3/17/25, 2:18 PM Creating RESTful APIs with NodeJS and MongoDB Tutorial (Part II) | Adrian Mejia Blog

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Creating RESTful APIs with NodeJS

and MongoDB Tutorial (Part II)
 Last updated October 14th 2016  573.7k 78 Comments
 express mongodb nodejs tutorial_mean-stack

Welcome to this tutorial about RESTful API using Node.js (Express.js) and MongoDB
(mongoose)! We are going to learn how to install and use each component
individually and then proceed to create a RESTful API.

“ Check out the updated version of this post with Angular 9+, Node.js 12+ in here:
Modern MEAN Stack Tutorial with Docker

MEAN Stack tutorial series:

1. AngularJS tutorial for beginners (Part I)

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2. Creating RESTful APIs with NodeJS and MongoDB Tutorial (Part II) 👈 you are
here
3. MEAN Stack Tutorial: MongoDB, ExpressJS, AngularJS and NodeJS (Part III)

What is a RESTful API?

REST stands for Representational State Transfer. It is an architecture that allows
client-server communication through a uniform interface. REST is stateless ,
cachable and has property called idempotence . It means that the side effect of
identical requests have the same side-effect as a single request.

HTTP RESTful API’s are compose of:

HTTP methods, e.g. GET, PUT, DELETE, PATCH, POST, …

Base URI, e.g. http://adrianmejia.com
URL path, e.g. /blog/2014/10/01/creating-a-restful-api-tutorial-with-
nodejs-and-mongodb/
Media type, e.g. html , JSON , XML , Microformats , Atom , Images …

Here is a summary what we want to implement:

Resource POST GET PUT DELETE

(URI) (create) (read) (update) (destroy)

create new N/A (update N/A (destroy

/todos list tasks
task all) all)

show task update task destroy task

/todos/1 error
ID 1 ID 1 ID 1

NOTE for this tutorial:

Format will be JSON.

Bulk updates and bulk destroys are not safe, so we will not be implementing
those.
CRUD functionality: POST == CREATE, GET == READ, PUT == UPDATE,
DELETE == DELETE.

Installing the MEAN Stack Backend

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In this section, we are going to install the backend components of the MEAN stack:
MongoDB, NodeJS and ExpressJS. If you already are familiar with them, then jump
to wiring the stack. Otherwise, enjoy the ride!

Installing MongoDB
MongoDB is a document-oriented NoSQL database (Big Data ready). It stores data in
JSON-like format and allows users to perform SQL-like queries against it.

You can install MongoDB following the instructions here.

If you have a Mac and brew it’s just:

1 brew install mongodb && mongod

In Ubuntu:

1 sudo apt-get -y install mongodb

After you have them installed, check version as follows:

1 ## Mac
2 mongod --version
3 ## => db version v2.6.4
4 ## => 2014-10-01T19:07:26.649-0400 git version: nogitversion
5
6 ## Ubuntu
7 mongod --version
8 ## => db version v2.0.4, pdfile version 4.5
9 ## => Wed Oct 1 23:06:54 git version: nogitversion

Installing NodeJS
The Node official definition is:

“ Node.js® is a JavaScript runtime built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine. Node.js

uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient.

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Node.js’ package ecosystem, npm, is the largest ecosystem of open source libraries in
the world.

Node.js Website nodejs.org

In short, NodeJS allows you to run Javascript outside the browser, in this case, on the
web server. NPM allows you to install/publish node packages with ease.

To install it, you can go to the NodeJS Website.

Since Node versions changes very often. You can use the NVM (Node Version
Manager) on Ubuntu and Mac with:

1 ## download NPM
2 curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.31.4/insta
3
4 ## load NPM
5 export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
6 [ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && . "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" # This loads nvm
7
8 ## Install latest stable version
9 nvm install stable

Check out https://github.com/creationix/nvm for more details.

Also, on Mac and brew you can do:

1 brew install nodejs

After you got it installed, check node version and npm (node package manager)
version:

1 node -v
2 ## => v6.2.2
3
4 npm -v
5 ## => 3.9.5

Installing ExpressJS
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ExpressJS is a web application framework that runs on NodeJS. It allows you to build
web applications and API endpoints. (more details on this later).

We are going to create a project folder first, and then add express as a dependency.
Let’s use NPM init command to get us started.

