Backend Example - Express.js & Mongoose

A RESTful API backend built with Express.js and Mongoose for managing messages with full CRUD operations.

Features

• ✅ Complete CRUD operations for messages
• ✅ Standardized JSON response format
• ✅ MongoDB integration with Mongoose
• ✅ Error handling middleware
• ✅ Environment configuration
• ✅ Postman/Thunder Client collection for testing
• ✅ Controller-based architecture

Project Structure

Backend Example/
├── controllers/
│   └── messageController.js    # Business logic for message operations
├── models/
│   └── Message.js             # Mongoose schema for messages
├── routes/
│   └── messageRoutes.js       # API route definitions
├── tests/
│   ├── Backend_Example_API.postman_collection.json
│   └── README.md              # Testing instructions
├── .env                       # Environment variables
├── package.json              # Dependencies and scripts
└── server.js                 # Main server file

Quick Start

1. Install Dependencies

npm install

2. Set Up Environment

Make sure MongoDB is running locally, or update the .env file with your MongoDB connection string.

3. Start the Server

# Development mode with auto-restart
npm run dev

# Production mode
npm start

The server will start on http://localhost:3000

API Endpoints

All responses follow the standardized format:

Success Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "data": { ... }
}

Error Response:

{
  "success": false,
  "error": "Descriptive error message"
}

Message Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/messages	Create a new message
GET	/api/messages	Get all messages
GET	/api/messages/:id	Get a specific message by ID
PUT	/api/messages/:id	Update a message by ID
DELETE	/api/messages/:id	Delete a message by ID

Message Schema

{
  "author": "string (required, max 100 chars)",
  "text": "string (required, max 1000 chars)",
  "timestamp": "Date (auto-generated)",
  "isRead": "boolean (default: false)"
}

Testing

Option 1: Postman

1. Import the collection: tests/Backend_Example_API.postman_collection.json
2. Test each endpoint with the provided sample data

Option 2: Thunder Client (VS Code)

1. Install Thunder Client extension
2. Follow the instructions in tests/README.md

Option 3: cURL Examples

Create a message:

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/messages \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "author": "John Doe",
    "text": "Hello, this is a test message!",
    "isRead": false
  }'

Get all messages:

curl http://localhost:3000/api/messages

Get message by ID:

curl http://localhost:3000/api/messages/msg-001

Update a message:

curl -X PUT http://localhost:3000/api/messages/msg-001 \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "author": "Jane Doe",
    "text": "Updated message text",
    "isRead": true
  }'

Delete a message:

curl -X DELETE http://localhost:3000/api/messages/msg-001

Current Status

Phase 1: ✅ Complete

• Routes & Endpoints (all 5 CRUD operations)
• Controller placeholders with standardized responses
• Shared response format implementation
• Testing setup (Postman & Thunder Client collections)

Phase 2: 🔄 Ready for Implementation

• Replace placeholder responses with actual database operations
• Add data validation
• Implement error handling for edge cases
• Add authentication (optional)

Next Steps

The current implementation uses placeholder responses. To connect to the database:

1. Uncomment the database logic in controllers/messageController.js
2. Replace placeholder responses with actual Mongoose operations
3. Test with real data

Environment Variables

PORT=3000
MONGODB_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/backend-example

For production, replace MONGODB_URI with your actual MongoDB connection string.

Dependencies

• express: Web framework
• mongoose: MongoDB object modeling
• cors: Cross-origin resource sharing
• dotenv: Environment variable management
• nodemon: Development auto-restart (dev dependency)