | Compiles LESS stylesheets, concatenates/minifies JavaScript. |
| csso | Dependency for connect-assets library. |
| express | Web framework. |
| express-flash | Provides flash messages for Express. Uses connect-flash internally. |
| express-validator | Easy form validation for Express. Uses node-validator internally. |
| fbgraph | Facebook Graph API library |
| github-api | GitHub API library |
| jade | Template engine for node.js |
| lastfm | Last.fm API library |
| less | LESS compiler. Used implicitly by connect-assets. |
| mongoose | MongoDB object modeling tool |
| node-foursquare | Foursquare API library |
| node-linkedin | LinkedIn API library |
| nodemailer | Node.js library for sending emails |
| passport | Simple and elegant authentication library for node.js |
| passport-facebook | Sign-in with Facebook plugin. |
| passport-github | Sign-in with GitHub plugin. |
| passport-google-oauth | Sign-in with Google plugin. |
| passport-twitter | Sign-in with Twitter plugin. |
| passport-local | Sign-in with Username and Password plugin. |
| passport-linkedin-oauth2 | Sign-in with LinkedIn plugin. |
| passport-oauth | Allows you to set up your own OAuth 1.0a and OAuth 2.0 strategies. |
| request | Simplified HTTP request library. |
| tumblr.js | Tumblr API library. |
| underscore | Handy JavaScript utlities library. |
| uglify-js | Dependency for connect-assets library. |
| paypal-rest-sdk | PayPal API library. |
| twilio | Twilio API library. |
| twit | Twitter API library. |
| validator | Used in conjunction with express-validator in controllers/api.js. |
- Jade Syntax Documentation by Example - Even better than official Jade docs.
- HTML to Jade converter - Extremely valuable when you need to quickly copy and paste HTML snippets from the web.
- JavascriptOO - A directory of JavaScript libraries with examples, CDN links, statistics, and videos.
- UIBox - Curated HTML, CSS, JS, UI components.
- Bootstrap Zero - Free Bootstrap templates themes.
- Google Bootstrap - Google-styled theme for Bootstrap.
- Bootflat - Open Source Flat UI Kit based on Twitter Bootstrap 3.
- Font Awesome Icons - It's already part of the Hackathon Starter, so use this page as a reference.
- Colors - a nicer color palette for the web.
- SpinKit - 8 awesome looking spinning loaders in CSS.
- Creative Button Styles - awesome button styles.
- Creative Link Effects - Beautiful link effects in CSS.
- Medium Scroll Effect - Fade in/out header background image as you scroll.
- nodemon - Automatically restart Node.js server on code changes.
- geoip-lite - Geolocation coordinates from IP address.
- filesize.js - Pretty file sizes, e.g.
filesize(265318); // "265.32 kB". - Numeral.js - JavaScript library for formatting and manipulating numbers.
- Node Inspector - Node.js debugger based on Chrome Developer Tools.
- Framework7 - Full Featured HTML Framework For Building iOS7 Apps.
- InstantClick - Makes your pages load instantly by pre-loading them on mouse hover.
- NProgress.js - Slim progress bars like on YouTube and Medium.
- Hover - Awesome CSS3 animations on mouse hover.
- Magnific Popup - Responsive jQuery Lightbox Plugin.
- jQuery Raty - Star Rating Plugin.
- Headroom.js - Hide your header until you need it.
- X-editable - Edit form elements inline.
- Offline.js - Detect when user's internet connection goes offline.
- Alertify.js - Sweet looking alerts and browser dialogs.
- selectize.js - Styleable select elements and input tags.
- drop.js - Powerful Javascript and CSS library for creating dropdowns and other floating displays.
- scrollReveal.js - Declarative on-scroll reveal animations.
- When installing an NPM package, add a --save flag, and it will be automatially
added to
package.jsonas well. For example,npm install --save moment. - Use async.parallel() when you need to run multiple asynchronous tasks, and then render a page, but only when all tasks are completed. For example, you might want to scrape 3 different websites for some data (async operation) and render the results in a template after all 3 websites have been scraped.
