/practica

Node.js solution starter that is production-ready, packed with ✅ best practices and built with simplicity in mind

Primary LanguageTypeScriptMIT LicenseMIT

Best practices starter


Generate a Node.js app that is packed with best practices AND simplicity in mind. Based off our repo Node.js best practices (80,500 stars)


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A One Paragraph Overview

Although Node.js has great frameworks 💚, they were never meant to be production ready immediately. Practica.js aims to bridge the gap. Based on your preferred framework, we generate example code that demonstrates a full Microservice flow, from API to DB, that is packed with good practices. For example, we include a battle-tested error handler, sanitize API response, hardened dockerfile, thoughtful 3-tier folder structure, great testing templates with DB, and more. This saves a great deal of time and can prevent painful mistakes. All decisions made are neatly and thoughtfully documented. We strive to keep things as simple and standard as possible and base our work on the popular guide: Node.js Best Practices

1 min video 👇, ensure audio is activated

practica-1-min-explainer.mp4

Table of Contents


Super-Quick Setup


Run Practica.js from the Command Line

Run practica CLI and generate our default app (you can customize it using different flags):

npx @practica/create-node-app immediate --install-dependencies

✨ And you're done! That's it. The code's all been generated.

We also have a CLI interactive mode:

npx @practica/create-node-app interactive

Note that for now, it can generate an app that is based on Express and PostgreSQL only. Other options will get added soon


Start the Project

cd {your chosen folder name}
npm install

Then choose whether to start the app:

npm run

or run the tests:

npm test

Pretty straight forward, right?

You just got a Node.js Monorepo solution with one example component/Microservice and multiple libraries. Based on this hardened solution you can build a robust application. The example component/Microservice is located under: {your chosen folder name}/services/order-service. This is where you'll find the API and a good spot to start your journey from.


Next Steps


Our Philosophies and Unique Values

1. Best Practices on top of known Node.js frameworks

We don't re-invent the wheel. Rather, we use your favorite framework and empower it with structure and real examples. With a single command you can get an Express/Fastify-based codebase with ~100 examples of best practices inside.

Built on top of known frameworks

2. Simplicity, how Node.js was intended

Keeping it simple, flat, and based on native Node/JS capabilities is part of this project's DNA. We believe that too many abstractions, high-complexity or fancy language features can quickly become a stumbling block for the team.

To name a few examples, our code flow is flat with almost no level of indirection, although using TypeScript - almost no features are being used besides types, for modularization we simply use Node.js modules.

Built on top of known frameworks

3. Supports many technologies and frameworks

Good Practices and Simplicity is the name of the game with Practica. There is no need to narrow our code to a specific framework or database. We aim to support a majority of popular Node.js frameworks and databases.

Built on top of known frameworks


Practices and Features

We apply more than 100 practices and optimizations. You can opt in or out for most of these features using option flags on our CLI. The following table lists just a few examples out of the full list of features we provide.

Feature Explanation Flag Docs
Monorepo setup Generates two components (e.g., Microservices) in a single repository with interactions between the two --mr, --monorepo Docs here
Output escaping and sanitizing Clean-out outgoing responses from potential HTML security risks like XSS --oe, --output-escape Docs here
Integration (component) testing Generates full-blown component/integration tests setup including DB --t, --tests Docs here
Unique request ID (Correlation ID) Generates module that creates a unique correlation/request ID for every incoming request. This is available for any other object during the request life-span. Internally it uses Node's built-in AsyncLocalStorage --coi, --correlation-id Docs here
Dockerfile Generates dockerfile that embodies >20 best practices --df, --docker-file Docs here
Strong-schema configuration A configuration module that dynamically load run-time configuration keys and includes a strong schema so it can fail fast Built-in with basic app Docs here

📗 See our full list of features here


The People Behind Practica.js

Steering Committee

Practica is a community-driven open-source project. It's being led voluntarily by engineers from many different companies. These companies are just a few who encourage their engineers to contribute and keep this project moving. 💚

Autodesk

A Nasdaq 100 company, a world leader in design software

Cox2m

Leader IoT provider, part of 'Cox Communication', the 3rd largest cable company in the US

Core Team


Yoni Goldberg


Independent Node.js consultant

Michael Solomon


Node.js lead

Raz Luvaton


Node.js developer

Daniel Gluskin


Node.js lead

Ariel Steiner


Node.js developer

Tomer Kohane


Frontend geek

Dan Goldberg


Node.js lead

Ron Dahan


Node.js expert

Partners

These companies are keen for continuous improvement and their engineers to have been known to contribute during work hours.

Minta

Our Amazing Contributors 💚

A million thanks to these great people who have contributed code to our project:


Brian Clark

💻

Raz Luvaton

🖋 💻

Michael Solomon

💻

itainoam

💻 📆

shanizlo

💻

Ron Dahan

💻

AlonK

💻

Jose Luis Alvarez Herrera

🖋 💻

reinaldo-calderon-team

💻

KarelVerschraegen

📖

Daniel Morrison

🖋

Sean Lowe

💡 🖋

idobetesh

💻

Alejandra Acosta

💻

adandanielteamint

🖋

Rashad Majali

💻

yohai zvuloon

🖋

Yonatan Kra

🖋

Yoni Rapoport

🖋

perilevy

💻

ToMer-K

💻

hen arbel

💻

Mojca Ostir

💻

evbambly

🖋

Amir Adar

🖋

Sebastien Vaucouleur

🖋

Harry Dobrev

💻

Bassam Ismail

📖

Marcos Molina

💻

Isen Kasa

💻