Initial App Setup

The Pit Crew: Installing Dependencies

Before we hit the track, we need to equip our package.json with the necessary tools. This is our pit stop.

We are organizing our logic into folders (data, routers, views) to keep the project scannable as it speeds up.

1. Initialize & Install

In the terminal, navigate to the project folder:

npm init -y
npm install express mongoose ejs dotenv

T.A. Watts

We’re using node --watch (native to Node v18+) for development speed. It restarts the server automatically when we save a file, just like nodemon used to do.

2. Configure Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the root directory. This is where we store our sensitive connection string.

MONGO_URI=mongodb+srv://<username>:<password>@cluster.mongodb.net/<database-name>?retryWrites=true&w=majority
PORT=3000

Make sure to replace <username>, <password>, and <database-name> with your actual MongoDB credentials.

Also, make sure your .env file is ignored in your .gitignore file (lest you commit your credentials to GitHub for all to see!).

3. The Project Blueprint

For the rest of this chapter, we’re building a Project Pulse application. It’s a portfolio manager where we can track our coding projects, their status (active/archived), and descriptions.

Directory Structure:

/my-project-pulse
  ├── /data          # Mongoose Models (Schemas)
  ├── /public        # Static assets (CSS, images)
  ├── /routers       # Express Routes
  ├── /views         # EJS Templates
  ├── .env           # Environment Variables
  ├── server.js      # Entry Point
  └── package.json   # Dependencies

4. Boilerplate: server.js

Before we connect to the database in the next lesson, let’s get our standard Express server running.

T.A. Watts

This is our “clean slate.” Copy this into server.js. It includes Express, EJS, and the basic middleware, but no Mongoose yet. That comes next.

require("dotenv").config();
const express = require("express");
const app = express();
const port = process.env.PORT || 3000;

// Middleware
app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true })); // Parse form data
app.use(express.static("public")); // Serve static files

// View Engine
app.set("view engine", "ejs");

// Temporary Route (Just to check if it works)
app.get("/", (req, res) => {
  res.send("<h1>Server is Running! Next Stop: MongoDB.</h1>");
});

// Start Server
app.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`Server running on http://localhost:${port}`);
});

⏭ Next: Open the Gates to MongoDB

Boilerplate is ready. The chassis is built. Now let’s get some data pipes going.