fullstacktemplate.txt

STEP 1

dependencies(middleware) to install and what it does:
*npm init
*npm install express

*npm install dotenv
what does DOTENV do?
it let us hide variables from our main code ie. passwords/codes
hides the secret stuff

*npm install cors
what does CORS do?
bypasses cross origin request blocks in browser
sets cross origin access policy
now we can access things locally

*npm install mongodb
what is MONGODB?
our database - where data is stored
why do we store data in database and not a text file?
lots of reasons:
we don't have unlimited storage locally
when data starts getting big and complicated MongoDB keeps things organized 
I can only fetch things when I need them and I don't have to hold all of that info all the time

*npm install ejs
what does EJS do?
embedded javascript
helps us dynamically generate html on the fly as we pass info through it
helps us with templating

*npm install nodemon --save-dev
what does NODEMON do?
makes it so that we don't have to manually restart the server every time we make a change

what does --save-dev do?
so that nodemon isn't 'in production'...it gets saved to devDependencies instead of will all of the normal dependencies. it is only being used for development

STEP 2

Require dependencies in server.js file

STEP 3

Declare variables in server.js

STEP 4

Connect to MongoDB - add connection string to environment file
(create new file named .env)
make sure to insert password into string 
add .env to gitignore

STEP 5

Create port
declared in .env
test connections to mongo and port with *node server.js
or 
set up nodemon to restart automatically after each change
(add to package.json:     "dev": "nodemon server.js"
npm run dev

STEP 6

Set middleware
helps us format in a way that all parties will understand
clean it up

STEP 7

Create Public and Views folders
add main.js and style.css to Public
add index.ejs to Views

STEP 8

Add content to main.js, style.css, index.ejs

STEP 9

Create Heroku Repo
*heroku login
*heroku create (you can name it or not)
*echo "web: node server.js" > Procfile
*git add .
*git commit -m "changes"
*git push heroku main