Node.js Backend Architecture Typescript Project

A complete project to build a blogging platform like Medium, and FreeCodeCamp

Note: This is the latest (version 2) of the project. If you are using version 1 then checkout the branch version-1

Project Highlights

Node.js
Express.js
Typescript
Mongoose
Redis
Mongodb
Joi
Unit Tests & Integration Tests
Docker
JWT

About The Project

This project is designed for a production ready environment. It can handle the scale and complexity of a very demanding application. This project is being used by companies like MindOrks, AfterAcademy, and CuriousJr. Apps/Websites having 10+ million usebase.

It is suitable for Web Apps, Mobile Apps, and other API services.

About The Author

You can connect with me here:

Project Instructions

We will learn and build the backend application for a blogging platform. The main focus will be to create a maintainable and highly testable architecture. Following are the features of this project:

This backend is written in Typescript: The type safety at build time and having intellisense for it in the IDE like vscode is unparalleled to productivity. I have found production bug reduced to a significant amount since most of the code vulnerabilities are identified during the build phase itself.
Separation of concern principle: Each component has been given a particular role. The role of the components is mutually exclusive. This makes the project easy to be unit tested.
Feature encapsulation: The files or components that are related to a particular feature have been grouped unless those components are required in multiple features. This enhances the ability to share code across projects.
Centralised Error handling: I have created a framework where all the errors are handled centrally. This reduces the ambiguity in the development when the project grows larger.
Centralised Response handling: Similar to Error handling we have a response handling framework. This makes it very convenient to apply a common API response pattern.
Mongodb is used through Mongoose: Mongodb fits very well to the node.js application. Being NoSQL, fast, and scalable makes it ideal for modern web applications.
Redis Memcache: I have used the redis server for caching the items which does not change frequently. It will boost the performance of our system.
Async execution: I have used async/await for the promises and made sure to use the non-blocking version of all the functions with few exceptions.
Docker compose has been configured: I have created the Dockerfile to provide the easy deployability without any setup and configurations.
Unit test is favored: The tests have been written to test the functions and routes without the need of the database server. Integration tests has also been done but the unit test is favored.
A pure backend project: I have experienced that when a backend is developed clubbed with a frontend then in the future it becomes really difficult to scale. We would want to create a separate backend project that servers many websites and mobile apps.

I have also open source a complete blogging website working on this backend project: Goto Repository The repository [React.js Isomorphic Web Application Architecture] has a complete React.js web application implemented for a blogging platform which is using this project as its API server.

3RE Architecture: Router, RouteHandler, ResponseHandler, ErrorHandler

Project Outline: Blogging Platform

Request-Response Handling Schematic Diagram

Learn the concepts used in this project

You can find the complete API documentation here

How to build and run this project

Install using Docker Compose [Recommended Method]
- Clone this repo.
- Make a copy of .env.example file to .env.
- Make a copy of keys/private.pem.example file to keys/private.pem.
- Make a copy of keys/public.pem.example file to keys/public.pem.
- Make a copy of tests/.env.test.example file to tests/.env.test.
- Install Docker and Docker Compose. Find Instructions Here.
- Execute docker-compose up -d in terminal from the repo directory.
- You will be able to access the api from http://localhost:3000
- Run Tests: docker exec -t app npm test
- If having any issue then make sure 3000 port is not occupied else provide a different port in .env file.
- If having any issue then make sure 27017 port is not occupied else provide a different port in .env file.
Run The Tests
- Install node.js and npm on your local machine.
- From the root of the project executes in terminal npm install.
- Use the latest version of node on the local machine if the build fails.
- To run the tests execute npm test.
Install Without Docker [2nd Method]
- Install MongoDB on your local.
- Do steps 1 to 5 as listed for Install using Docker Compose.
- Do steps 1 to 3 as listed for Run The Tests.
- Create users in MongoDB and seed the data taking reference from the addons/init-mongo.js
- Change the DB_HOST to localhost in .env and tests/.env.test files.
- Execute npm start and You will be able to access the API from http://localhost:3000
- To run the tests execute npm test.
Postman APIs Here: addons/postman

