isomorphic MERN stack boilerplate (still in development)

Pre-reqs

To build and run this app locally you will need a few things:

• Install Node.js
• Install MongoDB

Getting started

• Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/zakariaharti/tercelx.git

• Install dependencies

cd tercelx
npm install

• Configure your mongoDB server

# create the db directory
mkdir -p /data/db

• Start your mongoDB server (you'll probably want another command prompt)

mongod

• Build and run the project

npm run build
npm start

Project Structure

The full folder structure of this app is explained below:

Note! Make sure you have already built the app using npm run build

Name	Description
dist	Contains the distributable (or output) from your TypeScript build. This is the code you ship
node_modules	Contains all your npm dependencies
src	Contains your source code that will be compiled to the dist dir
src/config	Passport authentication strategies and login middleware. Add other complex config code here
src/controllers	Controllers define functions that respond to various http requests
src/models	Models define Mongoose schemas that will be used in storing and retrieving data from MongoDB
src/public	Static assets that will be used client side
src/types	Holds .d.ts files not found on DefinitelyTyped. Covered more in this section
src/server.ts	Entry point to your express app
test	Contains your tests. Seperate from source because there is a different build process.
views	Views define how your app renders on the client. In this case we're using pug
.env.example	API keys, tokens, passwords, database URI. Clone this, but don't check it in to public repos.
.travis.yml	Used to configure Travis CI build
.copyStaticAssets.ts	Build script that copies images, fonts, and JS libs to the dist folder
jest.config.js	Used to configure Jest
package.json	File that contains npm dependencies as well as build scripts
tsconfig.json	Config settings for compiling server code written in TypeScript
tsconfig.tests.json	Config settings for compiling tests written in TypeScript
tslint.json	Config settings for TSLint code style checking

Running the build

Below is a list of all the scripts this template has available:

Npm Script	Description
start	Does the same as 'npm run serve'. Can be invoked with npm start
build	Full build. Runs ALL build tasks (build-sass, build-ts, tslint, copy-static-assets)
serve	Runs node on dist/server.js which is the apps entry point
watch-node	Runs node with nodemon so the process restarts if it crashes. Used in the main watch task
watch	Runs all watch tasks (TypeScript, Sass, Node). Use this if you're not touching static assets.
test	Runs tests using Jest test runner
watch-test	Runs tests in watch mode
build-ts	Compiles all source .ts files to .js files in the dist folder
watch-ts	Same as build-ts but continuously watches .ts files and re-compiles when needed
build-sass	Compiles all .scss files to .css files
watch-sass	Same as build-sass but continuously watches .scss files and re-compiles when needed
tslint	Runs TSLint on project files

Dependencies

Dependencies are managed through package.json. In that file you'll find two sections:

dependencies

Package	Description
async	Utility library that provides asynchronous control flow.
bcrypt-nodejs	Library for hashing and salting user passwords.
bluebird	Promise library
body-parser	Express 4 middleware.
compression	Express 4 middleware.
connect-mongo	MongoDB session store for Express.
dotenv	Loads environment variables from .env file.
errorhandler	Express 4 middleware.
express	Node.js web framework.
express-flash	Provides flash messages for Express.
express-session	Express 4 middleware.
express-validator	Easy form validation for Express.
fbgraph	Facebook Graph API library.
lodash	General utility library.
lusca	CSRF middleware.
mongoose	MongoDB ODM.
nodemailer	Node.js library for sending emails.
passport	Simple and elegant authentication library for node.js
passport-facebook	Sign-in with Facebook plugin.
passport-local	Sign-in with Username and Password plugin.
pug (jade)	Template engine for Express.
request	Simplified HTTP request library.
request-promise	Promisified HTTP request library. Let's us use async/await
winston	Logging library

devDependencies

Package	Description
@types	Dependencies in this folder are .d.ts files used to provide types
chai	Testing utility library that makes it easier to write tests
concurrently	Utility that manages multiple concurrent tasks. Used with npm scripts
jest	Testing library for JavaScript.
node-sass	Allows to compile .scss files to .css
nodemon	Utility that automatically restarts node process when it crashes
supertest	HTTP assertion library.
ts-jest	A preprocessor with sourcemap support to help use TypeScript wit Jest.
ts-node	Enables directly running TS files. Used to run copy-static-assets.ts
tslint	Linter (similar to ESLint) for TypeScript files
typescript	JavaScript compiler/type checker that boosts JavaScript productivity

To install or update these dependencies you can use npm install or npm update.