Node Web Application boilerplate

A boilerplate for Node.js web applications. This boilerplate gives the basic stucture of application start with while bundling enough useful features so as to remove all those redundant tasks that can derail a project before it even really gets started. This boilerplate users Express with sequelize as ORM and MySQL as database.

Prerequisites

1. NodeJs
2. NPM
3. MySQL

Quick start

1. Clone the repository with git clone https://github.com/mangya/node-express-mysql-boilerplate.git <your_project_folder_name>
2. Change directory to your project folder cd <your_project_folder_name>
3. Install the dependencies with npm install
4. Create database in MySQL.
5. Update the your database name and credentials in the .env file.
6. Run the application with npm start (MySQL service should be up and running).
7. Access http://localhost:3000 and you're ready to go!

Folder Structure

.
├── app/
│   ├── controllers/           # Controllers
│   ├── middlewares/           # Middlewares
│   ├── models/                # Express database models
├── config/
├── public/                    
│   ├── css/                   # Stylesheets
│   ├── js/                     
│	├── fonts/                 
│   ├── images/
├── .env                       # API keys, passwords, and other sensitive information
├── routes/                    # Route definitions
├── views/                     # All view files
├── index.js                   # Express application
└── package.json               # NPM Dependencies and scripts

Packages used

• nodemon — tool that helps develop node.js based applications by automatically restarting the node application when file changes in the directory are detected.
• bcryptjs — encryption library to hash a password
• body-parser — Node.js body parsing middleware. Parse incoming request bodies in a middleware before your handlers, available under the req.body property.
• express-flash — middleware to store flash messages in the session.
• connect-session-sequelize — SQL session store using Sequelize.js
• csurf — Middleware for CSRF token creation and validation. Requires session middleware to be initialized first. We have used express-session
• dotenv — module to load environment variables from a .env file
• express — web application framework for node
• express-handlebars — Template engine
• express-session — Module to create a session middleware. Required for csurf.
• validator — A library of string validators and sanitizers.
• mysql2 — MySQL client for Node.js. Required for Sequelize.
• sequelize — Sequelize is a promise-based Node.js ORM for Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite and Microsoft SQL Server.

Readings

• How to Architect a Node.Js Project

Contributing

This boilerplate is open to suggestions and contributions, documentation contributions are also welcome! 😊