My Typical Usage of Node.js and Express

When building web applications, I often use Node.js and Express for server-side programming.

Here’s a glimpse into my typical usage.

Models

Models are used to interact with the database. For instance, I have a Users model to handle user-related data:

import Users from "../models/userModel.js";

Controllers

In my controllers, I define functions to handle requests.

For example, here’s how I handle user registration and login:

import Users from "../models/userModel.js";
import { compareString, createJWT, hashString } from "../utils/index.js";
import { sendVerificationEmail } from "../utils/sendEmail.js";

export const register = async(req, res, next) => {
    const { firstName, lastName, email, password } = req.body

    if(!(firstName || lastName || email || password)){
        next("Provide Required Fields!")
        return res.status(400).json({ message: "Provide Required Fields!" });
    }

    try {
        const userExist = await Users.findOne({ email })

        if(userExist) {
            next("Email Address Already Exists")
            return res.status(400).json({ message: "Email Address Already Exists" });
        }

        const hashedPassword = await hashString(password)

        const user = await Users.create({
            firstName,
            lastName,
            email,
            password: hashedPassword
        })

        //send email verification to user
        sendVerificationEmail(user, res)

    } catch (error) {
        console.log(error)
        res.status(404).json({ message: error.message })
    }

}

export const login = async(req, res, next) => {
    \\ some login logic
}

Routes

I use Express Router to define routes. Each route is associated with a specific controller function:

import express from "express"
import { login, register } from "../controllers/authController.js"

const router = express.Router()

router.post("/register", register)
router.post("/login", login)

export default router;

Main Server File

In my main server file, I import the routes and use them in my Express application:

import express from "express"; 
import router from "./routes/index.js"; 

const app = express() 
app.use(router)

With that, we’ve covered a simplified overview of my typical usage of Node.js and Express for server-side programming.