MongoDB, Express, Angular, and Node.js Fundamentals: Become a MEAN master and rule the world of web applications

We began this book by describing the MEAN (MongoDB, Express, Angular, and Node) architecture. Specifically, we described its technology components in terms of their features/advantages, limitations, and scenarios in which they are best used. We ran a Node server and implemented various Node features, such as callbacks, event loops, event emitters, streams, buffers, and the filesystem.

This chapter will revolve around RESTful APIs, which are a major application of Node that leverage HTTP request types to indicate a desired action. We will also introduce you to the RESTful API and its designs concepts. Later in this chapter, we will talk about some operations of MongoDB Atlas, such as creating clusters, schemas, and connecting the database to applications. This chapter will present the Express framework and its feature implementation on Node and MongoDB Atlas.

Finally, you'll implement Node, MongoDB Atlas, and Express together, with the goal of developing a RESTful API to perform...

An API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of subroutines and protocols that communicate between two components, if possible. To best comprehend the functionality of an API, let's take a look at the following case study.

Consider you have a functioning e-commerce website, and at a point in time you discover the need to track where your customers are actually located so that this data can be used for analytics and marketing purposes. So, you decide to integrate the Google Geolocation API on your e-commerce website instead of creating your own geolocation program from scratch, which would definitely cost you more in terms of both money and time.

Now, how does the Google Geolocation API work?

Whenever a customer visits your website after the Geolocation API is implemented on it, a request is fired to get the location of the GPS-enabled device that was used to access the website. Then, a response is fed back as a result. This response contains a location...

We covered an introduction to MongoDB in the first chapter. Recall that MongoDB is a document-oriented database program, also classified as a NoSQL database, and it uses JSON-like documents with schemas. In this book, MongoDB Atlas, which was highlighted briefly in the previous chapter as one of the database-as-a -service offerings by MongoDB for addressing the affordability challenges of small-scale start-ups and independent developers, will be used. First, we will set up an account on MongoDB and then set up MongoDB servers, known as clusters, to connect to applications. Finally, we will employ default (native) database drivers and a third-party driver to have the database connect with to Node application. We will also create database schemas and data models.

If you have an existing MongoDB account, you can use your credentials to log in to the MongoDB Atlas dashboard. If you don't, then you can sign up for free at https://www.MongoDB.com/cloud/atlas....

Express provides a robust set of features for building web applications. In the first chapter, we briefly talked about Express.js, and discussed its advantages and limitations. This topic is about the implementation of Express in an application.

Creating an Express application requires the following steps:

Take a look at the following example in Express:

// load express module
var express = require('express');

//Create express app
var app = express();

// route definition
app.get('/', function (req, res) {
res.send('Hello World');
});

// Start server
app.listen(4000, function () {
    console.log('App listening at Port 4000..');
});

In the preceding code snippet, the Express module is first loaded and assigned to a variable. Then, an app is created using the variable function. The app.get() method is used to define the route by passing in a route path and a callback...

This chapter got us started on the introduction to RESTful APIs and their design concepts. First, we defined what an API is and then expanded on REST. Thereafter, we looked into design practices that have been employed by established companies and described the guiding framework for web standards.

In the subsequent sections, we looked into how MongoDB Atlas is implemented with Node. We also performed an exercise on creating MongoDB Atlas server components, known as clusters, and connected them with applications. Later in this section, we established connections with applications using middleware such as the native MongoDB driver and Mongoose. We also described how schemas are created and defined with Mongoose. Finally, we performed an exercise on model creation using the default Mongoose method.

In the final sections of this chapter, we implemented various features in Express with Node. These included routing HTTP requests, configuring middleware, error handing, rendering HTML views...