Node 3

What we will learn today?

• Node Recap
• Best Practices
• Node Process Managers
• REST
• Security
• Authentication
• Hotel Workshop

Node Recap

Javascript has evolved from the browser to be used in the backend. It does not need a framework as we saw in week-13, however a framework like Express allows us to develop faster.

Documentation

When you are working with frameworks it is always helpful to use their documentation.

• Express Documentation
• Node.js Documentation

Middleware

Middleware allow us to process requests to add functionalities that are not built in to Express, for example logging, authentication, etc.

• Express Documentation: Using Middleware
• Video: body-parser which makes it easier to work with POST requests and forms.

Routing

Routing refers to how an application’s endpoints (URIs) respond to the client requests. These are configured differently for each framework, and can range from basic configuration to very extensive for more complex use cases.

Simple example

app.get("/", function(req, res) {
  res.send("hello world");
});

More complicated example using Passport.js middleware for authentication

function ensureAuthenticated(req, res, next) {
  if (req.isAuthenticated()) return next();
  else res.redirect("/login");
}

app.get("/account", ensureAuthenticated, function(req, res) {
  res.send("welcome user!");
});

• Express Documentation: Routing

Best Practices

Express have their own recommended best practices page

Node Process Managers

These process managers monitor for any changes in your node.js application and automatically restart the server, perfect for development and production.

Popular PMs include:

• nodemon
• pm2

REST

REST is a convention of how to design your API, whether it is for your own frontend, or other frontends and clients.

• Read: Resource naming in REST convention

Security

When you take your website to production there is a whole range of things to consider.

Node has built in support for HTTPS, and once you have your own certificates you can use this feature. However sometimes when you deploy to cloud Platform Platform as a Service (PaaS) providers such as Heroku, they provide SSL and configure it for you automatically.

• Read: Node: HTTPS
• Read/Watch: What is an SSL Certificate?
• Read: Heroku SSL

Authentication

Sometimes you need to add user functionality for your website. To do this you can make use of external libraries like passport to add authentication to your website.

For more information read:

• OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework: Bearer Token Usage
• Bearer Strategy

Hotel Workshop

Get in to groups of 3/4 and checkout the workshop brief.

Exercise: Please fork and clone CYF-Hotel repository and follow the exercises in the README.MD.

Homework

1. Finish the hotel workshop with your team, assigning trello tickets in your team trello page

Prepare for the next class

1. Read: Persistence (computer science)
2. Watch: What is Database & SQL?
3. Learn some basic SQL with khanacademy or codecademy and ask any questions in the channel

Escalation policy

When you get stuck during the homework you should follow the following:

1. First, search for answers on Google and Stack Overflow. If you have an error message, copy and paste it into Google.
2. When you are stuck for longer than 20 minutes - no longer! - write a question to your fellow students in your class channel on slack. Take a while to think carefully about the question. This is an important skill. There is a great guide to writing good questions here
3. If you cannot get an answer from your fellow students, post your question in your class public channel, @ the mentor for the class that covered the topic and we will reply as soon as we can.