- Need to find a specific object inside an Array? Use _.findWhere function from Underscore.js. For example, this is how you would retrieve a Twitter token from database:
var token = _.findWhere(req.user.tokens, { kind: 'twitter' });, wherereq.user.tokensis an Array, and a second parameter is an object with a given key/value. - If you right click and select View Page Source, notice how Express
minified HTML for you. If you would like to see non-minified markup,
add
app.locals.pretty = true;to app.js with the rest of the Express configuration.
You need to add this hidden input element to your form. This has been added in the pull request #40.
input(type='hidden', name='_csrf', value=_csrf)
You can read more about CSRF protection middleware at the Express API Reference.
From the Node.js Documentation:
A single instance of Node runs in a single thread. To take advantage of multi-core systems the user will sometimes want to launch a cluster of Node processes to handle the load. The cluster module allows you to easily create child processes that all share server ports.
cluster_app.js allows you to take advantage of this feature by forking a process of app.js
for each CPU detected. For the majority of applications serving HTTP requests,
this is a resounding boon. However, the cluster module is still in experimental stage, therefore it should only be used after understanding its purpose and behavior. To use it, simply run node cluster_app.js. Its use is entirely optional and app.js is not tied in any way to it. As a reminder, if you plan to use cluster_app.js instead of app.js, be sure to indicate that in package.json when you are ready to deploy your app.
This is how you typically define static files inside HTML, Jade or any template for that matter:
link(href='/css/styles.css', rel='stylesheet')
script(src='/js/lib/jquery-2.1.0.min.js')
script(src='/js/lib/bootstrap.min.js')
script(src='/js/main.js')Simple enough right? But wouldn't it be nice to have it just like that in development mode, but when you deploy to production, have it minified and concatenated into a single file automatically without any extra effort on you part?
link(href='/css/styles.css', rel='stylesheet')
script(src='/js/application.js')As soon as you start bringing in more JavaScript libraries, the benefits of concatenating and minifying JavaScript files will be even greater. Using connect-assets library, it is as as simple as declaring these two lines:
!= css('styles') // expects public/css/styles.less
!= js('application') // expects public/js/application.js
💡 Tip: This works, because in connect-assets middleware we specified helperContext: app.locals.
The only thing you need to remember is to define your JavaScript files inside public/js/application.js using this
strange syntax notation (Sprockets-style) borrowed from Rails. I know it's an extra thing to learn
for someone who has never seen Rails asset pipeline before, but in this case, benefits outweigh the cost.
//= require lib/jquery-2.1.0.min
//= require lib/bootstrap.min
//= require mainUsing this approach, when working in development mode, connect-assets will load each file individually,
without minifying or concatenating anything. When you deploy your app, it will run in production mode, and so
connect-assets will automatically serve a single concatenated + minified application.js. For more
information see Sprockets-style concatenation
That's a custom error message defined in app.js to indicate that there was a connection problem to MongoDB:
mongoose.connection.on('error', function() {
console.error('✗ MongoDB Connection Error. Please make sure MongoDB is running.');
});As the message says, you need to have a MongoDB server running before launching app.js. You can download MongoDB here, or install it via a package manager
(Homebrew on Mac, apt-get on Ubuntu, yum on Fedora, etc.)
Chances are you haven't changed the Dabatase URI in secrets.js. If db is set to localhost, it will only work
on your machine as long as MongoDB is running. When you deploy to Heroku, OpenShift or some other provider, you will not have MongoDB
running on localhost. You need to create an account with MongoLab or MongoHQ, then create a free tier database. See Deployment for more information on how to
setup an account and a new database step-by-step with MongoLab.
