Developers: Ryan Liao, Michael Luo, Angie Nguyen
Stuffly Server README
Softwares:
- NodeJS
- MongoDB
- elastic beanstalk (AWS)
- do this through NPM
- heroku
How to run unit tests:
- Make sure you are in root directory
- Run this command 'jasmine-node spec'
- Make sure there are no failures
How to setup connection to database:
- dbuser and dbpassword is generated by me for my database on cloud (server currently uses Ryan's database)
- get MongoLab (only needed if you want to see the database on their website)
- once set up, click add account, the URI is:
- mongodb://<dbuser>:<dbpassword>@ds033390.mongolab.com:33390/stuffly
- dbuser is your firstname, dbpassword is your lastname
- edit ./config.json
- this is JSON, so only change value, not key
- the new value is your URI, which is :
- mongodb://<dbuser>:<dbpassword>@ds033390.mongolab.com:33390/stuffly
How to setup push access to AWS:
- install elasticbeanstalk on your terminal (can be done using NPM)
- go to root of our server folder
- type: eb init
- system will ask you for your pubic/secret key...sent on Facebook
- ... instructions included later...the rest is annoying/tedious
Design:
- RESTful
- every part of the URL is a resource
- every resource follows MVC pattern
- M = Model
- V = View (Router for us)
- C = Controller
- NoSQL with schemes
- MongoDB is schemeless by default, but Mongoose API provides schemas for use
- MongoDB follows CRUD, so we will try to only Create, Read, Update, and/or Delete a resource
- we can use pure MongoDB or Mongoose functions ... doesn't matter if we don't care about scale/optimization
Flow:
1. client requests server: api -> router -> controller -> model
2. server responds client: model -> controller -> router
- using callbacks, only router's return should reach the client
- model is sometimes not reached/necessary because Mongoose API provides a lot of high level functions
Technical terms:
- api.js : starting point of a request ... defines ports and URL paths
- collection: equivalent to tables in SQL
- document: equivalent to entry in SQL
- schema : equivalent to column in SQL
- defines the required ivars of a class
- ex: Car class must have make, model, year, color, etc
- if schema is defined, encorces a document can be
- callback: think of onSuccess/onFail ... LOOK THIS UP !!! THIS IS THE CORE OF NODEJS
- req : the request
- req.body : the body content of the request
- res : the response
- res.send(200) : sends HTTP code 200 to client
Design Pattern:
- Model:
- defines schemas ... imagine ivars in a class
- performs, wraps, and exports raw query into "short and pretty" method
- ex: RAW SQL: SELECT u.lastname FROM user u WHERE u.race = 'Asian'
Wrapped method: ArrayList<String> getLastnameByRace (Table user, Race race)
- exports object is schema + schema methods ... imagine encapulation in a class (ivars, constructor, getter, setter, etc)
- method types:
- static methods: disregard the caller ... caller of static methods has no effect on the return value
- ex: Car class has a static method 'double convertMpgToKpl(double mg)'
- instance methods: relies on the caller ... caller of instance method affects or is affected by the function
- Note: usually the longest file ... direct access to database
- Router:
- defines the actions to perform for each end point ... think of API in Java
- should only uses methods exported from controller to perform actions
- aka middleman of the request and backend ... should be easy to understand
- Note: usually the shortest file ... no logic, only resource and corresponding Controller call
- Controller:
- handles complex logics by using model methods or even other models
- used if i need resources other than my own, like userController needing userModel and carModel
- Note: usually shorter than Model ... "asks" Model to access database
DNE:
- DO NOT EVER edit/delete/make the "_id" key in any documents unless you are trying to do "indexing" (MongoDB optimization)
- DO NOT EVER share/expose your config.json file b/c it contains username/password to MongoLab ... sharing in our private Git is ok
- DO NOT EVER commit/share/expose your credential file under .elasticbeanstalk ... it has your secret key to our server on AWS
- DO NOT EVER overflow MongoLab database (500MB storage...very unlikely to overflow) ... if close to limit, contact me ASAP
- DO NOT EVER push to AWS or Git without testing and validating locally ... there is a "blame" on Git
- DO NOT EVER npm install anything without saving it in package.json ... AWS will break b/c missing package
- shortcut: npm install
Trivial:
- In JavaScript:
- 'string' and "string" are the same
- a string without ' or " can still be treated as string ... but don't do this b/c it will bite you back ...
- JSON variables can be in many forms ... but standard is to ALWAYS surround the key with '' or "" to avoid confusion later on
- {
"key0" : "value0",
"key1" : "value1"
}
- In HTTPS:
- all sensitive information are stored in req.body b/c SSL can encrypt body of the request
- Login authentication is kinda complicated ... generally Token based (Facebook) but we can do simple value checking
- JWT is a new feature for more secure HTTP requests ... out of project scope but look it up for knowledge!!!
- images can be sent through:
- form-data: server gets image as is ... but body must be empty
- encoded string: more secure, but increases size and requires server to decode
- socket/stream: nope ... too much work
- PNG is lossless, JPEG is lossy ... so preferrably JPEG