API Base – Express.js Starter for REST APIs

This repository provides a base REST API built with Node.js, Express.js, and Sequelize, designed to serve as a solid foundation for quickly creating new, secure, and maintainable APIs.

Main Features

• Modular and scalable project structure (routes, controllers, services, middlewares, models, etc.)
• Ready-to-use JWT authentication
• Enhanced security (Helmet, CORS, rate limiting, error handling)
• Sequelize ORM with migrations and seeders management
• Access and error logging
• Examples for user, role, and UUID management
• Email sending support (via Mailjet/Nodemailer)
• Deployment-ready (scripts, configuration, example .env)

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 16
• PostgreSQL (or any Sequelize-compatible DBMS)
• npm

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/AlexisVedrenne/base-api-express-orm.git
   cd base-api-express-orm

2. Install dependencies (choose one):

   With npm:

   npm install

   Or with yarn:

   yarn install

3. Configure your environment variables:

   • Copy the file src/config/.exemple.env to .env and adapt it to your environment.

4. Initialize the database: With npm:

   npm run db:create
   npm run migrate
   npm run seed:gen:all

   Or with yarn:

   yarn db:create
   yarn migrate
   yarn seed:gen:all

5. Start the development server: With npm:

   npm run dev

   Or with yarn:

   yarn dev

Packaging with pkg (Linux & Windows)

This project is configured to use pkg to generate standalone executables for both Linux and Windows platforms.

How to build

1. Install pkg globally if you haven't already:

   npm install -g pkg

2. Build the executable:

   npm run build

   or directly with:

   pkg .

3. The executables will be generated in the dist folder for:

   • Windows (node16-win-x64)
   • Linux (node16-linux-x64)

Notes

• The packaging configuration is defined in the package.json under the pkg field.
• All necessary assets and scripts are included for the build.
• You can adjust the targets in package.json if you need other platforms.

Project Structure

base-api-express-orm/
├── src/
│   ├── assets/         # Images, email templates, etc.
│   ├── bin/            # Application entry point
│   ├── boot/           # Initialization (e.g., mailer, axios)
│   ├── config/         # Configurations (auth, DB, mailer, etc.)
│   ├── controllers/    # Endpoint logic
│   ├── middleware/     # Custom middlewares
│   ├── models/         # Sequelize models
│   ├── routes/         # Route definitions
│   └── services/       # Reusable business logic
├── migrations/         # Sequelize migrations
├── seeders/            # Example data
├── config/             # Global config (e.g., config.json)
├── app.js              # Main Express configuration
├── package.json
└── README.md

Sequelize Configuration (config/config.json)

The config/config.json file contains the database connection settings used by Sequelize CLI for migrations and seeders. It defines different environments (development, test, production) and their respective database credentials.

Example structure

{
  "development": {
    "username": "your_db_user",
    "password": "your_db_password",
    "database": "your_db_name",
    "host": "127.0.0.1",
    "dialect": "postgres"
  },
  "test": {
    "username": "your_db_user",
    "password": "your_db_password",
    "database": "your_test_db_name",
    "host": "127.0.0.1",
    "dialect": "postgres"
  },
  "production": {
    "username": "your_db_user",
    "password": "your_db_password",
    "database": "your_prod_db_name",
    "host": "127.0.0.1",
    "dialect": "postgres"
  }
}

How it works

• Sequelize CLI uses this file to know how to connect to your database when running commands like db:migrate or db:seed:all.
• You can set different credentials for each environment (development, test, production).
• Make sure to keep your credentials secure and never commit sensitive information in a public repository.

Tips

• You can use environment variables in this file for better security. For example, with process.env.DB_USER (see Sequelize documentation for dynamic config).
• If you change your database settings, update this file accordingly.

Best Practices

• Always validate and sanitize user input.
• Never store sensitive information directly in the code.
• Regularly update your dependencies.
• Add your own routes, models, and services as needed.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open an issue or a pull request to suggest improvements, fix bugs, or add new features.

License

This project is open-source under the MIT license.