FastPay Server

Node/Express API for the FastPay billing platform. It exposes bill catalog data, user-specific bill records, and lightweight administration helpers for updating bill states. The service stores data in MongoDB Atlas and is deployed to Render for public consumption.

Live API

• Render deployment: https://fastpay-server-api.onrender.com/l
• Base URL: https://fastpay-server-api.onrender.com

Features

• MongoDB-backed storage for shared bills (bills) and user-owned bills (myBills).
• Category filtering, latest bill lookup, and targeted updates by ObjectId.
• Slim CORS configuration that only allows trusted front-end origins.
• Configurable via environment variables and ready for deployment on any Node-friendly host.

Tech Stack

• Node.js + Express 5
• MongoDB Node.js driver
• CORS middleware
• dotenv for configuration management

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ (LTS recommended)
• npm 9+
• Access to a MongoDB Atlas cluster (or any MongoDB-compatible URI)

Installation

npm install

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the project root:

PORT=3000                 # Optional: defaults to 3000
mongodb_user=yourUser
mongodb_password=yourStrongPassword
appName=yourMongoAppName  # Atlas appName/connection option

The MongoDB URI is assembled from these values inside index.js, so keep them synchronized with your Atlas cluster configuration.

Running the Server

npm start

Express starts on http://localhost:<PORT> and immediately connects to MongoDB. A successful connection logs You successfully connected to MongoDB!.

API Reference

All responses are JSON. Unless noted, endpoints return HTTP 200 with either documents or the result object from MongoDB.

Method	Path	Description	Notes
GET	/	Health check	Returns "FastPay server is running".
GET	/bills?category=<name>	List all bills or filter by category	category is case-insensitive; omit or pass all to fetch everything.
GET	/bills/category	Distinct list of bill categories	Returns { "categories": ["Electricity", ...] }.
GET	/latest-bills	Six most recent bills	Sorted by date descending, limited to projection of title, category, location, date.
GET	/bills/:id	Fetch a single bill by Mongo ObjectId	Returns the bill document or null if not found.
PATCH	/bills/:id	Update bill status/date	Body supports { "status": "Paid", "date": "2024-06-01" }.
GET	/my-bills?email=<email>	Get user-specific bills	Exact email match on myBills collection.
POST	/my-bills	Create a user bill record	Provide billId, accountNumber, amount, billingMonth, username, phone, email, address, date.
PATCH	/my-bills/:id	Update a user bill record	Same payload as POST, plus updatedAt is set from date.
DELETE	/my-bills/:id	Remove a user bill record	Returns { "deletedCount": 1 } when successful.

Example Requests

Fetch filtered bills:

curl "https://fastpay-server-api.onrender.com/bills?category=Electricity"

Create a bill for a user:

curl -X POST https://fastpay-server-api.onrender.com/my-bills \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "billId": "E-2024-05-001",
    "accountNumber": "01010101",
    "amount": 1200,
    "billingMonth": "May 2024",
    "username": "Al Amin",
    "phone": "+8801XXXXXXX",
    "email": "user@example.com",
    "address": "Dhaka",
    "date": "2024-05-29T12:00:00.000Z"
  }'

Update bill status:

curl -X PATCH https://fastpay-server-api.onrender.com/bills/6655b6c98905ffae5fa3e0a4 \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "status": "Paid", "date": "2024-06-10" }'

Deployment Notes

• Configure the same environment variables on Render (or your host).
• Ensure your MongoDB user has read/write permission on fastPayDB.
• Update the allowedOrigins array in index.js when introducing new front-end URLs.

Troubleshooting

• CORS errors: Confirm the requesting origin is present in allowedOrigins.
• Mongo connection failures: Double-check credentials, IP allow list, and appName.
• 404 on /bills/:id: Validate that the supplied id is a valid ObjectId.