fullstack-js-express4-react-starter

A starter app using a pretty typical NodeJs stack w/ a postgreSql backend. Below is a rundown of the tool stack that is used.

Getting Started

• install nodejs & postgresql
• create a postgres database named "starter"
• go to config/config.json and update the database credentials (they are defaulted to postgres/root)
• run "npm install" (runs gulp build as a postinstall step)
• run "gulp db:migrate"
• start the web server using "npm start"

Build w/ npm & Webpack

• Using npm for compiling sass instead of webpack because I do not want the css to have a dependency on javascript.
• Webpack is used to build the js and publish to dist directory -- eslint loader uses .eslintrc file for configuration to run linting on build -- babel is used for jsx compiling and ES6 features
• eslint is run server side with npm task

Express

• server.js is the entry point
• routes are defined inside of the routes folder
• config files, passport config and role/securable mappings are in the config folder
• Server side templates w/ Jade

Authentication w/ passportjs

• Uses local strategy and stores in the users table
• The strategies are defined in config/passport.js -- 2 strategies are defined - 1 for signup and 1 for login

Authorization w/ mustbe

Sequelize ORM w/ Postgres

• Sequelize migrations to keep sane database updating -- create new migrations by running the command "sequelize migration:create" -- there are a couple of ways to run the migrations --- gulp build --- sequelize db:migrate -- See http://docs.sequelizejs.com/en/latest/docs/migrations/ for more details
• Add new models inside of the models folder. The index.js file scans the directory and exports them. You can include them with var models = require('./models'). The models will all be hanging off of that object.

Styles using Kraken library and sass

• Kraken is a lightweight mobile-first boilerplate -- http://cferdinandi.github.io/kraken/#getting-started
• I haven't added any styles yet, but all styles can be added to front-end/src/css/app.scss. Currently just includes Kraken styles
• sass is compiled as part of gulp build and published to public/css/app.css

React w/ Flux Architecture

• Really just included the dependency and included as part of the webpack build

Heroku

• The app is running at heroku (// TODO: INSERT URL HERE). In its current state it's easy to deploy to a heroku instance. See heroku for node for more details about deploying there.