1 ## create project folder

2 mkdir todo-app
3
4 ## move to the folder and initialize the project
5 cd todo-app
6 npm init . # press enter multiple times to accept all defaults
7
8 ## install express v4.14 and save it as dependency
9 npm install [email protected] --save

Notice that after the last command, express should be added to package.json with
the version 4.14.x .

Using MongoDB with Mongoose

Mongoose is an NPM package that allows you to interact with MongoDB. You can
install it as follows:

1 npm install [email protected] --save

If you followed the previous steps, you should have all you need to complete this
tutorial. We are going to build an API that allow users to CRUD (Create-Read-Update-
Delete) Todo tasks from database.

Mongoose CRUD
CRUD == Create-Read-Update-Delete

We are going to create, read, update and delete data from MongoDB using
Mongoose/Node. First, you need to have mongodb up and running:

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1 ## run mongo daemon

2 mongod

Keep mongo running in a terminal window and while in the folder todoApp type
node to enter the node CLI. Then:

1 // Load mongoose package

2 var mongoose = require('mongoose');
3
4 // Connect to MongoDB and create/use database called todoAppTest
5 mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost/todoAppTest');
6
7 // Create a schema
8 var TodoSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
9 name: String,
10 completed: Boolean,
11 note: String,
12 updated_at: { type: Date, default: Date.now },
13 });
14
15 // Create a model based on the schema
16 var Todo = mongoose.model('Todo', TodoSchema);

Great! Now, let’s test that we can save and edit data.

Mongoose Create

1
2 // Create a todo in memory
3 var todo = new Todo({name: 'Master NodeJS', completed: false, note: 'G
4
5 // Save it to database
6 todo.save(function(err){
7 if(err)
8 console.log(err);
9 else
10 console.log(todo);
11 });

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If you take a look to Mongo you will notice that we just created an entry. You can
easily visualize data using Robomongo:

You can also build the object and save it in one step using create :

1 Todo.create({name: 'Create something with Mongoose', completed: true, n

2 if(err) console.log(err);
3 else console.log(todo);
4 });

Mongoose Read and Query

So far we have been able to save data, now we are going explore how to query the
information. There are multiple options for reading/querying data:

Model.find(conditions, [fields], [options], [callback])

Model.findById(id, [fields], [options], [callback])
Model.findOne(conditions, [fields], [options], [callback])

Some examples:

Find all

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1 // Find all data in the Todo collection

2 Todo.find(function (err, todos) {
3 if (err) return console.error(err);
4 console.log(todos)
5 });

The result is something like this:

results

1 [ { _id: 57a6116427f107adef36c2f2,
2 name: 'Master NodeJS',
3 completed: false,
4 note: 'Getting there...',
5 __v: 0,
6 updated_at: 2016-08-06T16:33:40.606Z },
7 { _id: 57a6142127f107adef36c2f3,
8 name: 'Create something with Mongoose',
9 completed: true,
10 note: 'this is one',
11 __v: 0,
12 updated_at: 2016-08-06T16:45:21.143Z } ]

You can also add queries

Find with queries

1 // callback function to avoid duplicating it all over

2 var callback = function (err, data) {
3 if (err) { return console.error(err); }
4 else { console.log(data); }
5 }
6
7 // Get ONLY completed tasks
8 Todo.find({completed: true }, callback);
9
10 // Get all tasks ending with `JS`
11 Todo.find({name: /JS$/ }, callback);

You can chain multiple queries, e.g.:

Chaining queries

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1 var oneYearAgo = new Date();

2 oneYearAgo.setYear(oneYearAgo.getFullYear() - 1);
3
4 // Get all tasks staring with `Master`, completed
5 Todo.find({name: /^Master/, completed: true }, callback);
6
7 // Get all tasks staring with `Master`, not completed and created from
8 Todo.find({name: /^Master/, completed: false }).where('updated_at').gt(

MongoDB query language is very powerful. We can combine regular expressions,

date comparison and more!

Mongoose Update
Moving on, we are now going to explore how to update data.

Each model has an update method which accepts multiple updates (for batch
updates, because it doesn’t return an array with data).

Model.update(conditions, update, [options], [callback])

Model.findByIdAndUpdate(id, [update], [options], [callback])
Model.findOneAndUpdate([conditions], [update], [options], [callback])

Alternatively, the method findOneAndUpdate could be used to update just one and
return an object.

