Creating a Blog Using Node.js, Express & MongoDB – PART 1

Building a blog with Node.js, Express, and MongoDB is a great way to showcase your writing and coding skills. In this tutorial, we will walk you through the process of setting up a basic blog using these technologies.

Part 1 of this tutorial will focus on setting up the backend with Node.js, Express, and MongoDB. In Part 2, we will cover setting up the frontend using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Let’s get started!

Step 1: Install Node.js & MongoDB
Before we start building our blog, make sure you have Node.js and MongoDB installed on your machine. If you don’t have them installed, you can download Node.js from nodejs.org and MongoDB from mongodb.com.

Step 2: Create a new Node.js project
Once you have Node.js and MongoDB installed, open your terminal and create a new directory for your project. Navigate to this directory and run the following command to initialize a new Node.js project:

npm init

Follow the prompts to set up your project. Once the initialization is complete, you will have a package.json file in your project directory.

Step 3: Install Express and other dependencies
Now that you have created a new Node.js project, we need to install Express and other dependencies that we will be using for our blog. Run the following command to install Express:

npm install express

You will also need to install other dependencies such as mongoose for MongoDB connectivity and body-parser for parsing incoming requests. Run the following command to install these dependencies:

npm install mongoose body-parser

Step 4: Set up the Express server
Now that you have installed the necessary dependencies, it’s time to set up the Express server. Create a new file called server.js in your project directory and add the following code:

const express = require('express');
const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
const mongoose = require('mongoose');

const app = express();
const port = 3000;

// Connect to MongoDB
mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost/blog', { useNewUrlParser: true, useUnifiedTopology: true });

// Configure body parser
app.use(bodyParser.json());

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

In this code, we are setting up an Express server, connecting to MongoDB, and configuring body-parser to parse incoming requests. Replace ‘mongodb://localhost/blog’ with the connection string for your MongoDB database.

Step 5: Define the blog schema
Now that our server is set up, we need to define the schema for our blog posts in MongoDB. Create a new file called models.js in your project directory and add the following code:

const mongoose = require('mongoose');

const PostSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
    title: String,
    content: String,
    date: { type: Date, default: Date.now }
});

const Post = mongoose.model('Post', PostSchema);

module.exports = Post;

In this code, we are defining a schema for blog posts with title, content, and date fields. We are also creating a model for the posts using mongoose.

Step 6: Create endpoints for creating and fetching blog posts
Now that we have set up the schema for our blog posts, we need to create endpoints for creating and fetching posts. Update your server.js file with the following code:

const express = require('express');
const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
const mongoose = require('mongoose');
const Post = require('./models');

const app = express();
const port = 3000;

// Connect to MongoDB
mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost/blog', { useNewUrlParser: true, useUnifiedTopology: true });

// Configure body parser
app.use(bodyParser.json());

// Create a new blog post
app.post('/posts', async (req, res) => {
    const { title, content } = req.body;
    const post = new Post({ title, content });

    try {
        await post.save();
        res.status(201).send(post);
    } catch (err) {
        res.status(400).send(err);
    }
});

// Fetch all blog posts
app.get('/posts', async (req, res) => {
    try {
        const posts = await Post.find();
        res.send(posts);
    } catch (err) {
        res.status(500).send(err);
    }
});

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

In this code, we have added two endpoints – one for creating a new blog post and another for fetching all blog posts. The ‘post’ endpoint accepts a JSON object with title and content fields and saves the post to the database. The ‘get’ endpoint fetches all blog posts from the database and sends them as a response.

That’s it for Part 1 of this tutorial! In Part 2, we will cover setting up the frontend for our blog. Stay tuned!