When I first started this project I didn't have any experience with Handlebars. Since then I have worked on Ember.js apps and got myself familiar with the Handlebars syntax. While it is true Handlebars is easier, because it looks like good old HTML, I have no regrets picking Jade over Handlebars. First off, it's the default template engine in Express, so someone who has built Express apps in the past already knows it. Secondly, I find extends and block to be indispensable, which as far as I know, Handlebars does not have out of the box. And lastly, subjectively speaking, Jade looks much cleaner and shorter than Handlebars, or any non-HAML style for that matter.
For the sake of simplicity. While there might be a better approach,
such as passing app context to each controller as outlined in this
blog,
I find such style to be confusing for beginners.
It took me a long time to grasp the concept of exports and module.exports,
let alone having a global app reference in other files.
That to me is a backward thinking.
The app.js is the "heart of the app", it should be the one referencing
models, routes, controllers, etc.
When working solo on small projects I actually prefer to have everything inside app.js as is the case with this
REST API server.
Absolutely. But unlike a regular footer there is a bit more work involved. First, delete #wrap and #footer ID selectors and html, body { height: 100%; } from styles.less. Next, delete #wrap and #footer lines from layout.jade (By the way, If no element is specified before the class or id, Jade assumes it's a div element). Don't forget to indent everything under #wrap to the left once, since this project uses two spaces per block indentation.
It might be possible, but why would you want to? I specifically avoided client-side MV* frameworks in this project to keep things simple. There is a big shift in the way you develop apps with Ember, Backbone, Angular as opposed to server-side frameworks like Express, Flask, Rails, Django. Not only would you need to know how to use Express in this case, but also the client-side framework of your choice, which in itself is not a trivial task. And then there is a whole different process for authentication with single page applications. If you insist on using a client-side framework, it's best if you use a boilerplate of choice for your particular client-side framework and just grab the pieces you need from the Hackathon Starter.
If you would like to use Persona authentication strategy, use the pull request #64 as a reference guide. I have explained my reasons why it could not be merged into the Hackathon Starter in issue #63.
If you would like to use Mailgun service instead of SendGrid for sending emails, open controllers/contact.js, then inside var smtpTransport = nodemailer.createTransport('SMTP', { }); comment out or delete SendGrid code block, and uncomment Mailgun code block. You are not limited to just SendGrid or Mailgun. Nodemailer library supports many other providers, including GMail, iCloud, Hotmail, Yahoo, Mail.ru. Just don't forget to add username and password for that service provider to secrets.js.
This section is intended for giving you a detailed explanation about how a particular functionality works. Maybe you are just curious about how it works, or maybe you are lost and confused while reading the code, I hope it provides some guidance to you.
###:rose: Custom HTML and CSS Design 101
HTML5 UP has many beautiful templates that you can download for free.
When you download the ZIP file, it will come with index.html, images, css and js folders. So, how do you integrate it with Hackathon Starter? Hackathon Starter uses Bootstrap CSS framework, but these templates do not. Trying to use both CSS files at the same time will likely result in undesired effects.
❗ Note: Using the custom templates approach, you should understand that you cannot reuse any of the views I have created: layout, home page, api browser, login, signup, account management, contact. Those views were built using Bootstrap grid and styles. You will have to manually update the grid using a different syntax provided in the template. Having said that, you can mix and match if you want to do so: Use Bootstrap for main app interface, and a custom template for a landing page.
Let's start from the beginning. For this example I will use Escape Velocity template:
Note: For the sake of simplicity I will only consider index.html, and skip left-sidebar.html,
no-sidebar.html, right-sidebar.html.
Move all javascript files from html5up-escape-velocity/js to public/js. Then move all css files from html5up-escape-velocity/css to public/css. And finally, move all images from html5up-escape-velocity/images to public/images (You could move it to the existing img folder, but then you would have to manually change every img reference). Grab the contents of index.html and paste it into HTML To Jade.
Create a new file escape-velocity.jade and paste the Jade markup there. Change !!! 5 to doctype html. It's a fairly recent
change in Jade language, but http://html2jade.aaron-powell.com hasn't caught up to this change yet.
