focusapi-template

Overview

This is a minimal, production-ready JavaScript backend server template built with Express.js. It provides a clean starting point for building RESTful APIs with modern JavaScript (ES modules) and essential middleware configurations.

Features

• 🚀 Express 5.x - Latest version of the popular Node.js framework
• 📦 ES Modules - Modern JavaScript module system
• 🔒 Security - Pre-configured with Helmet.js for security headers
• 🌐 CORS - Cross-Origin Resource Sharing enabled
• 📝 Logging - HTTP request logging with Morgan
• 🔧 Environment Variables - dotenv configuration
• 💅 Code Formatting - Prettier configuration included
• 🔄 Hot Reload - Nodemon for development
• ☁️ Vercel Ready - Deployment configuration included

Project Structure

focusapi-template/
├── src/
│   ├── app.js          # Express app configuration and middleware
│   ├── server.js       # Server entry point (create this for local dev)
│   └── public/         # Static files
│       └── index.html  # Welcome page
├── .gitignore          # Git ignore rules
├── .prettierrc         # Code formatting rules
├── package.json        # Dependencies and scripts
├── vercel.json         # Vercel deployment config
└── README.md           # This file

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v14 or higher recommended)
• npm or yarn

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/FocusoftHQ/focusapi-template.git
cd focusapi-template

2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Create a .env file in the root directory (optional):

touch .env

4. Create src/server.js and populate it with this code snippet:

import app from './app.js' // ✅ Correct path to API

const PORT = process.env.PORT || 5001
app.listen(PORT, () => {
    console.log(`🚀 Server running locally at http://localhost:${PORT}`)
})

5. Run npm run dev

Available Scripts

• npm start - Start the production server
• npm run dev - Start development server with hot reload
• npm run format - Format code with Prettier
• npm test - Run tests (not configured yet)

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the root directory. Example variables:

PORT=5001
NODE_ENV=development

API Endpoints

• GET / - Serves the welcome page
• Add your custom routes in app.js

Middleware Stack

The application comes pre-configured with:

1. express.json() - Parse JSON request bodies
2. cors() - Enable CORS (currently allows all origins)
3. helmet() - Security headers
4. morgan('dev') - HTTP request logging
5. Error Handler - Centralized error handling middleware

Deployment

Vercel

This template is configured for easy deployment to Vercel:

1. Install Vercel CLI: npm i -g vercel
2. Run: vercel
3. Follow the prompts

The vercel.json configuration is already set up to:

• Build from src/app.js
• Route all requests through the Express app

Contributing

Feel free to submit issues and enhancement requests!

Miscellaneous

Interesting read on prettier config: https://www.benpickles.com/articles/80-my-prettier-preferences-and-why

License

MIT