create-node-backend

create-node-backend is intended to make creating backend nodejs apps easy by minimizing the amount of boilerplate needed, and by setting up a structure that you can easily extend. If you want to set up a minimalist, extensible nodejs backend with minimal friction, create-node-backend is probably right for you.

Installation:

npm i -g create-node-backend

Running

create-node-backend <target_dir>

Usage

create-node-backend <target_dir> sets up the following file structure in the target directory

 app.js
 routes/
  - index.js
  - user.js
 db/
  - index.js

create-node-backend also installs the required packages for you, including pg and express-promise-router. All you have to do is set up the database from the command line

Starting The Project

First, ensure postgres is set up using psql. Ensure your user, host and database names exist, or specify a connection string instead. You can edit the postgres connection configuration in db/index.js at the following lines

const pool = new Pool({
  user: 'postgres',
  host: 'localhost',
  database: process.env.DATABASE_NAME,
  // connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_STRING,
});

create-node-backend starts off with a routes/user.js file that assumes you have a table called users in your postgres database. This is not required for setup, but the route will not work without it.

To start the project, cd into your target directory and run node app.js or npm start. You can also run it with nodemon app.js