Node.js Boilerplate

This boilerplate is a comprehensive starting point for building a robust and scalable Node.js application. It includes essential features and best practices to help you get up and running quickly.

Table of Contents

• Getting Started
• Features
• Project Structure
• Installation
• Configuration
• Running the App
• Testing
• API Documentation
• Process Management
• Linting
• CI/CD
• Backup

Getting Started

Follow these instructions to set up the project on your local machine for development and testing purposes.

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v14.x or later)
• MongoDB
• npm (v6.x or later)

Features

• MongoDB with Mongoose: Utilize MongoDB's schema-based data modeling solution with Mongoose for efficient and organized database management.
• JWT RS256: Implement secure authentication and authorization using the robust JWT RS256 public key algorithm.
• Joi: Ensure data integrity with Joi, a powerful validation library for JavaScript.
• Winston and Morgan: Leverage Winston and Morgan for comprehensive logging solutions in your Node.js application.
• Jest: Employ Jest, a delightful JavaScript testing framework, to write and run unit and integration tests with ease.
• Centralized Error Handling: Adopt a middleware-based approach for consistent and centralized error handling across the application.
• Swagger: Document your RESTful APIs effortlessly with swagger-jsdoc and swagger-ui-express.
• PM2: Manage your Node.js application processes in production with PM2, an advanced process manager.
• dotenv: Load environment variables from a .env file to keep your configuration settings organized and secure.
• Helmet: Enhance your application's security by setting HTTP headers with Helmet.
• Data Sanitization: Protect against XSS and query injection attacks by sanitizing request data.
• CORS: Enable Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) to allow your API to be accessed from different domains.
• Compression: Improve your application's performance with gzip compression using the compression middleware.
• GitHub Actions: Automate your CI/CD pipeline with GitHub Actions for streamlined development workflows.
• Codacy: Maintain high code quality with automated reviews and monitoring through Codacy.
• ESLint and Prettier: Keep your codebase clean and consistent with linting and formatting tools ESLint and Prettier.
• Email Functionality: Incorporate essential email functionalities such as user registration, password reset, and resend link.
• MongoDB Backup: Schedule nightly backups of your MongoDB database to ensure data safety and reliability.
• Logging: Separate access and error logs for development and production environments to streamline troubleshooting and monitoring.

Project Structure

├── .github (contains github action yml file)
├── build (contains build code)
├── public (contains directory)
├── routes (contains all src routes )
        ├── fileRoute.js
        ├── index.js
        ├── initRoute.js
        ├── mainRoute.js
├──src
    ├── _helpers
    ├── API (Here You Can Write all Your API)
        ├── USER
            ├── user.controller.private.js
            ├── user.controller.public.js
            ├── user.route.private.js
            ├── user.route.public.js
            ├── user.model.js
            ├── user.validate.js
            ├── user.services.js
        ├── OtherAPI
├── utils (having some utility function like dbBackup)
├── www
    ├── appOptions
        ├── compressionOption.js
        ├── corsOptions.js
        ├── helmetOption.js
        ├── rateLimitOption.js
    ├── errorHandler
        ├── errorHandler.js  
    ├── initServer
        ├── initDB.js
        ├── initDirectory.js
        ├── initRedis.js
        ├── initSentry.js
    ├── logger
        ├── morgonLogger.js
        ├── winstonLogger.js
├── .env
├── app.js
├── server.js
├── .eslintignore
├── .eslintrc.js
├── .gitignore
├── .prettierrc
├── jest.config.js
├── package.json
├── ecosystem.config.js
└── README.md
└── webpack.config.js

Installation

Follow these steps to set up the project on your local machine:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/alamjamal/Node_Express_Production_Boilerplate.git
   cd Node_Express_Production_Boilerplate

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Set up environment variables:

   Create a .env file in the root directory and add the required environment variables. Refer to the .env.example file for the necessary variables.

   Example .env file:

   PORT=3000
   MONGODB_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/yourdbname
   JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
   EMAIL_HOST=smtp.your-email.com
   EMAIL_PORT=587
   EMAIL_USER=your-email@example.com
   EMAIL_PASS=your-email-password

4. Run the MongoDB server:

   Make sure MongoDB is installed and running on your local machine or use a cloud-hosted MongoDB instance.

5. Start the application in development mode:

   npm run dev

6. Start the application in production mode:

   npm start

Your Node.js application should now be up and running. Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:3000 to see the application in action.

CI/CD

Automate your development workflow with GitHub Actions for continuous integration and deployment. Below is the configuration for setting up CI/CD for your Node.js application.

GitHub Actions Configuration

Here is the .github/workflows/nodejs.yml file for your application:

# This workflow will do a clean installation of node dependencies, cache/restore them, build the source code and run tests across different versions of node
# For more information see: https://help.github.com/actions/language-and-framework-guides/using-nodejs-with-github-actions

Explanation

• Trigger: The workflow is triggered on every push to the main branch.
• Job: The job named build runs on a self-hosted runner.
• Node.js Setup: The workflow uses the system Node.js version specified in the matrix (20.x).
• Steps:
  • Checkout the code from the repository.
  • Verify the Node.js and npm versions.
  • Install dependencies using npm ci.
  • Build the application (if a build script is present).
  • Create a .env file and populate it with environment variables from GitHub Secrets.
  • Restart the application using PM2 with the updated environment variables.
  • Wait for 10 seconds to ensure the server uses the new environment variables.
  • Delete the .env file for security reasons.

Setting Up GitHub Secrets

To use the secrets in your workflow, you need to add them to your GitHub repository:

1. Go to your repository on GitHub.
2. Click on Settings.
3. Click on Secrets in the left sidebar.
4. Click on New repository secret.
5. Add all the required secrets (e.g., NODE_PORT, CLIENT_URL, MONGODB_URI, etc.).

Backup

Ensure the safety and reliability of your MongoDB data by scheduling nightly backups. Below are the steps to set up and manage backups for your MongoDB database.

MongoDB Backup Configuration

To automate the backup process, you can use a script that performs a dump of your MongoDB database and stores it in a specified directory. You can set this script to run every night using a cron job. like for every night use this // 0 0 * * *

Contributing

We welcome contributions to improve this project. If you have suggestions, bug reports, or improvements, please create an issue or submit a pull request.

How to Contribute

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a new branch (git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name).
3. Make your changes.
4. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some feature').
5. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/your-feature-name).
6. Create a new Pull Request.

Thank you for your contributions!

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.