Let's see how it looks. Create a new controller escapeVelocity inside controllers/home.js:
exports.escapeVelocity = function(req, res) {
res.render('escape-velocity', {
title: 'Landing Page'
});
};And then create a route in app.js. I placed it right after the index controller:
app.get('/escape-velocity', homeController.escapeVelocity);Restart the server (if you are not using nodemon), then you should see the new template at http://localhost:3000/escape-velocity.
I will stop right here, but if you would like to use this template as more than just a single page, take a look at how these Jade templates work: layout.jade - base template, index.jade - home page, partials/navigation.jade - Bootstrap navbar, partials/footer.jade - sticky footer. You will have to manually break it apart into smaller pieces. Figure out which part of the template you want to keep the same on all pages - that's your new layout.jade.
Then, each page that changes, be it index.jade, about.jade, contact.jade
will be embedded in your new layout.jade via block content. Use existing templates as a reference.
This is a rather lengthy process, and templates you get from elsewhere, might have yet another grid system. That's why I chose Bootstrap for the Hackathon Starter. Many people are already familiar with Bootstrap, plus it's easy to get started with it if you have never used Bootstrap. You can also buy many beautifully designed Bootstrap themes at Themeforest, and use them as a drop-in replacement for Hackathon Starter. However, if you would like to go with a completely custom HTML/CSS design, this should help you to get started!
###:bulb: How do flash messages work in this project?
Flash messages allow you to display a message at the end of the request and access
it on next request and only next request. For instance, on a failed login attempt, you would
display an alert with some error message, but as soon as you refresh that page or visit a different
page and come back to the login page, that error message will be gone. It is only displayed once.
This project uses express-flash module for flash messages. And that
module is built on top of connect-flash, which is what I used in
this project initially. With express-flash you don't have to
explicity send a flash message to every view inside res.render().
All flash messages are available in your views via messages object by default,
thanks to express-flash.
Flash messages have a two-step process. You use req.flash('errors', { msg: 'Error messages goes here' }
to create a flash message in your controllers, and then display them in your views:
if messages.errors
.alert.alert-danger.animated.fadeIn
for error in messages.errors
div= error.msgIn the first step, 'errors' is the name of a flash message, which should match the
name of the property on messages object in your views. You place alert messages
inside if message.errors because you don't want to show them flash messages are actually present.
The reason why you pass an error like { msg: 'Error messages goes here' } instead
of just a string - 'Error messages goes here', is for the sake of consistency.
To clarify that, express-validator module which is used for validating and sanitizing user's input,
returns all errors as an array of objects, where each object has a msg property with a message
why an error has occured. Here is a more general example of what express-validator returns when there are errors present:
[
{ param: "name", msg: "Name is required", value: "<received input>" },
{ param: "email", msg: "A valid email is required", value: "<received input>" }
]To keep consistent with that style, you should pass all flash messages
as { msg: 'My flash message' } instead of a string. Otherwise you will just see an alert box
without an error message. That is because, in partials/flash.jade template it will try to output
error.msg (i.e. "My flash message".msg), in other words it will try to call a msg method on a String object,
which will return undefined. Everything I just mentioned about errors, also applies
to "info" and "success" flash messages, and you could even create a new one yourself, such as:
Data Usage Controller (Example)
req.flash('warning', { msg: 'You have exceeded 90% of your data usage' });
User Account Page (Example)
if messages.warning
.alert.alert-warning.animated.fadeIn
for warning in messages.warning
div= warning.msgpartials/flash.jade is a partial template that contains how flash messages
are formatted. If you don't like the fadeIn animation, try something like
flipInX (refer to animate.css), or just
delete .animated.fadeIn from alerts if you don't want any animations. Or if you
want to customize your flash messages by displaying ✔ on success flash and ✗ on error
flash, this is the place where you would do all those customizations. Previously, flash
messages were scattered throughout each view that used flash messages
(contact, login, signup, profile), but now, thankfully it is uses a DRY approach.
