neobeach/core
Base web framework based on the popular ExpressJS package
Why?
The neobeach/core package aims to provide a base webserver application structure based on the popular Express.JS package. The Core also provides some ready to go implementations for implementing useful and ready-to-go middlewares and frameworks. We also implement a basic MVC structure that only consists of the Routers and Controllers, after that you are free to either continue your business logic in the Controller or for example go into Services, Repositories, Models or Utils.
The Core is completely modular, this means that we only install the dependencies we really need. As soon as you implement a feature that requires another dependency we just simply ask you to install that within your project. This keeps the amount of dependencies to a minimum, and the overall package size small. Making it perfect for container architecture
Project Structure
Here you will find an example application folder structure, this also explains which files are required:
example/ <-- Project Root
config/ <-- Application config (Required)
config.json <-- Environment specific config, normally not stored within GIT (Required)
default.json <-- Application specific config, normally stored in GIT (Required)
controllers/ <-- Contains all application Controllers (Optional, Technically you can store them everywhere but we do recommend creating a folder for it)
api/ <-- Contains all Api controllers (Optional)
IndexController.js <-- Contains all Index/Home handlers for the Api controller (Optional)
web/ <-- Contains all Web controllers (Optional)
IndexController.js <-- Contains all Index/Home handlers for the Web controller (Optional)
middlewares/ <-- Contains all application Middlewares (Optional, Technically you can store them everywhere but we do recommend creating a folder for it)
RequestLogger.js <-- This file exports a simple Express middleware (Optional)
models/ <-- Contains all application Sequelize ORM Models (Optional)
User.js <-- Contains the User model for the Sequelize ORM (Example)
routers/ <-- Contains all application Routers (Optional, Technically you can store them everywhere but we do recommend creating a folder for it)
Api.js <-- Contains all Api routes and references Controllers to handle a specific sub-path (Optional)
Web.js <-- Contains all Web routes and references Controllers to handle a specific sub-path (Optional)
package.json <-- Contains all your project dependency information (Required)
server.js <-- Main entry file for the application, this initializes the Core and binds for example additional Routers or middlewares (Required)
Versions
The current version of the Core is build/tested on the following dependency versions:
node: "18.13.0"
npm: "8.5.0"
@remix-run/express: "1.3.4"
compression: "1.7.4"
cookie-parser: "1.4.6"
cors: "2.8.5"
deepmerge: "4.2.2"
ejs: "3.1.8"
express: "4.18.2"
helmet: "6.0.1"
js-logger: "1.6.1"
multer: "1.4.5-lts.1"
node-fetch: "2.6.8"
sequelize: "6.28.0"
sqlite3: "5.1.4"
Config
Some default application config is already for you defined and can be overridden in your config/default.json or config/config.json:
const dev = process.env.NODE_ENV !== 'production';
const baseConfig = {
application: {
env: dev,
host: '0.0.0.0',
port: 3000,
node: 18
},
logger: {
level: 'DEBUG'
},
database: {
dialect: 'sqlite'
}
};
Usage
Below you will find an example on how to access config elements:
const {Config} = require('@neobeach/core');
console.log('config', config);
console.log('config.application.host', config.application.host);
Config Order
There are multiple config files available for you to use. These are merged in the following order and have a particular role:
Config.js <-- Base config provided by the Core.
default.json <-- Lives inside a project and is checked into GIT. This config is therefore available on all environments.
config.json <-- Lives inside a project and is not checked into GIT. The config is therefore environment specific.
Config Location
The Core will by default expect a config directory from the point where you initialize the application. Your project layout would then be:
example/ <-- Project Root
config/ <-- Application config (Required)
config.json <-- Environment specific config, normally not stored within GIT (Required)
default.json <-- Application specific config, normally stored in GIT (Required)
package.json <-- Contains all your project dependency information (Required)
server.js <-- Main entry file for the application, this initializes the Core and binds for example additional Routers or middlewares (Required)
In this case your entry point would be the server.js file
However, it may be required to change this. Let's pretend the app is one folder deeper then the entry file. Your project layout would then be:
example/ <-- Project Root
app/ <-- App Root
config/ <-- Application config (Required)
config.json <-- Environment specific config, normally not stored within GIT (Required)
default.json <-- Application specific config, normally stored in GIT (Required)
package.json <-- Contains all your project dependency information (Required)
server.js <-- Main entry file for the application, this initializes the Core and binds for example additional Routers or middlewares (Required)
In this case your entry point would be the server.js file, but the config folder is inside the app/config folder
To ensure the application knows about this we can override an environment variable like this:
CONFIG_DIR=/app/config/
Logging
The Core logger can be imported at any moment. This can be used to output logs to the console. The following functions will be available to log to the console accordingly to the log level that can be set inside the config:
const {Logger} = require('@neobeach/core');
Logger.trace('This is a message'); // Outputs a log within the trace, debug, info, warn and error log-level with stacktrace
Logger.debug('This is a message'); // Outputs a log within the debug, info, warn and error log-levels
Logger.info('This is a message'); // Outputs a log within the info, warn and error log-levels
Logger.warn('This is a message'); // Outputs a log within the warn and error log-levels
Logger.error('This is a message'); // Outputs a log within the error log-level
Log Level
The application default log level is TRACE, valid options are: TRACE, DEBUG, INFO, WARN and ERROR. You can change the log level by updating the application config:
{
"logger": {
"level": "TRACE"
}
}
Database
The Core implements Sequelize as it's ORM for connecting to many SQL services. Here is a small list of all supported database engines:
mysql
postgres
sqlite
mariadb
mssql
db2
snowflake
oracle
By default, we utilize sqlite and the packages for that engine are installed by default. To switch engines and supply more configuration options to Sequelize, use the database object inside your default.json or config.json.