Todo.update and Todo.findOneAndUpdate

1
2 // Model.update(conditions, update, [options], [callback])
3 // update `multi`ple tasks from complete false to true
4
5 Todo.update({ name: /master/i }, { completed: true }, { multi: true },
6
7 //Model.findOneAndUpdate([conditions], [update], [options], [callback])
8 Todo.findOneAndUpdate({name: /JS$/ }, {completed: false}, callback);

As you might noticed the batch updates ( multi: true ) doesn’t show the data, rather
shows the number of fields that were modified.

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1 { ok: 1, nModified: 1, n: 1 }

Here is what they mean:

n means the number of records that matches the query

nModified represents the number of documents that were modified with

update query.

Mongoose Delete
update and remove mongoose API are identical, the only difference it is that no
elements are returned. Try it on your own ;)

Model.remove(conditions, [callback])
Model.findByIdAndRemove(id, [options], [callback])
Model.findOneAndRemove(conditions, [options], [callback])

ExpressJS and Middlewares

ExpressJS is a complete web framework solution. It has HTML template solutions
(jade, ejs, handlebars, hogan.js) and CSS precompilers (less, stylus, compass).
Through middlewares layers, it handles: cookies, sessions, caching, CSRF,
compression and many more.

Middlewares are pluggable processors that runs on each request made to the
server. You can have any number of middlewares that will process the request one by
one in a serial fashion. Some middlewares might alter the request input. Others,
might create log outputs, add data and pass it to the next() middleware in the
chain.

We can use the middlewares using app.use . That will apply for all request. If you
want to be more specific, you can use app.verb . For instance: app.get, app.delete,
app.post, app.update, …

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Let’s give some examples of middlewares to drive the point home.

Say you want to log the IP of the client on each request:

Log the client IP on every request

1 app.use(function (req, res, next) {

2 var ip = req.headers['x-forwarded-for'] || req.connection.remoteAddre
3 console.log('Client IP:', ip);
4 next();
5 });

Notice that each middleware has 3 parameters:

req : contain all the requests objects like URLs, path, …

res : is the response object where we can send the reply back to the client.
next : continue with the next middleware in the chain.

You can also specify a path that you want the middleware to activate on.

Middleware mounted on "/todos/:id" and log the request method

1 app.use('/todos/:id', function (req, res, next) {

2 console.log('Request Type:', req.method);
3 next();
4 });

And finally you can use app.get to catch GET requests with matching routes, reply
the request with a response.send and end the middleware chain. Let’s use what we
learned on mongoose read to reply with the user’s data that matches the id .
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Middleware mounted on "/todos/:id" and returns

1 app.get('/todos/:id', function (req, res, next) {

2 Todo.findById(req.params.id, function(err, todo){
3 if(err) res.send(err);
4 res.json(todo);
5 });
6 });

Notice that all previous middlewares called next() except this last one, because it
sends a response (in JSON) to the client with the requested todo data.

Hopefully, you don’t have to develop a bunch of middlewares besides routes, since
ExpressJS has a bunch of middlewares available.

Default Express 4.0 middlewares

morgan: logger

body-parser: parse the body so you can access parameters in requests in

req.body . e.g. req.body.name .

cookie-parser: parse the cookies so you can access parameters in cookies

req.cookies . e.g. req.cookies.name .

serve-favicon: exactly that, serve favicon from route /favicon.ico . Should be

call on the top before any other routing/middleware takes place to avoids
unnecessary parsing.

Other ExpressJS Middlewares

The following middlewares are not added by default, but it’s nice to know they exist at
least:

compression: compress all request. e.g. app.use(compression())

session: create sessions. e.g. app.use(session({secret: 'Secr3t'}))

method-override: app.use(methodOverride('_method')) Override methods to

the one specified on the _method param. e.g. GET /resource/1?
_method=DELETE will become DELETE /resource/1 .

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response-time: app.use(responseTime()) adds X-Response-Time header to

responses.

errorhandler: Aid development, by sending full error stack traces to the client
when an error occurs. app.use(errorhandler()) . It is good practice to
surround it with an if statement to check process.env.NODE_ENV ===
'development' .

vhost: Allows you to use different stack of middlewares depending on the

request hostname . e.g. app.use(vhost('*.user.local', userapp)) and
app.use(vhost('assets-*.example.com', staticapp)) where userapp and
staticapp are different express instances with different middlewares.

csurf: Adds a Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) protection by adding a token to

responds either via session or cookie-parser middleware.
app.use(csrf());

timeout: halt execution if it takes more that a given time. e.g.

app.use(timeout('5s')); . However you need to check by yourself under
every request with a middleware that checks if (!req.timedout) next(); .