The flash messages partial template is included in the layout.jade, along with footer and navigation.
body
#wrap
include partials/navigation
.container
include partials/flash
block content
include partials/footerIf you have any further questions about flash messages, please feel free to open an issue and I will update this mini-guide accordingly, or send a pull request if you would like to include something that I missed.
###:snowman: How do I create a new page?
A more correct way to be to say "How do I create a new route". The main file app.js contains all the routes.
Each route has a callback function associated with it. Sometimes you will see 3 or more arguments
to routes. In cases like that, the first argument is still a URL string, while middle arguments
are what's called middleware. Think of middleware as a door. If this door prevents you from
continuing forward, you won't get to your callback function. One such example is a route that requires authentication.
app.get('/account', passportConf.isAuthenticated, userController.getAccount);It always goes from left to right. A user visits /account page. Then isAuthenticated middleware
checks if you are authenticated:
exports.isAuthenticated = function(req, res, next) {
if (req.isAuthenticated()) {
return next();
}
res.redirect('/login');
};If you are authenticated, you let this visitor pass through your "door" by calling return next();. It then proceeds to the
next middleware until it reaches the last argument, which is a callback function that typically renders a template on GET requests or redirects on POST requests. In this case, if you are authenticated, then you will see Account Management page, otherwise you will be redirected to Login page.
exports.getAccount = function(req, res) {
res.render('account/profile', {
title: 'Account Management'
});
};Express.js has app.get, app.post, app.put, app.del, but for the most part you will only use the first two.
If you just want to display a page, then use GET, if you are submitting a form, sending a file then use POST.
Here is a typical workflow for adding new routes to your application. Let's say we are building a page that lists all books from database.
Step 1. Start by defining a route.
app.get('/books', bookController.getBooks);Step 2. Create a new controller file called book.js.
/**
* GET /books
* List all books.
*/
exports.getBooks = function(req, res) {
Book.find(function(err, docs) {
res.render('books', { books: docs });
});
};Step 3. Import that controller in app.js.
var bookController = require('./controllers/book');Step 4. Create books.jade template.
extends layout
block content
.page-header
h3 All Books
ul
for book in books
li= book.nameThat's it! I will say that you could have combined Step 1, 2, 3 as following:
app.get('/books', function(req, res) {
Book.find(function(err, docs) {
res.render('books', { books: docs });
});
});Sure, it's simpler, but as soon as you pass 1000 lines of code in app.js it becomes a little difficult to navigate the file.
I mean, the whole point of this boilerplate project was to separate concerns, so you could
work with your teammates without running into MERGE CONFLICTS. Imagine you have 4 developers
working on a single app.js, I promise you it won't be fun resolving merge conflicts all the time.
If you are the only developer then it's fine. But as I said, once it gets up to a certain LoC size, it becomes
difficult to maintain everything in a single file.
That's all there is to it. Express.js is super simple to use. Most of the time you will be dealing with other APIs to do the real work: Mongoose for querying database, socket.io for sending and receiving messages over websockets, sending emails via Nodemailer, form validation using express-validator library, parsing websites using Cheerio, and etc.
###:dizzy: How do I use Socket.io with Hackathon Starter? Dan Stroot submitted an excellent pull request that adds a real-time dashboard with socket.io. And as much as I'd like to add it to the project, I think it violates one of the main principles of the Hackathon Starter:
When I started this project, my primary focus was on simplicity and ease of use. I also tried to make it as generic and reusable as possible to cover most use cases of hackathon web apps, without being too specific.
When I need to use socket.io, I really need it, but most of the time - I don't. But more importantly, websockets support is still experimental on most hosting providers. As of October 2013, Heroku supports websockets, but not until you opt-in by running this command:
heroku labs:enable websockets -a myappAnd what if you are deploying to OpenShift? They do support websockets, but it is currently in a preview state. So, for OpenShift you would need to change the socket.io connect URI to the following:
var socket = io.connect('http://yoursite-namespace.rhcloud.com:8000');Wait, why is it on port 8000? Who knows, and if I didn't run across this blog post I wouldn't even know I had to use port 8000.