Learn Backend Development From Our Videos

Project Directory Structure

├── .vscode
│   ├── settings.json
│   ├── tasks.json
│   └── launch.json
├── .templates
├── src
│   ├── server.ts
│   ├── app.ts
│   ├── config.ts
│   ├── auth
│   │   ├── apikey.ts
│   │   ├── authUtils.ts
│   │   ├── authentication.ts
│   │   ├── authorization.ts
│   │   └── schema.ts
│   ├── core
│   │   ├── ApiError.ts
│   │   ├── ApiResponse.ts
│   │   ├── JWT.ts
│   │   ├── Logger.ts
│   │   └── utils.ts
│   ├── cache
│   │   ├── index.ts
│   │   ├── keys.ts
│   │   ├── query.ts
│   │   └── repository
│   │       ├── BlogCache.ts
│   │       └── BlogsCache.ts
│   ├── database
│   │   ├── index.ts
│   │   ├── model
│   │   │   ├── ApiKey.ts
│   │   │   ├── Blog.ts
│   │   │   ├── Keystore.ts
│   │   │   ├── Role.ts
│   │   │   └── User.ts
│   │   └── repository
│   │       ├── ApiKeyRepo.ts
│   │       ├── BlogRepo.ts
│   │       ├── KeystoreRepo.ts
│   │       ├── RoleRepo.ts
│   │       └── UserRepo.ts
│   ├── helpers
│   │   ├── asyncHandler.ts
│   │   ├── permission.ts
│   │   ├── role.ts
│   │   ├── security.ts
│   │   ├── utils.ts
│   │   └── validator.ts
│   ├── routes
│   │   ├── access
│   │   │   ├── credential.ts
│   │   │   ├── login.ts
│   │   │   ├── logout.ts
│   │   │   ├── schema.ts
│   │   │   ├── signup.ts
│   │   │   ├── token.ts
│   │   │   └── utils.ts
│   │   ├── blog
│   │   │   ├── editor.ts
│   │   │   ├── index.ts
│   │   │   ├── schema.ts
│   │   │   └── writer.ts
│   │   ├── blogs
│   │   │   ├── index.ts
│   │   │   └── schema.ts
│   │   ├── index.ts
│   │   └── profile
│   │       ├── schema.ts
│   │       └── user.ts
│   └── types
│       └── app-request.d.ts
├── tests
│   ├── auth
│   │   ├── apikey
│   │   │   ├── mock.ts
│   │   │   └── unit.test.ts
│   │   ├── authUtils
│   │   │   ├── mock.ts
│   │   │   └── unit.test.ts
│   │   ├── authentication
│   │   │   ├── mock.ts
│   │   │   └── unit.test.ts
│   │   └── authorization
│   │       ├── mock.ts
│   │       └── unit.test.ts
│   ├── core
│   │   └── jwt
│   │       ├── mock.ts
│   │       └── unit.test.ts
│   ├── cache
│   │   └── mock.ts
│   ├── database
│   │   └── mock.ts
│   ├── routes
│   │   ├── access
│   │   │   ├── login
│   │   │   │   ├── integration.test.ts
│   │   │   │   ├── mock.ts
│   │   │   │   └── unit.test.ts
│   │   │   └── signup
│   │   │       ├── mock.ts
│   │   │       └── unit.test.ts
│   │   └── blog
│   │       ├── index
│   │       │   ├── mock.ts
│   │       │   └── unit.test.ts
│   │       └── writer
│   │           ├── mock.ts
│   │           └── unit.test.ts
│   ├── .env.test
│   └── setup.ts
├── addons
│   └── init-mongo.js
├── keys
│   ├── private.pem
│   └── public.pem
├── .env
├── .gitignore
├── .dockerignore
├── .eslintrc
├── .eslintignore
├── .prettierrc
├── .prettierignore
├── .travis.yml
├── Dockerfile
├── docker-compose.yml
├── package-lock.json
├── package.json
├── jest.config.js
└── tsconfig.json

Directory Traversal for Signup API call

/src → server.ts → app.ts → /routes/index.ts → /auth/apikey.ts → schema.ts → /helpers/validator.ts → asyncHandler.ts → /routes/access/signup.ts → schema.ts → /helpers/validator.ts → asyncHandler.ts → /database/repository/UserRepo.ts → /database/model/User.ts → /core/ApiResponses.ts

API Examples

Signup

Method and Headers

POST /signup/basic HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:3000
x-api-key: GCMUDiuY5a7WvyUNt9n3QztToSHzK7Uj
Content-Type: application/json

Request Body

{
    "name" : "Janishar Ali",
    "email": "ali@github.com",
    "password": "changeit",
    "profilePicUrl": "https://avatars1.githubusercontent.com/u/11065002?s=460&u=1e8e42bda7e6f579a2b216767b2ed986619bbf78&v=4"
}

Response Body: 200

{
  "statusCode": "10000",
  "message": "Signup Successful",
  "data": {
    "user": {
      "_id": "63a19e5ba2730d1599d46c0b",
      "name": "Janishar Ali",
      "roles": [
         {
           "_id": "63a197b39e07f859826e6626",
           "code": "LEARNER",
           "status": true
         }
        ],
      "profilePicUrl": "https://avatars1.githubusercontent.com/u/11065002?s=460&u=1e8e42bda7e6f579a2b216767b2ed986619bbf78&v=4"
    },
    "tokens": {
      "accessToken": "some_token",
      "refreshToken": "some_token"
    }
  }
}

Response Body: 400

{
  "statusCode": "10001",
  "message": "Bad Parameters"
}

Profile Private

Method and Headers

GET /profile/my HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:3000
x-api-key: GCMUDiuY5a7WvyUNt9n3QztToSHzK7Uj
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer <your_token_received_from_signup_or_login>

Response Body: 200

{
  "statusCode": "10000",
  "message": "success",
  "data": {
    "name": "Janishar Ali Anwar",
    "profilePicUrl": "https://avatars1.githubusercontent.com/u/11065002?s=460&u=1e8e42bda7e6f579a2b216767b2ed986619bbf78&v=4",
    "roles": [
      {
        "_id": "5e7b8acad7aded2407e078d7",
        "code": "LEARNER"
      },
      {
        "_id": "5e7b8c22d347fc2407c564a6",
        "code": "WRITER"
      },
      {
        "_id": "5e7b8c2ad347fc2407c564a7",
        "code": "EDITOR"
      }
    ]
  }
}

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License

   Copyright (C) 2024 JANISHAR ALI ANWAR

   Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
   you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
   You may obtain a copy of the License at

       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
   distributed under the License is distributed on an