Building a RESTful API

This repository contains the base code for a simple API plus instructions on how to configure and deploy it to, a cloud server provider. This will form the basis of your assignment for 305CDE.

Heroku provide a free hosting tier and make it really easy to deploy your API. Unline other material in this module you will need to be working with a separate git repository containing only a single NodeJS project, your assignment API for example. Start by creating a free Heroku account.

Changing the Git Remote

Since you have cloned a readonly repository from GitHub you will need to create your own remote on GitLab and point this repository to this. Log into GitLab and create a private repository called API. Copy the git remote url and point your origin reference to point to this new remote, then push to it (substitute your new repository URL where indicated.

git remote -v
  origin	[email protected]:username/api.git (fetch)
  origin	[email protected]:username/api.git (push)
git remote set-url origin [email protected]:username/API.git
git remote -v
  origin	[email protected]:username/API.git (fetch)
  origin	[email protected]:username/API.git (push)
git push origin master

You should now check that your new remote contains the project code.

Updating NodeJS

Before developing your API you should ensure that Cloud9 is running the latest stable version of NodeJS (v5.2.0 at the time of writing) and set this as default.

nvm list-remote
nvm install 5.2.0
nvm alias default 5.2.0
node -v

Understanding the Code

Lets take a look at the project files.

Open the .jshintrc file. This is the configuration file for the JSHint linter which checks your code for issues. There are a number of options listed.

1. Make sure you understand the options by looking them up in the JSHint Option Reference.

The package.json file is the metadata associated with the NodeJS project.

1. Make sure you check the documentation so you understand the different fields.

• the scripts field contains a start field. This is the command the server will run to start the app
• the engines field contains a node field that specifies the version of node that will be installed on the remote server

Installing and Configuring Heroku

Once you have created your Heroku account and logged in you need to download and install the Heroku Toolbelt. Once this is installed you need to log in.

wget -O- https://toolbelt.heroku.com/install-ubuntu.sh | sh
  heroku login
  Enter your Heroku credentials.
  Email: [email protected]     
  Password (typing will be hidden):
  Authentication successful.

Next you need to navigate into the root of your Git repository (where this file is saved) and create a new Heroku project, replacing project-name with your chosen project name. Each hosted project need to have a unique name so your first choice may not be available.

heroku create project-name
Creating project-name... done, stack is cedar-14
https://project-name.herokuapp.com/ | https://git.heroku.com/project-name.git
Git remote heroku added

This will create a new project on the Heroku servers and will also add a heroku git remote. You can check this has happened.

git remote -v
  heroku    https://git.heroku.com/project-name.git (fetch)
  heroku    https://git.heroku.com/project-name.git (push)
  origin	[email protected]:username/API.git (fetch)
  origin	[email protected]:username/API.git (push)

You can also set the new remote using heroku git:remote -a project-name

Running the API through Cloud9

During the development process you should always run your API through the Cloud9 IDE and only deploy to Heroku when you have a working version.

Open the index.js file in the Cloud9 editor. Now click on the Play button in the top toolbar. This will open an run window and attempt to start your API. If successful you will see the URL where you can access your live API. Copy this and paste into a new browser tab. You should see the text Hello World! in the web browser.

Deploying to Heroku

You can deploy your app to the Heroku cloud by pushing to the heroku remote.

git push heroku master

You can now view your API by visiting the supplied url.

https://project-name.herokuapp.com/