Express MongoDB API for Heroku Deployment

Description

This is a single model full C.R.U.D. API for contacts.

Contacts have the following properties

property	value type	default
id	integer	assigned by db
name	string	n/a
age	int	n/a
timestamps	date	assigned by db

Set up for deployment

Note:

Everywhere there is something for you to customize it will be wrapped in <> tags. Remove these tags.

Example:

/<my_db_name>

Should be changed to

/contacts

NOT

/<contacts>

1. confirm you are not already in a github repository by typing git status:

Good:

fatal: not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git

Bad/move to a different location on your computer

On branch master

Getting Started with Github

1. Clone down this repository

• git clone <url to this repo>

1. cd into this repo
2. Type git remote remove origin
3. Go back to github, create a new repository
4. Do NOT initialize with readme
5. Do NOT initialize with .gitignore
6. You should see terminal commands, use the bottom set (copy and paste into terminal) - to get this project into your github
7. Confirm this project is on your github now

Get This Project Up and Running

Remember, if it isn't running locally, it isn't going to work on heroku

• ls to confirm you are on the same level as your package.json
• touch .env

.env

.env is a file that is going to store variables specific to your computer that will allow you to run this backend. It should NOT be tracked by git/github. You will need to set up (some) of these variables on heroku (we'll go over the steps later)

.env

.env is NOT JavaScript. Do not use

• extra spaces
• quotes
• semi-colons

First, start with a port (it MUST be all caps)

PORT=3000

Then add your connection to MongoDB Atlas

Go to Atlas

Choose connect

Choose connect your application

Copy the path provided, it should look like this

mongodb+srv://<username>:<password>@ga-sei-u8fme.mongodb.net/<dbname>?retryWrites=true&w=majority

into your .env file, make a new line (no extra spaces, not quotes etc)

PORT=3000
MONGODB_URI=mongodb+srv://<username>:<password>@ga-sei-u8fme.mongodb.net/<dbname>?retryWrites=true&w=majority

Replace , and with your username and password and dbname (do not include <>) - if you forgot your password, go ahead and make a new one

Note, you can update this URL at any time, so if you choose a different cluster/database later, it will not be a problem.

IMPORTANT CAVEAT - certain characters cannot readily be used in your password/username - like % - save yourself unexpected problems by just using alphabetical and numerical characters for your username and password (or have MongoDB Atlas generate an appropriate password for you

Almost there

Run the following to get this app up and running and check for it in the browser

• npm i
• nodemon

Get this app working on Heroku

Go into your package.json and update the engines to match your computer's engines:

To find out what your versions are

node -v
npm -v

Be very careful to maintain proper JSON (double quotes, all commas correct etc. )

"engines": {
  "node": "12.13.1",
  "npm": "6.14.6"
},

In terminal

• heroku create or heroku create <my unique app name>
• git add .
• git commit -m 'first heroku push'
• git push origin master
• git push heroku master
• heroku open => will not work yet, you must set up your MongoDB Atlas configurition on Heroku

Heroku Dashboard

You must add your mongodDB connection string to your app

• go to heroku in your browser
• choose your app
• choose settings
• reveal config vars
• set key to be MONGODB_URI
• set value to your url that is in your .env file: mongodb+srv://<username>:<password>@ga-sei-u8fme.mongodb.net/<dbname>?retryWrites=true&w=majority

Now try in terminal:

heroku open => go to the browser - check that the app is working (will most likely see just an empty array)

To Dos (Customize this App to make it your own)

Server.js

• Update your app.listen console.log to make sense for your app

Note: this will break your app and you will need to do a few things to get it running:

• Update controllers/routes to match your resources for your app
• Update the file name in controllers to match your resources
• Update the file name in models to match your resources

Bonus

• configure cors. Right now everything is white-listed, limit your connection to just localhost and your heroku (note this is usually more tricky than it seems)

Controllers : <my_resource_name_controller>.js

There are 12 todos - be sure to update each one

Models : <my_resource_name>.js

There are 4 todos - be sure to update each one

Test with Postman

• test that you can

  • create
  • read
  • update
  • delete

  Remember

  • be sure to select raw JSON

Find it on heroku https://glacial-tor-47459.herokuapp.com/contacts