RESTful backend solution for Smart Irrigation to serve the web and mobile front-end applications - Postgres solution.
When running this app locally the PORT variable and production and development database URLs will all need to be defined in a local .env file. You will need to either create the .env file (for sandbox purposes), or get the standard .env file for the SproutLabs project from one of the team members (for development purposes). This file contains some sensitive information about our services and data stores, so we want to keep it safe.
App.js defines the Express application. This is where all requirements are stated, routes are referenced, and port listening is defined. The app listens to the port defined by the PORT environment variable, which is pre-defined on Heroku.
Sequelize is the ORM for this solution and the Postgres database. The file server/models/index.js initializes Sequelize and looks for 'use_env_variable' in the file server/config/config.json. This variable is initialized to the environment variable 'DEV_DATABASE_URL' or 'DATABASE_URL', which are both defined as a Postgres database URL on the Heroku instance where this app is running. When running locally, 'DEV_DATABASE_URL' and 'DATABASE_URL' must be initialized in a local .env file. The included .env file initializes these variables to the URLs of our develpment and production Postgres databases, respectively. Sequelize will connect to the database with the URL that is specified by the Node run scripts (this is discussed below, in 'Running Locally').
Models are defined through the Sequelize library and are located in server/models
node.js defines the attributes and relationships of the Node model and Nodes Postgres table. A node is a data representation of a single Slugsense device.
reading.js defines the attributes and relationships of the Reading model and Readings Postgres table. A reading is simply a collection of the values from all sensors on a node.
user.js defines the attributes and relationships of the User model and Users Postgres table.
Routes are defined in server/routes/index.js. This file defines the available routes, and the API functions that are called when the routes are visited. Also note that the HTTP request type is specified for each route, as different request types can be made to the same route and different API calls will be made. This file references the files in server/controllers, which define the API functions that are called when visiting the routes.
Most API endpoint call an authorization function. This function is defined in server/auth/auth.js. The auth.js file handles login and token authentication for users, so data is safer. Note: all requests to an endpoint that requires authentication must include a valid api token in the body of the HTTP request.
This directory is here so we are able to deploy our application on Heroku from a single repository. Do not edit the files in the /frontend directory. These files must be edited on the web application front end repo. Files on that repo are minified with a build script and injected into this repo in the /frontend directory.
- Download and install Node.js
- Update Node.js to v6.11.1, which is the latest LTS (Long Term Support) version of Node.js
- install nvm
- run
nvm install 6.11.1. This should install v6.11.1. - run
nvm use 6.11.1.
- Export the PORT, DEV_DATABASE_URL, and DATABASE_URL environment variables from the .env file by running
set -o allexport; source .env; set +o allexport - To run the app with access to data in the development DB, run
npm run-script dev(This command runs the dev script defined in package.json) - To run the app with access to data in the production DB, run
npm run-script prod(This command runs the prod script defined in package.json). Note: Production data should not be edited when developing. If you need to add/change data for development testing purposes, run the application in development mode (refer to #4 above).