REST API

Building out a REST API with Node, Express, MongoDB (Mongoose) and TypeScript.

Credit: TomDoesTech

Dependencies

yarn add express zod config cors mongoose pino pino-pretty dayjs bcrypt jsonwebtoken lodash nanoid

yarn add @types/body-parser @types/config @types/cors @types/express @types/node @types/pino @types/bcrypt @types/jsonwebtoken @types/lodash @types/nanoid ts-node-dev typescript -D

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MongoDB

To be able to interact with the database, we need one or a combination of some of the products in the MongoDB ecosystem

• Shell - mongosh newer CLI tool
• Compass - Desktop GUI
• Atlas - Cloud GUI
• CLI for Cloud - mongocli to manage Atlas
• Connector for BI - further exploration for data visualisation, connect with Power BI

Setup

Option 1 - DEPRECATED

This is deprecated since version 5.0.

• use homebrew or chocolatey to install MongoDB
• alternatively download and install MongoDB msi
• use bash to run mongo
• show dbs to list databases
• pick one to use with use <db>

Option 2

• download MongoDB Shell
• To use the MongoDB Shell, you must have a MongoDB deployment to connect to - docs.mongodb
• connect to a MongoDB Atlas cluster / mongoose + express instance
• use bash to run mongosh

Option 3

• login to Atlas
• create a Cluster, and within that a Database
• create a db user + password (store in .env as variables)
• hit connect > add IP / from anywhere > copy the connection device string to use as dbUri

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Tokens & Keys

Users need access and refresh tokens to connect to the database in a session.

We need public and private keys for the database to sign and verify tokens for users using JWT (jsonwebtokens).

Setup

• Generate a pair of keys at cryptotools.net

The public key can be commited / visible, so we simply paste public key in template string within the 'config/default.ts' file:

export default {
    ...
  publicKey: `-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----
MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQCAUo7LMGfBTx51uw0KTUfAl35M
eEAVGuD5a+dNrM9meNg97rv/nC+tveDBIKRSKXBIHUQdwYczvgkHRPAJuYwCqibr
n/viZGA4s/ECUtYqLb4r9A6t49H0K0UVWNEEzDC7onsUXkjNle3kdY/rmoSCmuKx
OOrsHTZ2Oyb0pzUciQIDAQAB
-----END PUBLIC KEY-----`,
}

The private key must be hidden. Use dotenv file for this:

• in proj root yarn add dotenv
• add require('dotenv').config(); to top of 'config/default.ts' file
• create dotenv file with bash touch .env
• paste private key in '.env' as PRIVATE_KEY
• add privateKey: process.env.PRIVATE_KEY

require('dotenv').config();

export default {
    ...
  publicKey: `-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----
MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQCAUo7LMGfBTx51uw0KTUfAl35M
eEAVGuD5a+dNrM9meNg97rv/nC+tveDBIKRSKXBIHUQdwYczvgkHRPAJuYwCqibr
n/viZGA4s/ECUtYqLb4r9A6t49H0K0UVWNEEzDC7onsUXkjNle3kdY/rmoSCmuKx
OOrsHTZ2Oyb0pzUciQIDAQAB
-----END PUBLIC KEY-----`,
  privateKey: process.env.PRIVATE_KEY
}

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