Sequelize configuration options can be found here: https://sequelize.org/api/v6/class/src/sequelize.js~sequelize#instance-constructor-constructor
Make sure when switching database engines you install the appropriate packages needed by Sequelize: https://sequelize.org/docs/v6/getting-started/#installing
Usage
Below is some example code on how to initialize the database connection. After that we do a simple COUNT query on an example model (also provided in the example below).
server.js
/**
* Import vendor modules
*/
const {Runtime, db} = require('@neobeach/core');
/**
* Import own modules
*/
const User = require('./models/User');
/**
* Create a runtime/sandbox to start the server in
*/
Runtime(async () => {
await db.init([User]);
const userCount = await db.models.User.count();
console.log('userCount', userCount);
});
User.js
/**
* Import vendor modules
*/
const {DataTypes} = require('sequelize');
/**
* Define the User model
*
* @param db
*/
module.exports = (db) => {
db.define('User', {
uuid: {
type: DataTypes.UUID,
defaultValue: DataTypes.UUIDV4,
primaryKey: true,
unique: true
},
email: {
type: DataTypes.STRING,
validate: {
isEmail: true,
notEmpty: true
}
},
firstName: {
type: DataTypes.STRING,
validate: {
notEmpty: true
}
},
lastName: {
type: DataTypes.STRING,
validate: {
notEmpty: true
}
},
fullName: {
type: DataTypes.VIRTUAL,
get() {
return `${this.firstName} ${this.lastName}`;
},
set() {
throw new Error('Do not try to set the `fullName` value!');
}
}
}, {
tableName: 'users'
});
};
More documentation on writing Sequelize models can be found here: https://sequelize.org/docs/v6/core-concepts/model-basics/
Middlewares and Functions
Below is an overview of all main Server/Core functions:
server.loadMiddlewares(middlewares); // Load global middlewares into the Express app
server.loadRouters(routers); // Load routers into the Express app
server.loadStatic(directory, prefix); // Serves a static directory from the Express app
server.setParameter(name, value); // Sets an Express app parameter
server.setEJSViewEngine(views); // Sets the Express render engine to EJS
server.includeDefaultBodyParsers(); // Includes/loads default express body parsers (json, text, urlencoded and multer) with recommended config into the Express app
server.includeDefaultSecurityHeaders(); // Includes/loads default security headers with recommended config into the Express app
server.includeDefaultCorsHeaders(); // Includes/loads default CORS headers with recommended config into the Express app
server.includeDefaultCompression(); // Includes/loads default compression (deflate, gzip) with recommended config into the Express app
server.includeDefaultCookieParser(); // Includes/loads cookie parser with recommended config into the Express app
server.loadRemixFramework(serverBuild); // Attach a Remix Framework build to our Express server
server.run(); // Starts the Express server
Healthcheck
On creation of a new Server, every express instance will contain a simple healthcheck. This healthcheck can be accessed via the /_health url, and reports back some basic application information. An example of the response can be found here:
{
"status": "UP",
"host": "gHAUVLQsWff7BkRR",
"core": "1.0.0",
"load": {
"user": 240214,
"system": 60369
},
"mem": {
"rss": 45084672,
"heapTotal": 19812352,
"heapUsed": 10697488,
"external": 2473177,
"arrayBuffers": 85876
},
"uptime": 1.839386098
}
To ensure a fast response time, the healthcheck is initialized before any other middleware. This also keeps the logs free from clutter.
Upgrade Check
The Core checks on every start of the server if an update is available on NPM. If an update is available you will encounter the following message:
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Warning !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You are running an outdated version of the @neobeach/core package, Please update soon !
Installed version: x.y.z
Available version: x.y.z
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Warning !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You can skip this check by specifying the following environment variable:
SKIP_UPGRADE_CHECK=true
Example App
server.js
Below you will find an example server.js:
/**
* Import modules
*/
const {Runtime, Server} = require('@neobeach/core');
const Api = require('./Api');
/**
* Setup a new Express server
*/
const server = new Server();
/**
* Define global middlewares
*/
const globalMiddleware = [
(req, res, next) => {
// Execute custom code here
next();
}
];
/**
* Define custom routers
*/
const routers = [
Api
];
/**
* Create a runtime/sandbox to start the server in
*/
Runtime(() => {
server.includeDefaultBodyParsers();
server.loadMiddlewares(globalMiddleware);
server.loadRouters(routers);
server.run();
});
Api.js
Below you will find an example Api.js:
/**
* Import modules
*/
const {Router} = require('@neobeach/core');
const IndexController = require('./IndexController');
/**
* Initialize new Router
*/
const router = new Router('Api');
/**
* Add routes to router
*/
router.add('/api', IndexController);
/**
* Exports the Api router
*/
module.exports = router;
IndexController.js
Below you will find an example IndexController.js:
/**
* Import modules
*/
const {Controller} = require('@neobeach/core');
/**
* Initialize new Controller
*/
const controller = new Controller('IndexController');
/**
* Add routes to controller
*/
controller.get('/', [], (req, res) => {
res.json(1000, {
hello: 'world!'
});
});
/**
* Exports the IndexController
*/
module.exports = controller;
License
MIT