Plant Species Backend

This repository contains the backend API built for my (Professional) Master thesis where I developed an application for storing information about different plant species, subspecies, useful parts and etc.

This API is build on top of NodeJs and is build as a REST API containing GET, POST, PATCH and DELETE methods for the selected resources. This backend also has an implemantaion of authentication endpoints and functionalities like password reset as well as authorization so POST, PATCH and DELETE methods can only be accessed by users with the role SUPER_ADMIN.

Technologies used

• Node.Js
• Express.js
• Firebase
• Objection.js
• Multer
• MySQL

Deployment

A brief summary on how to deploy the backend for the plant-species project

Requirements

• Nginx/Apache
• PM2
• Firebase Project

Instructions

• Transfer the directory of the backend to the server folder /var/www and cd into it
• Copy paste the .env.example file to .env and populate all parameters (some parameters are described below)
  • FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID:
    1. Open the Firebase project
    2. Go to Settings
    3. General
    4. Copy the Project ID and paste it into the .env file
  • FIREBASE_KEY:
    1. Open the Firebase project
    2. Go to Settings
    3. Service accounts
    4. Choose Node.js and click Generate new private key
    5. Rename the file to firebase.json and transfer it to the root folder of the project
    6. Set the value of the .env parameter to the file name firebase.json
  • FIREBASE_BUCKET:
    1. Open the Firebase project
    2. Go to Storage and enable the service
    3. Take the value after the gs:// prefix of the url and set it as the value of the .env parameter
  • FRONTEND_DOMAIN:
    • Example: for the URL: https://biljne-vrste.huxian.me/ the value of the .env parameter has to be set to biljne-vrste.huxian.me
  • BACKEND_DOMAIN:
    • Example: for the URL: https://biljne-vrste-api.huxian.me/ the value of the .env parameter has to be set to biljne-vrste-api
  • NODE_ENV:
    • For a production environment set it to production
  • JWT_SECRET:
    • Set the value of the .env parameter to a random generated string Example
• Run the command npm install to install all project dependencies
• Run the command npx knex migrate:latest to create the database schema and tables
• Run the command npx knex seed:run to populate tables with values from the seeds folder
• Run the command pm2 start app.js --name=plant-species-backend
• Go into the nginx/apache config and setup a reverse proxy to the application you ran with pm2 manager (Example of the config file for nginx below)

  server {
        server_name biljne-vrste-api.huxian.me;
  
        location / {
                proxy_set_header   X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
                proxy_set_header   Host $http_host;
                proxy_pass         http://localhost:3000;
        }
  }
  

• Run the following script to create the first user in the application

./scripts/CreateSuperAdmin.js create-super-admin create-super-user [email protected] --password=testpassword

• The backend for the project should be set now