A nice boilerplate to start wit Node.js and React

Use this repository to build a webapp with Express.js (backend) and React+Redux (frontend).

This webapp uses RESTFULL APIs using HTTP Post messages. React app talk with the server using a Bkconnect Js file.

In this example I use Postgres for DB.

1. Prepare the PG database:

   • Make sure you have Postgres installed on your machine.
     

   • Make sure you have created the database and the user.
     

   • Go to ```./webserver/api/integrations/```
     

   • Uncomment the ```await initDb.dropDb()``` line if the db already exists.
     

   • Doing this the database will be initialized with the tables and the data defined in the folders ./webserver/api/integrations/db-definitions and ./webserver/api/integrations/fake-data:
     

     1. db-definitions:

        • enumerations.js: defines the enumerated types.
          

        • tables.js: defines the tables and the relationships between them.
          

        • extensions.js: defines the postgres extensions used by the tables.
          

     2. fake-data:

        • fake-data.js: defines the data to fill the tables.
          

   • Run the following command to create the database:
     

     node ./test-init-fake-db.js
     

2. Install backend env:

   • cd ./webserver/api/
     

   • cp .env.example .env # change the ip DB_HOST with your server ip: ex: 135.181.145.246
     

   • npm install
     

   • npm install '@pm2/io'
     

   • npm i -g pm2
     

   • To test the DB db API you can run npm test (it use mocha)

3. Install frontend env:

   • cd ../client/
     

   • cp .env.example .env
     

   • adapt .env file to your backend ip address (if you run all in local you can leave 'localhost')

   • npm install
     

   • npm install -g serve
     

   • if you are using the last Node.js version (17.x.x) you have to set this env variable on Linux export NODE_OPTIONS=--openssl-legacy-provider && npm run build on Windows you have to change the script object in package.json adding set NODE_OPTIONS=--openssl-legacy-provider to the build command, before react-scripts build:

     ...
     "scripts": {
         "start": "react-scripts start",
         "build": "set NODE_OPTIONS=--openssl-legacy-provider && react-scripts build", 
         "test": "react-scripts test",
         "eject": "react-scripts eject"
     },
     ...

   • npm run build
     

4. Run both applications: To run the applications you can do in different way:

   1. Using PM2 server manager there is a ecosystem.config.js, run it with this command in the root of the project:
      • If pm2 is not install, you need to install it by typing npm i -g pm2
      • Start ecosystem with

            Pm2 Doc: https://pm2.keymetrics.io/docs/usage/startup/
            # create pm2-root.service
            pm2 startup
            # run client and server
            pm2 start ecosystem.config.js
            # save config
            pm2 save
            # check logs
            pm2 logs

   2. Manually you can run both apps in this way:
      • Execute serve.sh script (it runs 'npm run start' on the backend and 'npm run serve' on the client)

Note:

The automated scripts must be executable with right permissions:

chmod +x ./install.sh
chmod +x ./serve.sh

use node -v to make shure to have the latest Node.js version.

In production mode:

Change webserver/client/.env file --> Comment Locallhost ip address and set it with your server public IP

Database:

In this example I use Postgres for DB but you can use any DB or other data storage (like MongoDB or even a NoSQL DB). For exaple you can use a csv file or a json file.