• Babel Express Server
• Eslint with airbnb config

A quote board site with the ability to

1. Create a Quote
2. Delete a Quote

Node.js is a Javascript environment that allows us to run the language outside of the browser. Javascript is an asynchronous, non-blocking, event driving, language. This model allows JavaScript to manage multiple requests/users in a performant manner and hence makes it an invaluable language for client and server-side web development.

Express.js offers us routing via middleware. Middleware functions act on user request and can pass them along. This pattern makes express middleware functions composable and reduces the need for repeated code.

I recommend using Node Version Manager or nvm to install node.

Mac

$ curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.2/install.sh | bash
$ nvm install node

Windows

Go to the node and click install node 7.

We also need to install mongodb

• Mac
• Windows

1. Create a fork of: https://github.com/RcrsvSquid/express-workshop
2. Clone your fork

$ git clone <YOUR_FORK_URL>
$ cd <YOUR_NEW_REPO>

NPM stands for Node Package Manager. NPM creates a package.json file which lists all the dependencies needed to build and run your project.

In your repository

$ npm install

Other npm commands include:

$ npm init # creates initializes a package
$ npm install --save <PACKAGE> # downloads and saves a package to the package.json file
$ npm install --save-dev <PACKAGE> # saves the package as a development dependency

Aside: yarn is a new package manager that is gaining popularity.

The package.json file contains a few scripts to get started.

$ npm run dev # runs the server in reloading mode using nodemon
$ npm run start # runs the server with babel
$ npm run build # transpiles the server for production use
$ npm run prod # builds and runs the server for production use

Run the server!

$ npm run dev

then open your browser to http://localhost:9090 You should see a blank quote board:

Open up app/server.js. This is where the configuration for our app lives. You'll notice on line 32 that we have connected routes to our app.

Lets take a deeper look. Open up app/router.js.

app.get('/:name', (req, res, next) => {
	const name = req.params.name;

	res.json({ message: `Hello name ${name}`});
});

• Create
• Read
• Update
• Delete

In the interest of time we will be implementing create and delete.

There is a form created for you. Click the link in the top right corner of the webpage.

For this to work we need a corresponding post on the backend to save our data to the database. I have already hooked up the route on the backend but the handling logic needs to be completed.

First to verify that the route is working by running a curl command.

$ curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
	"text": "This is a test quote",
	"author": "me"
}' "http://localhost:9090/api/posts"

If you reload the page you should see your test post.

Let's implement the createQuote route handler in app/controllers/quote.js

const newQuote = new Quote(req.body);

newQuote.save()
  .then((post) => {
    res.json({ message: 'post created' });
  })
  .catch((error) => { next(error); });

We need to find the corresponding quote and remove it. We need to grab the id off of params as discussed earlier in order to do this.

  Quote.findById(req.params.id)
    .then((post) => post.remove()) // eslint-disable-line
    .then(() => { res.sendStatus(200); })
    .catch((error) => { next(error); });

An express middleware function that takes 4 paramaters can handle errors. We can do this centrally and I have included an example in app/server.js

Since we have a catch all error handler we can use next(err) when errors arrise in our routes.