I am really glad that Heroku and OpenShift at least have a websockets support, because many other PaaS providers still do not support it. Due to the aforementioned issues with websockets, I cannot include socket.io as part of the Hackathon Starter. For now... If you need to use socket.io in your app, please continue reading.
First you need to install socket.io:
npm install socket.io --saveReplace var app = express(); with the following code:
var app = express();
var http = require('http');
var server = http.createServer(app);
var io = require('socket.io').listen(server);I like to have the following code organization in app.js (from top to bottom): module dependencies,
import controllers, import configs, connect to database, express configuration, routes,
start the server, socket.io stuff. That way I always know where to look for things.
Add the following code at the end of app.js:
io.configure(function() {
io.set('transports', ['websocket']);
});
io.sockets.on('connection', function(socket) {
socket.emit('greet', { hello: 'Hey, Mr.Client!' });
socket.on('respond', function(data) {
console.log(data);
});
socket.on('disconnect', function() {
console.log('Socket disconnected');
});
});One last thing left to change:
app.listen(app.get('port'), function() {to
server.listen(app.get('port'), function() {At this point we are done with the back-end.
You now have a choice - to include your JavaScript code in Jade templates or have all your client-side
JavaScript in a separate file - in main.js. I will admit, when I first started out with Node.js and JavaScript in general,
I placed all JavaScript code inside templates because I have access to template variables passed in from Express
right then and there. It's the easiest thing you can do, but also the least efficient and harder to maintain. Since then I
almost never include inline JavaScript inside templates anymore.
But it's also understandable if you want take the easier road. Most of the time you don't even care about performance during hackathons, you just want to "get shit done" before the time runs out. Well, either way, use whichever approach makes more sense to you. At the end of the day, it's what you build that matters, not how you build it.
If you want to stick all your JavaScript inside templates, then in layout.jade -
your main template file, add this to head block.
script(src='/socket.io/socket.io.js?v=#{cacheBuster}')
script.
var socket = io.connect(window.location.href);
socket.on('greet', function (data) {
console.log(data);
socket.emit('respond', { message: 'Hello to you too, Mr.Server!' });
});Note: Notice the path of the socket.io.js, you don't actually
have to have socket.io.js file anywhere in your project; it will be generated automatically
at runtime.
If you want to have JavaScript code separate from templates, move that inline script code into main.js,
inside the $(document).ready() function:
$(document).ready(function() {
// Place JavaScript code here...
var socket = io.connect(window.location.href);
socket.on('greet', function (data) {
console.log(data);
socket.emit('respond', { message: 'Hello to you too, Mr.Server!' });
});
});And that's it, we are done!
If you want to see a really cool real-time dashboard check out this live example. Refer to the pull request #23 to see how it is implemented.
There are 4 routes in total that handle forgot password and reset password:
app.get('/forgot', forgotController.getForgot);
app.post('/forgot', forgotController.postForgot);
app.get('/reset/:token', resetController.getReset);
app.post('/reset/:token', resetController.postReset);The first step begins at the get GET /forgot when user clicks on Forgot your password? link on the Login page. The POST /forgot handles the form submission. If email address is valid, it creates a random 20-bit hash, finds that user’s email in the database and sets resetPasswordToken field to the newly generated random 20-bit hash, additionally resetPasswordExpires is set to 1 hour into the future. That means from the moment you receive an email, that reset link will be valid only for one hour (for security reasons it’s a good practice to expire reset password links). If 1 hour is too short for your needs, feel free to increase it. The final step is to actually send an email with a reset link. This is all elegantly done using async.waterfall control flow.
Notice how it handles the case when no email address exists:
if (!user) {
req.flash('errors', { msg: 'No account with that email address exists.' });
return res.redirect('/forgot');
}Some people might find this approach to be less secure. Maybe a better approach might have been to let the user know “If there is an account with provided e-mail address, we will send you a reset link”. Again, feel free to change it based on your application needs.
