john-bauer / example-todo-api

A simple Express + Postgres boilerplate

Example To-Do Api

About

Example To-Do API is a simple rest API for managing items in a to-do list, built with Express.js and Postgres.

Goals

Building an API from scratch can be tedious and time-consuming. Having a strong boilerplate project can cut down on the configuration and help you focus on getting things done. The goal of this API is to be very simple, flexible, reusable, and production-ready.

Endpoints

You can view all to-do's, get an individual to-do, create a new to-do, and edit or delete an existing one. Check the /resources directory and you'll find two Postman collections (one for dev, and one for the example production environment).

Live Demo

Before you get set up, you can try it out in production here: https://example-todo-api.herokuapp.com/

Getting Started (Local)

1. Clone the repository

2. Install project dependencies with npm install

3. Install Postgres

⋅⋅⋅Mac (recommended): Ensure that you have a working installation of postgres.app.

⋅⋅⋅Windows/Linux: Follow instructions from the official Postgres website

4. From the project directory, run psql

5. Run CREATE DATABASE example_todo_api to set up the database locally.

6. Connect to the instance with \c example_todo_api.

7. Run \i db/migrations/migration.sql to create and structure your tables.

8. Run \i db/seeds/seed.sql to populate your database with some sample data.

Heroku Deployment Guide

1. Create a new Heroku app (recommended: connect the app to your own GitHub repository)

2. Ensure that you have the Heroku CLI installed, and that you're signed in.

3. Connect Heroku Postgres as an add-on (Free plan is fine).

4. From your project directory, run cat db/migrations/migration.sql | heroku pg:psql --app=YOUR_APP_NAME to set up your database.

5. Run cat db/seeds/seed.sql | heroku pg:psql --app=YOUR_APP_NAME to populate it with sample data.

Contribution & Use

If you have any suggestions, spot a defect, or see improvements that can be made, I'm all ears. Open up a PR or create an issue and we'll work together on making this better.

Remember that the example production environment is available to everyone, and intended to serve as a resource for getting started I'll occasionally re-seed the database but please use it respectfully and avoid massive request volume.

License is MIT. Feel free to use this source code in your own projects.