REST API Structure using NodeJS MongoDB (Mongoose)

[UPDATE 2] New modified more robust structure with Generation Tool. Check out here https://dev.to/sunilksamanta/calmapi-a-production-ready-rest-api-generator-using-nodejs-mongodb-pd9

[UPDATE] There are structure improvements and addon features. Please follow the git repo for updated structure.

For each and every project I usually prefer using different architectures. It not just helps me explore new techniques but helps me make the next project better than before by applying the best of them and leave the worst.

Few months ago I found this article interesting. With writing a very minimum line of code you’ll get an API ready. I followed this structure and created my own with some customization and added basic modules and made it REST ready out of the box. The project features —

1. Controller, Model & Service oriented architecture

2. Auth with JWT & Db Store

3. User Module

4. Post Module (Sample CRUD)

5. Media Upload

6. Centralized Http Response

7. Error Handler

8. .env support

9. Multi Environment config setup

10. Autobind Methods

If you’re too lazy to read further, here is the github repo for full project.

git clone https://github.com/sunilksamanta/node-mongoose-setup
cd node-mongoose-setup
npm install

MONGO_URL=YOUR_MONGO_URL
PORT=5000[YOUR_DESIRED_PORT]
NODE_ENV=YOUR_APP_ENVIRONMENT[production/development]
JWT_SECRET=YOUR_JWT_SECRET_STRING

npm start

    [POST] api/auth/register
    [POST] api/auth/login
    [GET] api/auth/logout

Lets dig into the Matrix..

What we’re using?

1. NodeJS

2. MongoDB (Mongoose ODM)

Directory Structure of the Project

       ├─ .env
       ├─ .gitignore
       ├─ config
       │  ├─ config.js
       │  ├─ database.js
       │  ├─ routes.js
       │  └─ server.js
       ├─ index.js
       ├─ package.json
       └─ src
          ├─ controllers
          │  ├─ AuthController.js
          │  ├─ Controller.js
          │  ├─ MediaController.js
          │  └─ PostController.js
          ├─ helpers
          │  ├─ HttpError.js
          │  ├─ HttpResponse.js
          │  └─ Utility.js
          ├─ models
          │  ├─ Auth.js
          │  ├─ Media.js
          │  ├─ Post.js
          │  └─ User.js
          ├─ routes
          │  ├─ auth.js
          │  ├─ index.js
          │  ├─ media.js
          │  └─ post.js
          └─ services
             ├─ AuthService.js
             ├─ MediaService.js
             ├─ PostService.js
             ├─ Service.js
             └─ UserService.js

Lets talk about the structure

If you’ve already read the article where I found the struture then you’ve already understood what the structure does. If not please follow this link for better understanding of the basics of this architecture.

We have 2 base classes — One for Controller and another for Service.

1. Controller.js

This base controller have the basic CRUD operations. To create a new controller just extend this base Controller class.

1. Service.js

This is the base Service class which includes the database operations. If you want to change the default behaviour of the services you can update this file.

How to Create new CRUD Module?

If you want to create a new Module say Post. Then you’ll have to create 4 basic files. One Controller, one Service, one Model and one route file. And add the new route in routes/index.js with desired url.
There is a “Post” CRUD module included in this project for example.

    controllers/PostController.js
    models/Post.js
    services/PostService.js
    routes/post.js

Overriding Base class method

As an example if you see in the media Controller — the default delete method is overriden by its own class method as we have to delete the file from the file system also. So the overriden method is like bellow —

async delete(req, res, next) {
  const { id } = req.params;
  try {
      const response = await this.service.delete(id);
      // File Unlinking..
      if (response.data.path) {
          console.log("unlink item", response.data.path);
          fs.unlink(response.data.path, function (err) {
              if (err) {
                  console.log("error deleting file");
                  throw err;
              }
              console.log("File deleted!");
          });
      }
      return res.status(response.statusCode).json(response);
  }
  catch (e) {
      next(e);
  }
}

Authentication

JWT authentication is added in this project. User model is defined in models/User.js.
For Register, Login, Logout use these urls —

    [POST] api/auth/register
    [POST] api/auth/login
    [GET] api/auth/logout

Thats all for now.. If you need any help, I’ll love to do so.
Here is once again the git repo..

git clone https://github.com/sunilksamanta/node-mongoose-setup
cd node-mongoose-setup
npm install

MONGO_URL=YOUR_MONGO_URL
PORT=5000[YOUR_DESIRED_PORT]
NODE_ENV=YOUR_APP_ENVIRONMENT[production/development]
JWT_SECRET=YOUR_JWT_SECRET_STRING

npm start

    [POST] api/auth/register
    [POST] api/auth/login
    [GET] api/auth/logout

Want to contribute?

If you have any suggestion, feedback or you want to make this project more powerful — feel free to report issues or request a feature or suggest some changes. Fork and PR.

Happy Coding!

Originally published in medium -> REST API Structure using NodeJS MongoDB (Mongoose)