Node Starter App

Quick start application setup with sensible defaults baked in.

Demo: https://cds-node-starter.herokuapp.com

Should you use this? It depends ;)

Don't like the way it's setup -> it's an Express server so do your thing app.js

Cloning and pulling upstream changes

1. Create an empty Github repo (must be empty)

git remote add upstream git@github.com:cds-snc/node-starter-app.git
git pull upstream master
git remote -v // ensure the remotes are setup properly

// you should see
origin  git@github.com:cds-snc/your-repo.git (fetch)
origin  git@github.com:cds-snc/your-repo.git (push)
upstream        git@github.com:cds-snc/node-starter-app.git (fetch)
upstream        git@github.com:cds-snc/node-starter-app.git (push)

Install + Dev Mode

npm install
npm run dev

Adding Routes

1. Create a new route directory

➡️ or copy past and rename the routes/_sample_route

2. Add your route files

• controller
• view file
• optionally schema.js (if this is a form view)

step5.controller.js //express route handler
step5.pug //the view file
schema.js //if this is a form

3. Register the route via routes.config.js

// config/routes.config.js
... 

const routes = [
  { name: "step5", path: "/step5" },
];

...

//Add the path to your route code in configRoutes
const configRoutes = app => {
   ...
   require("../routes/step5/step5.controller")(app);
}

Note: Delete unused route(s) directories as needed.

Passing data to views

Saved data is available via getSessionData(req)

app.get(route.path, (req, res) => {
    res.render(name, {
      data: getSessionData(req),
      name
    });
  });

 +textInput('form.passport_expiry', null, 'form.passport_expiry.desc')(class='w-3-4', id='expiry' name='expiry', autofocus, value=data.expiry)
    
input(name='name', type='hidden', value=name)
input(name='nonce', type='hidden', value=nonce)

Form step redirects

Redirects are handled via doRedirect based on a name value (the name of the current route) sent via in the req.body. The doRedirect function will do a look up for the next route based on the routes config.

// step5.controller post route
app.post(
    route.path,
    checkNonce,
    checkSchema(Schema),
    checkErrors(name),
    doRedirect
  );

For cases where the redirect is not straight forward you can handle manually.

(req, res, next) => {
    const confirm = req.body.confirm;
    if (confirm === "Yes") {
      const nextRoute = getNextRoute(name);
      return res.redirect(nextRoute.path);
    }

    res.send("you said no");
}

Locales

Text on pages is supplied via ids

block variables
  -var title = __('personal.title')

block content

  h1 #{title}

  div
    p #{__('personal.intro')}
  form.cra-form(method='post')

// locales/en.json
"personal.title": "Personal Information",
"personal.intro": "Intro copy goes here",
"form.fullname": "Full name",

Form Validation

• Form validation is built into the form schema files and use validator.js to validate input

Templates

• Templates currenty use Pug (formerly Jade). You can use whatever you like for a template-engine. There's even a server rendered React engine. That said, it's bring your own layouts and helper files.

Goals

• Accessible out of the box
• Keep code routes / view(s) / schemas as portable (self-contained) as possible.
• If code i.e custom validators from the routes can be re-used it should be pulled up to the app level
• App level code (app.js) should be touched a little as possible when building a new app based on the starter
• Implement best practices from Form design: from zero to hero all in one blog post

Routes should act like a plugin. i.e. Project B has a page you need, copy the route directory and add that route to your config.

What this project is not

• This project aims to allow you to hit the ground running. It's not meant to be a be all end all defacto solution.

Todo

• Adding tests for sample routes
• Adding more tests for utility functions

Notes

This project is based on the orginal code https://github.com/cds-snc/cra-claim-tax-benefits it was born out of wanting to use that code as a base without the need to remove the unused parts everytime a new project is started.

See:

• https://github.com/cds-snc/notification-demo-service/commit/ab24e79268626e1431b301fb91614b40f9615086
• https://github.com/cds-snc/2620-passport-renewal/commit/eb41bf83825b9d8c4a56427e0cd199ccc23089eb

Starter Cloud Build / Cloud Run setup is in place if you prefer to deploy via GCP see notification-demo-service which is setup to deploy using a tag.