Building RESTful APIs with Node.js

1. Introduction to RESTful APIs

RESTful APIs use HTTP methods for CRUD operations. This post covers building a blog API with Node.js, Express, and MongoDB.

2. Setting Up the Project

Initialize a Node.js project:

npm init -y
npm install express mongoose

3. Creating the Server

Set up Express server:

const express = require('express');
const app = express();

app.use(express.json());

app.listen(3000, () => console.log('Server running on port 3000'));

4. Connecting to MongoDB

Connect to MongoDB:

const mongoose = require('mongoose');

mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost/blogdb', { useNewUrlParser: true });

5. Defining Models

Create a Post model:

const PostSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
    title: String,
    content: String
});

const Post = mongoose.model('Post', PostSchema);

6. Creating Routes

CRUD routes for posts:

app.get('/posts', async (req, res) => {
    const posts = await Post.find();
    res.json(posts);
});

app.post('/posts', async (req, res) => {
    const post = new Post(req.body);
    await post.save();
    res.json(post);
});

// Similar for PUT and DELETE

7. Best Practices

Use error handling, validation with Joi, and authentication with JWT for secure APIs.

8. Conclusion

Building RESTful APIs with Node.js is straightforward and scalable. Deploy your API to Heroku or AWS for production use.