The second step involves resetting a password. After clicking on a reset link, it redirects you to a page where you can set a new password. The token validity check is performed twice - on GET request when you click on a reset link and on POST request after you submit a new password. After selecting a new password, both passwordResetToken and resetPasswordExpire fields are deleted from the database. This is easily done by setting their value to undefined; Mongoose will run $unset internally. And finally, user is logged in with the new password and a confirmation email is sent notifying about the password change.
User.find(function(err, users) {
console.log(users);
});var userEmail = 'example@gmail.com';
User.findOne({ email: userEmail }, function(err, user) {
console.log(user);
});User
.find()
.sort({ _id: -1 })
.limit(5)
.exec(function(err, users) {
console.log(users);
});Let's suppose that each user has a votes field and you would like to count the total number of votes in your database accross all users. One very inefficient way would be to loop through each document and manually accumulate the count. Or you could use MongoDB Aggregation Framework instead:
User.aggregate({ $group: { _id: null, total: { $sum: '$votes' } } }, function(err, votesCount) {
console.log(votesCount.total);
});Once you are ready to deploy your app, you will need to create an account with a cloud platform to host it. These are not the only choices, but they are my top picks. Create an account with MongoLab and then pick one of the 4 providers below. Once again, there are plenty of other choices and you are not limited to just the ones listed below. From my experience, Heroku is the easiest to get started with, it will automatically restart your node.js process when it crashes, custom domain support on free accounts and zero-downtime deployments.
❗Note: As an alternative to MongoLab, there is also MongoHQ.
Add these two lines to app.js, just place them anywhere before app.listen():
var IP_ADDRESS = process.env.OPENSHIFT_NODEJS_IP || '127.0.0.1';
var PORT = process.env.OPENSHIFT_NODEJS_PORT || 8080;Then change app.listen() to:
app.listen(PORT, IP_ADDRESS, function() {
console.log("✔ Express server listening on port %d in %s mode", PORT, app.settings.env);
});Add this to package.json, after name and version. This is necessary because, by default, OpenShift looks for server.js file. And by specifying supervisor app.js it will automatically restart the server when node.js process crashes.
"main": "app.js",
"scripts": {
"start": "supervisor app.js"
},- Finally, now you can push your code to OpenShift by running
git push -f openshift master - Note: The first time you run this command, you have to pass
-f(force) flag because OpenShift creates a dummy server with the welcome page when you create a new Node.js app. Passing-fflag will override everything with your Hackathon Starter project repository. Please do not dogit pullas it will create unnecessary merge conflicts. - And you are done! (Not quite as simple as Heroku, huh?)
- Login to Windows Azure Management Portal
- Click the + NEW button on the bottom left of the portal
- Click WEB SITE, then QUICK CREATE
- Enter a name for URL and select the datacenter REGION for your web site
- Click on CREATE WEB SITE button
- Once the web site status changes to Running, click on the name of the web site to access the Dashboard
- At the bottom right of the Quickstart page, select Set up a deployment from source control
- Select Local Git repository from the list, and then click the arrow
- To enable Git publishing, Azure will ask you to create a user name and password
- Once the Git repository is ready, you will be presented with a GIT URL
- Inside your Hackathon Starter directory, run
git remote add azure [Azure Git URL] - To push your changes simply run
git push azure master - Note: You will be prompted for the password you created earlier
- On Deployments tab of your Windows Azure Web Site, you will see the deployment history
If something is unclear, confusing, or needs to be refactored, please let me know. Pull requests are always welcome, but due to the opinionated nature of this project, I cannot accept every pull request. Please open an issue before submitting a pull request. This project uses Airbnb JavaScript Style Guide with a few minor exceptions. If you are submitting a pull request that involves Jade templates, please make sure you are using spaces, not tabs.
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) 2014 Sahat Yalkabov
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.