Express Node Mongodb Server API for Ember app.

Here is a link to the front end ember app to work along with this API. All directions for the app will be here on the server side.

Front End

This was a tutorial I found online but was build on a while ago and the turorial no longer works so I had to add a few things not much though. Mostly because I was on cloud9 and had to deal with not being on my home computer. There are 4 parts to the turorial. Old Tutorial

Lets get into making the app now

Once you create the meenserver folder move to that folder and download mongodb. Since on cloud9 this is how you would get it to work for development purposes.

sudo apt-get install mongodb-org
mkdir data
echo 'mongod --bind_ip=$IP --dbpath=data --nojournal --rest "$@"' > mongod
chmod a+x mongod

Now to run mogodb just type ./mongod. However if you turn off c9 without turning off mongodb you will need to repair it so run ./mongod --repair and then ./mongod to run it back up again. Also in the same /meenserver if you open another terminal you can run $ mongo and use mongo shell commands to query mongodb.

Part 1: Working this project on cloud9 and had started out with then nodejs template.

mkdir meenserver
cd meenserver
mkdir app
mkdir public
touch server.js
cd app
touch routes.js
cd ..
npm init
sudo npm install express mongoose body-parser --save
cd public 
touch index.html
cd ..
npm install -g ember-cli
node server

When I have touch I actually filled the contents then however you could fill them before running node server.

In file server.js I set the port to 8081 because when I run Ember on the front end it automatically runs on my port 8080. And since I am on the same server I have to use this to run both. Front end Terminal

ember serve --proxy=http://localhost:8081 --live-reload false

Back end Terminal

node server

However you can create a production app of your ember front end to run with the server side since they are already on the same server.

Setting up the ember app starter to quickly test the setup

/meenserver Create the app in the server.

ember new meen-app1
cd meen-app1
ember build --environment=production --output-path=../public/
cd ..
node server

This should run the ember app on the server now. You should be able to see the app at http://localhost:8081/

Part 2

File structure for server

|_api
|   |_quote.js
|
|_app
|   |_routes.js
|
|_models
|   |_quotes.js
|
|_package.json
|
|_meen-app1

Create the models file. Models is just another term for Schema.

To test the app. In /meenserver

mongo
show databases
use RESTServer
show tables
db.quotes.find({})

You can also use postman to test your API.

Working with Ember in /meenserver/meen-app1

You will be able to find documentation here. Front End

Lets create some routes. g = generate

ember g resource quote quote:string author: string

I could just end after typing quote and fill things in myself but I wanted to show you that you can use the command itself to create the schema.

This command also will create many other files. You can find them in /app/model/quote.js /app/route/quote.js /app/templates/quote.hbs

Now to serialize the _id into id

ember g serializer application

/app/serializers/application.js

Also to work with the server I changed a couple lines in the /meen-app1/config/environment.js file lines 20-31 were added. Line 25 is very important. You will set this to the url of your app.

Now lets create the other files needed

ember install ember-bootstrap
ember g route quote/edit
ember g controller quote/edit
ember g route quote/new
ember g controller qoute/new
ember g adapter application

If you use ember g route this actually inserts a route and creates a template for that route. Since I used qoute/edit it creates a folder called quote with the file edit inside. And in the routes it creates a route within the quote route for you. Simple stuff.

We still have to add the controllers as well. Make sure to match the file structure it will make things easy on you.

Now for the adapater. This was needed so that ember would use RESTful http requests instead of json requests which ember does by default. I am useing version 2.6.0. Also the namespace = '' however this is only because my api starts at '/', if it was something like 'api/v1' then I would have to place that in the namespace.

Fill out the files. I should have comments and if not I am working on filling them out.

Finishign up

So lets get this baby on the road. and test things out. Also don't forget to check /meen-app1/app/styles/app.css

Lets test before we build In /meenserver Terminal 1

./mongod

Terminal 2

node server

In /meenserver/meen-app1

ember serve --proxy=http://localhost:8081 --live-reload false

Check to see the app running now at url/quote url/quote/new url/quote/edit

Now if everything is working lets build the app on the server In /meenserver/meen-app1

ember build --environment=production --output-path=../public/

Now in /meenserver

node server

You should now be able to see the app at url:8081/quote url:8081/quote/new url:8081/quote/edit

If you would like to get rid of the :8081 then go into server.js and change the port to

var port = process.env.PORT || 8080;
// or simply
var port = 8080;
// This is for cloud9 I am sure if on your own home computer
// port 3000 is the avg port everyone uses for testing. 
var port = 3000;