Full Stack from scratch

Time for us to build a guide.... a comprehensive guide to building a full stack MEAN app from scratch.

Starting My App

• npm init to initialize my application!
• Generate an Express app using express --css less --hbs (using Handlebars)
• npm install to install Node module dependencies
• Verify app works! npm start OR nodemon to run the app
• Browse to localhost:portnumber to verify it runs

Setting up a database

• If we want sample data (such as a seed file) we can import JSON directly into MongoDB using the mongoimport command.
• Start mongod as root (sudo mongod) otherwise we can't communicate back and forth to MongoDB with Mongoose. Do this after importing data.
• If I don't have any starting data, Mongo will automatically create a collection + database on connection and query.
• We need an ORM for MongoDB.... that is Mongoose
• npm install mongoose --save to install Mongoose in my project!
• We need a few folders to store important information about our database:
  • db/
  • models/
• The db folder contains the database.js connection file. It also contains JSON for seed data if it exists.
• Need a connection string + connect using Mongoose (mongoose.connect)
• In our database.js, we need to listen for Mongo...
  • connected
  • disconnected
  • error
• The models folder contains a Schema (aka Model definition) for each collection.
• require('./db/database') in your app.js to connect to your db for the app!

Serving Our Data!

• Routers and Controllers can be synonymous
• Our routers folder will contain individual routers.
• The default two: index.js and users.js
• I want to make a new router. I call it routers/something.js
• I need to var nameOfRouter = require('./routers/something');
• Ok, now it is time to map it to a resource, aka localhost:3000/something/
• app.use('/resourceurl', nameOfRouterVariable)
• That would map to localhost:3000/resourceurl
• Now, I need to add routes to my router... how do I do that?
• In my individual router file, I need to router.httpVerb(...)
  • router.get
  • router.post
  • router.patch
  • router.put
  • router.delete
• I can respond with 3 different things!
  • res.send('a string of text')
  • res.json(someObjectToTurnToJSON)
  • res.render('nameOfView', {dataObjectToUseOnPage})

Models

• required to be in that models folder.
• Each model represents a collection!
• Each model needs to require('mongoose') so it can talk to the ORM
• Each model also needs to define a mongoose.Schema... this allows us to...
  • Blueprint data
  • Assign data types to keys
  • Minor data type validation
  • Even require certain keys have values
• Export mongoose.Model('NameOfModel', schema, optionalCollectionNameLikeSelf.table_name)