Wiring up the MEAN Stack

In the next sections, we are going to put together everything that we learn from and
build an API. They can be consume by browsers, mobile apps and even other
servers.

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Bootstrapping ExpressJS
After a detour in the land of Node, MongoDB, Mongoose, and middlewares, we are
back to our express todoApp. This time to create the routes and finalize our RESTful
API.

Express has a separate package called express-generator , which can help us to

get started with out API.

Install and run "express-generator"

1 ## install it globally using -g

2 npm install express-generator -g
3
4 ## create todo-app API with EJS views (instead the default Jade)
5 express todo-api -e
6
7 ## create : todo-api
8 ## create : todo-api/package.json
9 ## create : todo-api/app.js
10 ## create : todo-api/public
11 ## create : todo-api/public/javascripts
12 ## create : todo-api/routes

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13 ## create : todo-api/routes/index.js
14 ## create : todo-api/routes/users.js
15 ## create : todo-api/public/stylesheets
16 ## create : todo-api/public/stylesheets/style.css
17 ## create : todo-api/views
18 ## create : todo-api/views/index.ejs
19 ## create : todo-api/views/layout.ejs
20 ## create : todo-api/views/error.ejs
21 ## create : todo-api/public/images
22 ## create : todo-api/bin
23 ## create : todo-api/bin/www
24 ##
25 ## install dependencies:
26 ## $ cd todo-api && npm install
27 ##
28 ## run the app on Linux/Mac:
29 ## $ DEBUG=todo-app:* npm start
30 ##
31 ## run the app on Windows:
32 ## $ SET DEBUG=todo-api:* & npm start

This will create a new folder called todo-api . Let’s go ahead and install the
dependencies and run the app:

1 ## install dependencies
2 cd todo-api && npm install
3
4 ## run the app on Linux/Mac
5 PORT=4000 npm start
6
7 ## run the app on Windows
8 SET PORT=4000 & npm start

Use your browser to go to http://0.0.0.0:4000, and you should see a message

“Welcome to Express”

Connect ExpressJS to MongoDB

In this section we are going to access MongoDB using our newly created express
app. Hopefully, you have installed MongoDB in the setup section, and you can start it
by typing (if you haven’t yet):

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1 mongod

Install the MongoDB driver for NodeJS called mongoose:

1 npm install mongoose --save

Notice --save . It will add it to the todo-api/package.json

Next, you need to require mongoose in the todo-api/app.js

Add to app.js

1 // load mongoose package

2 var mongoose = require('mongoose');
3
4 // Use native Node promises
5 mongoose.Promise = global.Promise;
6
7 // connect to MongoDB
8 mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost/todo-api')
9 .then(() => console.log('connection succesful'))
10 .catch((err) => console.error(err));

Now, When you run npm start or ./bin/www , you will notice the message
connection successful . Great!

You can find the repository here and the diff code at this point: diff

Creating the Todo model with Mongoose

It’s show time! All the above was setup and preparation for this moment. Let bring the
API to life.

Create a models directory and a Todo.js model:

1 mkdir models
2 touch models/Todo.js

In the models/Todo.js :

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1 var mongoose = require('mongoose');

2
3 var TodoSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
4 name: String,
5 completed: Boolean,
6 note: String,
7 updated_at: { type: Date, default: Date.now },
8 });
9
10 module.exports = mongoose.model('Todo', TodoSchema);

diff

What’s going on up there? Isn’t MongoDB suppose to be schemaless? Well, it is

schemaless and very flexible indeed. However, very often we want bring sanity to our
API/WebApp through validations and enforcing a schema to keep a consistent
structure. Mongoose does that for us, which is nice.

You can use the following types:

String
Boolean
Date
Array
Number
ObjectId
Mixed
Buffer

API clients (Browser, Postman and curl)

I know you have not created any route yet. However, in the next sections you will.
These are just three ways to retrieve, change and delete data from your future API.

