This template is designed to help kick start Node.js applications that would use MongoDB as a database and Passport.js as an authentication middleware. Currently the application is set up to use ejs as the view engine, but can be adapted to use either React or Angular if needed by the end user. I have layed out the file structure below to help those that wish to use this template get started as quick as possible.

I personaly use this template and have listed the projects that use it at the end of this article.

• Getting Started
• File Structure
  • Api
  • Config
  • Controllers
  • Models
  • Public
  • Routes
  • Views
  • Index.js
• Projects
• Final Notes

Whether you cloned, forked, or downloaded this repository, the first thing you should do is to run npm install to get the dependencies installed. After the dependencies are installed, you are ready to run npm run start or node index.js. Both commands run the same script to get the application started. The default port is set the 8000. However, you are able to use a envirnment variable to use a different port, more on that below.

This folder is used to seperate your API routes from your view routes. By requiring your controller in this file, you are able to define your API routes for your client to consume.

Within the config folder there is a file called keys.js. Currently, the file is set up to export your MongoURI connection string. Add your connection string here to allow your application to communicate with your MongoDB instance. Other keys can be added here and accessed throught the program when needed.

The controllers are where your endpoints logic will be handled. For each object we will create a controller. For example, in a todo list app, we would create a todo item controller and a todo list controller.

Here is where we will define our objects for the application. This will use the mongoose library as we define our schema. Here is the link for the documentaion for Mongoose.

We have two folders inside the public folder. Within this folder we have css and images. These folders are pretty self explanitory.

Routing in an our app is very important, especially if we want protected areas of our application! In the index.js file is where routes can be added. For more information on routing see this documentation.

Currently this template is set up to use ejs as the view engine. There is the option to configure this template to be a server for your React or Angular application.

Here is where everything in the application is initialized and set up. There is line of code commented out that can be uncommented if you want to use Passportjs within your application. It is important to keep this file small, so debuging can be done with little to no headache.

Here are some projects that I have worked on that have used this template:

• Social Food (WIP)
  • Live Site
  • Code
• Dev Connector (WIP)
  • Live Site (Comming Soon!)
  • Code

This is a constant work in progress. I am updating and clarifing this template weekly. If you have any feedback, please contact me at my website.