node-express-typescript

Basic starter project for any project using Node.js + Express.js + TypeScript. Personally, I'd recommend for small to medium projects, as the imagine with a bigger project, you would need extra folders or structure. However, this template should be malleable enough for a good starting template for most personal projects.

Features

Most of the useful features are for easier configuration, although there are some other packages setup to make it easier for you to start your project without worrying about installing them.

• TypeScript Support
• Test-ready with Jest configured with TypeScript
• Async Handling with error handling if error is thrown
• Flexible for any database or ORMs
• Path aliases for cleaner imports
• Nodemon for refresh on save
• Setup build script for production; no ts-node for production
• Security middlewares setup
• Environment variables configured on load

Setup

Environment Variables

1. Copy .env.example, and rename to .env
2. Configure newly copied .env file

Development

This project was setup using Node.js v18.5. Please use specified version for best experience.

1. Use this project as a template
2. Install dependencies with npm install
3. Start developoment server with npm run dev

Production

Production build is compiled first into JavaScript, built on the ./dist folder, and can be ran after compilation.

1. Run npm run build
2. Run npm run start

Project

Every development files are located within the ./src folder.

├── app.ts
├── config
│   └── db.ts
├── controllers
│   └── user-controller.ts
├── middleware
│   ├── async-middleware.ts
│   ├── auth-middleware.ts
│   └── error-middleware.ts
├── routes
│   └── user-route.ts
├── __tests__
│   └── example.test.ts
├── types
│   ├── enums
│   │   └── enums.common.ts
│   ├── interfaces
│   │   └── interfaces.common.ts
│   └── types
│   │   └──  types.common.ts
│   └── index.d.ts
└── utils
    ├── ApiError.ts
    └── ApiSucess.ts

Important helper functions

asyncHandler

Passing middleware into the asyncHandler will allow the server to automatically catch any internal server errors, or manually thrown errors from the server.

// ? asyncHandler should be used for every request for easy async handling
export const getUsers = asyncHandler(
  async (req: Request, res: Response, next: NextFunction) => {
    // Example user, get from database
    const user = [{ name: "John Doe" }, { name: "Jaen Doe" }];

    // Return json with success message
    res.status(200).json(new ApiSuccess<User[]>(user, "Success!"));
  },
);

ApiError & ApiSucccess

Using ApiError or ApiSuccess allows for consistent responses across all routes; please use this instead of passing your own data structure.

ApiError

 throw new ApiError({}, 500, "Handled by asyncHandler")

ApiSuccess

 res.status(200).json(new ApiSuccess<User[]>(user, "Success!"));

Adding extra path aliases

If you add extra folders to this template and would like to use them with aliases, then go through following:

1. Go into tsconfig.json
2. Add extra paths inside of { paths: ... } (for tsconfig-paths)
3. Go into package.json
4. Add extra paths inside of {_moduleAliases: ... } (for production build)