Curl

Create tasks

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1 ## Create task
2 curl -XPOST http://localhost:3000/todos -d 'name=Master%20Routes&comple
3
4 ## List tasks
5 curl -XGET http://localhost:3000/todos

Browser and Postman

If you open your browser and type localhost:3000/todos you will see all the tasks
(when you implement it). However, you cannot do post commands by default. For
further testing let’s use a Chrome plugin called Postman. It allows you to use all the
HTTP VERBS easily and check x-www-form-urlencoded for adding parameters.

“ Don’t forget to check x-www-form-urlencoded or it won’t work ;)

Websites and Mobile Apps

Probably these are the main consumers of APIs. You can interact with RESTful APIs
using jQuery’s $ajax and its wrappers, BackboneJS’s Collections/models,
AngularJS’s $http or $resource , among many other libraries/frameworks and
mobile clients.

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In the end, we are going to explain how to use AngularJS to interact with this API.

ExpressJS Routes
To sum up we want to achieve the following:

Resource POST GET PUT DELETE

(URI) (create) (read) (update) (destroy)

create new
/todos list tasks error error
task

show update task destroy task

/todos/:id error
task :id :id ID 1

Let’s setup the routes

```bash Create a new route called todos.js in the routes folder or rename
users.js mv routes/users.js routes/todos.js

1
2 In `app.js` add new `todos` route, or just replace `./routes/users` for
3
4 ``` javascript Adding todos routes
5 var todos = require('./routes/todos');
6 app.use('/todos', todos);

All set! Now, let’s go back and edit our routes/todos.js .

List: GET /todos

Remember mongoose query api? Here’s how to use it in this context:

routes/todos.js

1 var express = require('express');

2 var router = express.Router();
3
4 var mongoose = require('mongoose');
5 var Todo = require('../models/Todo.js');

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6
7 /* GET /todos listing. */
8 router.get('/', function(req, res, next) {
9 Todo.find(function (err, todos) {
10 if (err) return next(err);
11 res.json(todos);
12 });
13 });
14
15 module.exports = router;

Harvest time! We don’t have any task in database but at least we verify it is working:

Testing all together

1 ## Start database
2 mongod
3
4 ## Start Webserver (in other terminal tab)
5 npm start
6
7 ## Test API (in other terminal tab)
8 curl localhost:3000/todos
9 ## => []%

diff

If it returns an empty array [] you are all set. If you get errors, try going back and
making sure you didn’t forget anything, or you can comment at the end of the post for
help.

Create: POST /todos

Back in routes/todos.js , we are going to add the ability to create using mongoose
create. Can you make it work before looking at the next example?

routes/todos.js (showing just create route)

1
2 /* POST /todos */
3 router.post('/', function(req, res, next) {
4 Todo.create(req.body, function (err, post) {
5 if (err) return next(err);

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6 res.json(post);
7 });
8 });

diff

A few things:

We are using the router.post instead of router.get .

You have to stop and run the server again: npm start .

Everytime you change a file you have to stop and start the web server. Let’s fix that
using nodemon to refresh automatically:

Nodemon

1 ## install nodemon globally

2 npm install nodemon -g
3
4 ## Run web server with nodemon
5 nodemon

Show: GET /todos/:id

This is a snap with Todo.findById and req.params . Notice that params matches
the placeholder name we set while defining the route. :id in this case.

routes/todos.js (showing just show route)

1 /* GET /todos/id */
2 router.get('/:id', function(req, res, next) {
3 Todo.findById(req.params.id, function (err, post) {
4 if (err) return next(err);
5 res.json(post);
6 });
7 });

diff

Let’s test what we have so far!

Testing the API with Curl

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1 ## Start Web Server on port 4000 (default is 3000)

2 PORT=4000 nodemon
3
4 ## Create a todo using the API
5 curl -XPOST http://localhost:4000/todos -d 'name=Master%20Routes&compl
6 ## => {"__v":0,"name":"Master Routes","completed":false,"note":"soon...
7
