Features

MongoDB

NoSQL database using Mongoose ODM

Authentication

JWT-based authentication with Passport

Roles and Rights

Create custom roles and assign custom rights to them in order to protect routes with specific rights

Logging

using winston as logger and morgan as HTTP request logger middleware (if running in a Docker container, the logs are sent to stdout of the Docker daemon)

Validation

validate the request body with express-validator

Process Manager

PM2 as process manager to keep the app alive

Mailing

send e-mails using Nodemailer and test your set-up with Ethereal

Task Scheduler

schedule tasks with node-cron

Security

takes care of the application security with Helmet, Express Mongoose Sanitize, Express Rate Limit

Environment Variables

using dotenv (you can change the .env file inside the nodemon.json file)

Docker / Docker-Compose support

simply modify the Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml to fit your needs

Compression

gzip compression with compression

Git hooks

using husky and conventional commits

Linting & Formatting

with Prettier and ESLint following the Airbnb's ESLINT config with TypeScript support

Error Handling

centralized error handling

Static Content

Serve static content via the public folder

Versioning

Using standard version to version your project following semver

Run the app

Locally

Install dependencies: npm install or yarn

Start development server using Nodemon: npm run dev

Keep in mind that Docker is not used here. Instead, the environment variable DATABASE_URI gets accessed.

Docker(-Compose)

docker-compose up

Docker-Compose automatically creates a Node.js container using the Dockerfile as well as a MongoDB container using the mongo:4.4.5-bionic image.

Start the Node.js container only docker build <project-dir> -t node-app

Environment variables

The NODE_ENV environment variable is set inside nodemon.json for development and in the Dockerfile for production. If you don't use Docker in production, you can set the NODE_ENV variable in the ecosystem.config.json file (PM2 config file) like so:

{
  "apps": [
    {
      "name": "app",
      "script": "index.js",
      "instances": 1,
      "autorestart": true,
      "time": true,
      "env_production": {
        "NODE_ENV": "production"
      }
    }
  ]
}

SERVER_PORT=3000

DATABASE_URI=mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/express-boilerplate

JWT_SECRET=your-secret
JWT_EXPIRATION_HOURS=24
JWT_ISSUER=Express Boilerplate

SMTP_HOST=mail-server
TP_PORT=587
SMTP_USERNAME=mail-server-username
SMTP_PASSWORD=mails-server-password
EMAIL_FROM=mail-sender

Project Structure

src\
 |--config\         # Environment variables and configurations
 |--controllers\    # Route controllers
 |--middlewares\    # Middlwares
 |--models\         # Mongoose models
 |--routes\         # Routes
 |--services\       # Business logic
 |--types\          # Custom types
 |--app.ts          # Express app
 |--index.ts        # Entry point

API

Endpoints

Auth routes

POST /v1/auth/register - body: { email: string, password: string }

POST /v1/auth/login - body: { email: string, password: string }

GET /v1/auth/me

GET /v1/auth/logout

User routes

GET /v1/users

GET /v1/users/:id

POST /v1/users - body: { email: string, password: string }

PUT /v1/users/:id - body: { email: string, password: string }

DELETE /v1/users/:id

Right routes

GET /v1/rights

GET /v1/rights/:id

POST /v1/rights - body: { name: string, description?: string }

PUT /v1/rights/:id - body: { name: string, description?: string }

DELETE /v1/rights/:id

Role routes

GET /v1/roles

GET /v1/roles/:id

POST /v1/roles - body: { name: string, description?: string, rights?: ObjectId[] }

PUT /v1/roles/:id - body: { name: string, description?: string, rights?: ObjectId[] }

DELETE /v1/roles/:id