Sammeeey / restComments

basic express CRUD app

restComments

• 1st express CRUD app
• based on RESTful comments tutorial by Colt Steele (paid)

restCommentsDemo.mp4

methods / API

• create: get /comments/new -> post /comments
• readall: get /comments
• readone: get /comments/:id
• update: get /comments/:id/edit -> patch /comments/:id
• delete: delete /comments/:id

lessons learned (Building Node/Express App)

installations

1. initiate npm project (potentially install requirements): npm init -y
2. install express: npm install express
3. install ejs (template language): npm install ejs
4. (install nodemon (if not already installed globally): npm install -g nodemon (so that you don't need to restart server after every edit))
5. (install bootstap (or other frontend toolkit))
6. (install express method-override to handle put, patch, delete, etc. methods)

boilerplate

• setup default express app
• define express routes (app.get(), app.post(), etc.)
• create & specify path to static files: public/css & public/js
• specify which kind of data server can receive/handle: express.urlencoded/express.json (for http methods beyond GET)
• enable usage of HTTP methods beyond GET & POST (method-override)
• enable usage of ejs
• create & specify path to views (including partials;): /views/partials
• build ejs templates & partials (HTML/ejs)
• define & connect style sheet(s) in public/css
• (include/connect frontend toolkit (bootstrap, tailwind, bulma, material, ...))
• include partials in views ejs files

handle HTTP requests

• browser can only handle GET & POST
  • use method-override middleware to modify query parameters of post requests in to send data via different HTTP methods (e.g. DELETE, PATCH, etc.)

tools used

• (hoppscotch.io for API testing)
• EJS for templating
• expressJs for routing!?
• nodemon (during development)