8 ## Get todo by ID (use the _id from the previous request, in my case "
9 curl -XGET http://localhost:4000/todos/57a655997d2241695585ecf8
10 {"_id":"57a655997d2241695585ecf8","name":"Master Routes","completed":f
11
12 ## Get all elements (notice it is an array)
13 curl -XGET http://localhost:4000/todos
14 [{"_id":"57a655997d2241695585ecf8","name":"Master Routes","completed"

Update: PUT /todos/:id

Back in routes/todos.js , we are going to update tasks. This one you can do
without looking at the example below, review findByIdAndUpdate and give it a try!

routes/todos.js (showing just update route)

1 /* PUT /todos/:id */
2 router.put('/:id', function(req, res, next) {
3 Todo.findByIdAndUpdate(req.params.id, req.body, function (err, post)
4 if (err) return next(err);
5 res.json(post);
6 });
7 });

diff

curl update

1 ## Use the ID from the todo, in my case 57a655997d2241695585ecf8

2 curl -XPUT http://localhost:4000/todos/57a655997d2241695585ecf8 -d "not
3 ## => {"_id":"57a655997d2241695585ecf8","name":"Master Routes","complet

Destroy: DELETE /todos/:id

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Finally, the last one! Almost identical to update , use findByIdAndRemove .

routes/todos.js (showing just update route)

1 /* DELETE /todos/:id */
2 router.delete('/:id', function(req, res, next) {
3 Todo.findByIdAndRemove(req.params.id, req.body, function (err, post)
4 if (err) return next(err);
5 res.json(post);
6 });
7 });

diff

Is it working? Cool, you are done then! Is NOT working? take a look at the full
repository.

What’s next?
Connecting AngularJS with this endpoint. Check out the third tutorial in this series.

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About the author

Adrian Mejia is a Software Engineer located in Boston, MA.

Currently working at Google. Adrian enjoys writing posts about
Algorithms, programming, JavaScript, and Web Dev. Also, he likes
to travel ✈️ and biking 🚴‍.

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Tutorial Mean Stack Series

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ExpressJS and
MongoDB (Part I)

Creating RESTful APIs

with NodeJS and
MongoDB Tutorial
(Part II)

MEAN Stack Tutorial

MongoDB ExpressJS
AngularJS NodeJS
(Part III)

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 Top  Edit this post

Contents
1. What is a RESTful API?
2. Installing the MEAN Stack Backend
3. Using MongoDB with Mongoose
4. ExpressJS and Middlewares
5. Wiring up the MEAN Stack
6. API clients (Browser, Postman and curl)
7. ExpressJS Routes
8. What’s next?

ALSO ON ADRIAN MEJIA'S BLOG

6 years ago • 10 comments 6 years ago • 5 comments

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78 Comments 
1 Login

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Name

 5 Share Best Newest Oldest

David − ⚑
10 years ago

Awesome Tutorial. I could easily make my first steps with the MEAN stack and REST!
Thank you so much Adrian!!

With best regards from Germany,

David

81 0 Reply ⥅

Adrian Mejia Mod > David

− ⚑
9 years ago

You are welcome! Glad you liked it

0 0 Reply ⥅

Adam Carr − ⚑
9 years ago

For anyone completing this tutorial using a current mongoose, I think the callback used in the
Todo.update code sample is deprecated. Rather than getting (err, numAffected, raw) you now get
(err, result) where result is an object with "ok", "nModified", and "n" keys. result.nModified will give
you the number of rows affected. Hope that saves some time, cheers!

80 0 Reply ⥅

rjmil > Adam Carr

− ⚑
9 years ago

Thanks for the comment! You spared me a major headache.

75 0 Reply ⥅

Adrian Mejia Mod > Adam Carr − ⚑

9 years ago edited

Yes, that's true. I just fixed it and updated the tutorials with latest mongoose, node and
express

R l ⥅
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0 0 Reply ⥅

Nathan Torquato − ⚑
N 8 years ago

Is there any live demo?

I've cloned the repo but it's not running locally. :/

79 0 Reply ⥅

Abhijith S − ⚑
10 years ago

Its good and its helped me a lot.Thank you.

74 0 Reply ⥅

Ahmed − ⚑
10 years ago

Hi,

I think you forgot to include the step of installing mongoose. I had to 'npm install mongoose' before
I was able to require('mongoose').

Great tutorial!

79 1 Reply ⥅

Adrian Mejia Mod > Ahmed

− ⚑
9 years ago

