putitdigital-api-express

A comprehensive Express.js API scaffolding package that automatically generates a complete folder structure with authentication, database configuration, and boilerplate files based on a resource.json configuration file.

Installation

npm install putitdigital-api-express

How it works

When installed, this package runs a postinstall script that automatically:

1. Checks for a resource.json file in your project root
2. Creates template files for .env, .request.rest, and server.js
3. If resource.json contains a "tables" key, scaffolds the complete API structure with:
   • Models with database queries
   • Controllers for business logic
   • Routes for HTTP endpoints
   • Authentication middleware
   • Database configuration
   • Express server setup

Quick Start

Step 1: Install the package

npm install putitdigital-api-express

The postinstall script will automatically create template files in your project root.

Step 2: Create or update resource.json

Define your API resources by table name:

{
  "tables": {
    "users": {},
    "posts": {},
    "comments": {}
  }
}

Step 3: Configure your environment

Edit the generated .env file with your database credentials:

DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=3306
DB_USER=root
DB_PASSWORD=yourpassword
DB_NAME=yourdb
JWT_SECRET=your_secret_key_here
PORT=3000

Step 4: Run the scaffolding

Simply reinstall to trigger scaffolding:

npm install

Or manually run:

node node_modules/putitdigital-api-express/lib/scaffold.js

Step 5: Start your server

node server.js

Generated folder structure

project-root/
├── resource.json           # API configuration
├── .env                    # Environment variables
├── .request.rest           # REST client requests
├── server.js               # Express app entry point
├── API/
│   ├── models/
│   │   ├── usersModel.js
│   │   ├── postsModel.js
│   │   └── commentsModel.js
│   ├── controllers/
│   │   ├── usersController.js
│   │   ├── postsController.js
│   │   └── commentsController.js
│   ├── routes/
│   │   ├── usersRoutes.js
│   │   ├── postsRoutes.js
│   │   └── commentsRoutes.js
│   ├── middleware/
│   │   └── authMiddleware.js
│   └── config/
│       └── db.js           # Database connection pool
└── node_modules/
    └── putitdigital-api-express/

Features

• ✅ Auto-scaffolding - Generates complete API structure on install
• ✅ Authentication - Built-in JWT-based authentication middleware
• ✅ Password Hashing - Bcrypt integration for secure password storage
• ✅ Database Layer - MySQL2 connection pooling for MySQL/MariaDB
• ✅ Environment Variables - dotenv support for configuration
• ✅ Models & Controllers - MVC pattern boilerplate
• ✅ Express Routes - RESTful endpoint structure
• ✅ Cookie Parser - Middleware for parsing cookies
• ✅ Safe Generation - Skips files that already exist
• ✅ Idempotent - Safe to run multiple times

Generated Endpoints

For each table in resource.json, the following RESTful endpoints are generated:

• GET /api/{table} - List all records
• GET /api/{table}/:id - Get record by ID
• POST /api/{table} - Create new record
• PUT /api/{table}/:id - Update record
• DELETE /api/{table}/:id - Delete record

Example: Users table

GET    /api/users              - Fetch all users
GET    /api/users/:id          - Fetch user by ID
POST   /api/users              - Create new user
PUT    /api/users/:id          - Update user
DELETE /api/users/:id          - Delete user

Dependencies

• express (^5.2.1) - Web framework
• mysql2 (^3.22.5) - MySQL database driver
• bcrypt (^6.0.0) - Password hashing
• jsonwebtoken (^9.0.3) - JWT authentication
• dotenv (^17.4.2) - Environment variable management
• cookie-parser (^1.4.7) - Cookie parsing middleware

Authentication

The generated authMiddleware.js provides JWT-based authentication. Use it to protect routes:

const authMiddleware = require('./API/middleware/authMiddleware');

app.get('/api/protected-route', authMiddleware, (req, res) => {
  // Protected route - user is in req.user
  res.json({ user: req.user });
});

Generated Files Details

Models (API/models/*.js)

• Database query functions with callbacks
• Password hashing integration
• Email lookup and other utility queries

Controllers (API/controllers/*.js)

• Request handlers
• Business logic
• Error handling

Routes (API/routes/*.js)

• Express router configuration
• HTTP method mapping to controllers

Config (API/config/db.js)

• MySQL connection pool setup
• Environment variable integration

Middleware (API/middleware/authMiddleware.js)

• JWT token verification
• User authentication

Server (server.js)

• Express app initialization
• Route mounting
• Server startup on configured PORT

Tips

• Use .request.rest for testing API endpoints (requires REST Client extension in VS Code)
• Update resource.json with all tables before installing
• Review generated code - it's a starting template, customize as needed
• Add business logic to controllers after generation
• Modify models to match your exact database schema

License

MIT

• DELETE /api/users/:id - Delete user

Notes

• The postinstall script runs automatically when the package is installed
• It only creates files if they don't already exist
• If resource.json is not found, scaffolding is skipped silently
• If resource.json doesn't contain a "users" resource, scaffolding is skipped

Publishing

To publish this package to npm:

cd putitdigital-api-express
npm publish --otp=<your-2fa-code>

License

MIT

resource.json example

{ "tables": { "user": { "columns": [ "name", "email", "password" ], "action":[ "create", "read", "findByEmail", "update", "delete" ] },"product": { "columns": [ "name", "description", "price" ], "action":[ "create", "read", "findByEmail", "update", "delete" ] } } }