express-beginner-starter

A streamlined CLI tool for quickly scaffolding organized, beginner-friendly Express.js projects with best practices built in.

Features

• Instant Project Setup: Generate a complete Express.js application with a single command
• Organized Structure: Pre-configured folder structure following MVC design patterns
• Developer Experience: Hot-reloading development server with nodemon
• Beginner Friendly: Commented code and clear documentation
• Production Ready: Includes error handling, environment configuration, and logging

Requirements

• Node.js 14.x or higher
• npm 6.x or higher

Installation

npm install -g express-beginner-starter

Quick Start

Create a new project

npx express-beginner-starter create

Follow the interactive prompts

You'll be asked to configure your project with the following options:

• Project name: Enter a valid name for your project folder
• Database: Choose from None, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, or MySQL
• Testing setup: Opt to include testing configuration
  • If yes, select either Jest or Mocha as your testing framework
• Authentication: Choose whether to include authentication
  • If yes, select from JWT, Passport, or None as your auth method
• Git repository: Initialize a git repository automatically

Start developing

cd your-project-name
npm install
npm run dev

Your application will be running at http://localhost:3000 (or your specified port)

Project Structure

your-project-name/
├── docs/               # Documentation files
├── public/             # Static files (CSS, JS, images)
├── src/                # Source code
│   ├── config/         # Configuration files
│   ├── controllers/    # Route controllers
│   ├── middleware/     # Custom middleware
│   ├── models/         # Data models
│   ├── routes/         # API routes
│   ├── services/       # Business logic services
│   ├── utils/          # Helper functions
│   ├── app.js          # Express application setup
│   └── server.js       # Server entry point
├── tests/              # Test files
│   └── app.test.js     # Main application tests
├── .env.example        # Example environment variables
├── .eslintrc.json      # ESLint configuration
├── .gitignore          # Git ignore file
├── .prettierrc         # Prettier configuration
├── package.json        # Project dependencies
└── README.md           # Project documentation

Available Commands

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | npm run dev | Starts development server with hot-reloading | | npm start | Starts production server | | npm test | Runs test suite | | npm run lint | Checks code style |

Customization

After creating your project, you can easily:

• Add additional middleware
• Connect your preferred database
• Install additional packages
• Configure authentication

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Port already in use

If you see Error: listen EADDRINUSE :::3000, change the port in your .env file.

Missing dependencies

If you encounter module not found errors, run npm install again.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the Mozilla Public License Version 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Express.js team for the amazing framework
• All contributors who have helped improve this starter kit