Thanks, I just updated the tutorial!

0 0 Reply ⥅

Luiz Guilherme Silva Junior − ⚑

8 years ago

Nice Post!
It helped me a lot while I was making a module that generate the endpoints based on your
sequelize models.

If you want to take a look, I would be honored! =]

https://www.npmjs.com/packa...

25 0 Reply ⥅

Jonas Östlund − ⚑
10 years ago

As a clojure/lisp programmer, I appreciate your bottom-up approach to teaching. Start with the
smallest building blocks and then assemble them into something meaningful.

9 0 Reply ⥅

Adrian Mejia Mod > Jonas Östlund − ⚑

9 years ago

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Glad you liked it!

0 0 Reply ⥅

hakeem ahmad − ⚑
HA 10 years ago

why did you commit the "node_modules" directory? i think it should be ignored by git

2 0 Reply ⥅

Adrian Mejia Mod > hakeem ahmad − ⚑

9 years ago

.gitignore was not set correctly. It's fixed now

0 0 Reply ⥅

Martin Jul Hammer − ⚑

8 years ago

Great article. Got my express js server up and running :)

1 0 Reply ⥅

Adrian Mejia Mod > Martin Jul Hammer − ⚑

8 years ago

I'm glad to hear it!

1 0 Reply ⥅

Ivo de Geus − ⚑
8 years ago

Thank you Adrian, this finally kickstarted me in MEAN development!

1 0 Reply ⥅

Adrian Mejia Mod > Ivo de Geus

− ⚑
8 years ago

Awesome! You are welcome!

0 0 Reply ⥅

BrahBassim − ⚑
10 years ago

Thank you very much for this tuts. The best i found.....

1 0 Reply ⥅

Raul Abreu Leite − ⚑

10 years ago

I think this line is useless:

var mongoose = require('mongoose');

in routes/todos js
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in routes/todos.js

Muito bom, tutorial! Obrigado!

1 0 Reply ⥅

Adrian Mejia Mod > Raul Abreu Leite − ⚑

9 years ago edited

Thanks! Removed!

0 0 Reply ⥅

Sai − ⚑
S 10 years ago

This was really helpful getting started with MEAN and REST!

1 0 Reply ⥅

Ayush Srivastava − ⚑
A 2 years ago

Awesome Blog, also read: CRUD Operation with Node.js and MongoDB

0 0 Reply ⥅

[email protected] − ⚑
6 years ago

great tutorial !

0 0 Reply ⥅

Adrian Mejia Mod > [email protected] − ⚑

6 years ago

Thanks!

0 0 Reply ⥅

Lemaire Lucas − ⚑
8 years ago edited

Great tutorial !

0 0 Reply ⥅

William Romano − ⚑
8 years ago

Hi,

Great tutorial, I have an issue with it tho: On safari I only get the first value on my ng repeat, (if I
send a static array I made in the scope it works) any ideas?

0 0 Reply ⥅

Евгений Бегунов − ⚑
8 years ago edited

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Hi! Thank You for tutorial!

0 0 Reply ⥅

Anony User − ⚑
A 8 years ago

I was getting this error

MongoDB not working. “ERROR: dbpath (/data/db) does not exist.”

Here is the solution for the same problem if any one is getting the same.

in terminal type

sudo mkdir -p /data/db/

sudo chown `id -u` /data/db

monngod

it should start running...

thanks for the nice description,covers all basic steps.

0 0 Reply ⥅

Russ − ⚑
R 8 years ago

I am wondering if it would be possible to give some hints on adapting this to have authentication.
Great article.

0 0 Reply ⥅

Tim Owings − ⚑
T 8 years ago

This is a great tutorial even if I came to it late...couple of questions though. what is the reason you
first create a project using npm init in the project directory and then create the main part of the app
using express in the todo-api directory? Also, what is the reason for using node <cli> versus just
editing a file...I apologize if these are stupid questions....Thanks!

0 0 Reply ⥅

Bendik B − ⚑
B 8 years ago

Hi! Great tutorial, I have one problem I really cannot find an answer to by Google. I successfully
retrieve an empty array when using curl -XGET, but when i try to XPOST, I get a validation error. I am
using curl -XPOST https://myurl:8080/todos -d 'name=MasterRoutes&completed=false¬e=soon...'. I
am posting the stacktrace below. I get the same error when using postman.

My Todo.js model is identical with yours.

I had to make one change to the routing, because express.Router() gave me an error when trying to
call router.get, saying router was undefined. So i simply did router = express() and then router.get.

Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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Stacktrace:
ValidationError: Todo validation failed
