Node Project using PostgreSQL

This document outlines the steps taken to set up a new Node JS project with authentication (using JWT), PostgreSQL as the database, and RESTful API for Authentication.

Prerequisites:

Before starting the project, ensure you have the following tools installed on your Windows machine:

• Git
• Node.js
• PG Admin

Step by Step Process

• Create a directory/folder

mkdir node-project
cd node-project

• Run cmd to innitialize package.json

npm init

• Install TypeScript as a development dependency

npm install --save-dev typescript

• To configure TypeScript

npx tsc --init

• Now install Express in the myapp directory and save it in the dependencies list of your package.json file:

npm install express
npm install --save-dev @types/express @types/node

• Install nodemon package, that helps develop Node.js based applications by automatically restarting the node application when file changes in the directory are detected

npm i nodemon

• create .env file and add environment variabls

    PORT=5000
    NODE_ENV=development

    PG_USER=postgres
    PG_HOST=localhost
    PG_DATABASE=node_db
    PG_PASSWORD=password                    # Your password
    PG_PORT=5432

    JWT_SECRET=secret                       # You can use different secret for access token
    JWT_REFRESH_SECRET=secret               # You can use different secret for refresh token
    JWT_EXPIRES_IN=15m
    JWT_REFRESH_EXPIRES_IN=7d

    CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:3000

    MAIL_MAILER=smtp
    MAIL_HOST=smtp-relay.brevo.com
    MAIL_PORT=587
    MAIL_USERNAME=6c8781002@smtp-brevo.com
    MAIL_PASSWORD=password                 # Your password
    MAIL_FROM_NAME=testname                # Your name
    MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=example@mail.com     # Your email address

• Modify your package.json file to include TypeScript compilation scripts

"scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1",
    "dev": "nodemon --exec ts-node src/index.ts",
    "start": "node dist/index.js",
    "build": "tsc -p ."
  },

• PG & Sequelize: The project uses PostgreSQL (PG) as its database, managed with Sequelize, an ORM for Node.js. Created User Model and Established the DB connection with the project. Sequelize helps streamline data operations by providing an easy-to-use syntax for interacting with PostgreSQL tables and performing CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations.

npm i pg sequelize

• JWT & Bcryptjs: JSON Web Tokens (JWT) are used for authentication, ensuring secure communication by encoding user credentials. Bcryptjs is used to hash passwords, protecting sensitive user data by storing encrypted versions of passwords instead of plain text.

npm i jsonwebtoken bcryptjs

• EJS & Nodemailer: EJS (Embedded JavaScript) is a templating engine used to create HTML emails, making the content dynamic and personalized. In this project 'emailTemplate.ejs' is created to view to show the token and redirect link to email. Nodemailer is used to send these emails, such as password reset links, directly from the server to users’ inboxes.

npm i ejs nodemailer

• Additionally for using typescript few package might need to install for types like:

npm i @types/pg @types/bcryptjs @types/cors @types/ejs @types/jsonwebtoken @types/nodemailer

• Refresh Token[1]: Refresh tokens allow users to stay logged in without repeatedly entering their credentials. When an access token expires, the refresh token can be used to issue a new one, maintaining session security and a smooth user experience.

• GenerateTokens[2]: Created a simple method call generateTokens which takes user data and returns access token and refresh token by the help of JWT.

• Folder structure for for my node project is

NODE-PROJECT
├── node_modules
├── src
│ ├── config
│ │ └── database.ts                #database configaration
│ ├── controllers
│ │ ├── authController.ts          #methords @register_user @login_user @social_login @refresh_token[1]
│ │ ├── emailVerifyController.ts   #methords @resetPassword @resetPasswordUpdate
│ │ └── userController.ts          #methord @getUsers
│ ├── helper
│ │ └── generateTokens.ts          #check [2]
│ ├── middleware
│ │ └── auth.ts                    #methords @authenticateToken
│ ├── models
│ │ └── User.ts                    #user table blueprint
│ ├── routes
│ │ ├── authRoutes.ts              #routes of authController.ts
│ │ ├── emailVerifyRoutes.ts       #routes of ...
│ │ └── userRoutes.ts              #routes of ...
│ ├── templates
│ │ └── emailTemplate.ejs          #template to show when it is send to email
│ └── types
│ └── userType.ts
├── .env
├── .env.example
├── .gitignore
├── app.ts                         #all setup like routes, cors before start the server
├── index.ts                       #start the server in a specific port[5000]
├── package-lock.json
├── package.json
└── README.md

Usage (base_url: http://localhost:5000)

To check the API, send HTTP requests to the appropriate endpoint. For example, to get a list of all #users, send a GET request to /api/v1/users.

API Endpoints

The following API endpoints are available:

Endpoint	Method	Description
/api/v1/auth/register	POST	To register as a user
/api/v1/auth/login	POST	To login based on role
/api/v1/users	Get	To check authentication token passed through header.
/api/v1/email/reset-password	POST	Create link and send it through email.
/api/v1/email/reset-password/:token	POST	Verify token and update password provided in body.
/api/v1/auth/social-login	POST	Register and login without password
/api/v1/auth/refresh-token	POST	To refresh the access token

Post man Go to link