at MongooseError.ValidationError (/home/ubuntu/workspace/todo-
api/node_modules/mongoose/lib/error/validation.js:23:11)
at model.Document.invalidate (/home/ubuntu/workspace/todo-
api/node_modules/mongoose/lib/document.js:1486:32)
at model.Document.set (/home/ubuntu/workspace/todo-
api/node modules/mongoose/lib/document.js:753:10)
see more

0 0 Reply ⥅

Asuka Ishiyama − ⚑
8 years ago

this shit sucks...none of these work like it should and the walkthroughs are completely unclear

0 0 Reply ⥅

Adrian Mejia Mod > Asuka Ishiyama

− ⚑
8 years ago

Sorry to hear that. Where did you get lost?

0 0 Reply ⥅

Asuka Ishiyama > Adrian Mejia − ⚑

8 years ago edited

down through step 3 with Mongoose and CRUD. Whenever i go to input the
code, i keep getting errors and i cant go beyond that

0 0 Reply ⥅

Adrian Mejia Mod > Asuka Ishiyama − ⚑

8 years ago edited

Yeah, I know it can be frustrating when things are not workig. If you
post here the errors you are having I could give some pointers.

0 0 Reply ⥅

Dennis M Dewey − ⚑
D 8 years ago

Thank you so much for this well-structured tutorial on setting up an API using MongoDB and
NodeJS ExpressJS.

I've been developing an Electron(atom-shell) application using AngularJS 1.x and my employers
want me to connect it to an ASP.NET API that is using a MS SQL backend ( I know ....WTF?!?!?!?).
Unfortunately I'm getting NTLM Authentication issues and cannot even use an API checker like
POSTMAN to test/troubleshoot it. I'm going to try to sell them on using the appropriate
technologies for this sort of project and Electron was not necessarily designed to work well with
ASP.NET in the first place.

0 0 Reply ⥅
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sreng khorn − ⚑
S 9 years ago

where is part I??

0 0 Reply ⥅

Adrian Mejia Mod > sreng khorn − ⚑

9 years ago

It's here: http://adrianmejia.com/blog...

0 0 Reply ⥅

An Karthik − ⚑
A 9 years ago

Very nice and descriptive blog. Helped a lot.

Though I got stuck up at one point.

When we are trying CRUD using the Node CLI:

The following line is mentioned in the post:

"We can play with Mongoose in the console. In the todoApp type node to enter in the node CLI.
Then:"

I am getting an error in the following command:

var mongoose = require('mongoose');

Cannot find module Mongoose.

Can anyone help me here.

0 0 Reply ⥅

Adrian Mejia Mod > An Karthik

− ⚑
9 years ago

You need to install it first "npm install mongoose" and the "node" and it would work

0 0 Reply ⥅

nice tut − ⚑
NT 9 years ago

good job. i used this tut to build a different api and it worked. usually, even if you follow every step,
something goes wrong because things were left out.

0 0 Reply ⥅

JL − ⚑
10 years ago

hi there. i've just attempted this on an ubuntu server but i'm not getting any results from my
database. I had an existing mongo database so I decided to try to make a CRUD server using it.
Please see my post here for details: http://stackoverflow.com/qu...
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0 0 Reply ⥅

JL > JL − ⚑
10 years ago

I've resolve the issue. Mongoose / mongodb (?) was pluralizing my collection name and
therefore the queries were failing. I had to pass the third argument to the
mongoose.model() method and explicitly tell it what the name of the collection is. Voila.
Everything is working.

1 0 Reply ⥅

Adrian Mejia Mod > JL − ⚑

9 years ago

Great!

0 0 Reply ⥅

Simon Dupon − ⚑
S 10 years ago

O, I got it: when making post in POSTMAN you should select 'x-www-form-urlencoded' tab.

0 0 Reply ⥅

Adrian Mejia Mod > Simon Dupon

− ⚑
9 years ago edited

Yes, without that doesn't work

0 0 Reply ⥅

jainam shah > Adrian Mejia

− ⚑
7 years ago

Hi even if it is checked I cannot make a POST call . It returns a Not Found 404
error . Can you please help . I'm stuck here All files are also identical

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0 0 Reply ⥅

Simon Dupon − ⚑
S 10 years ago

My code is identical to yours, but I do not get 'name', 'completed' and 'note' data in responses, only
'_d', '__v' and 'updated_at':

"_id": "55a7ad265d8b9298144a75b0",

"__v": 0,

"updated_at": "2015-07-16T13:54:34.220Z"

},

© 2022 Adrian Mejia v.rk61qc

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