Structuring a Node.js and Express Backend

Introduction

There are so many ways to structure a Node.js and Express API and each one has its own pros and cons. In this post I’ll detail the two main ways, MVC and modules.

Note: I’m not going to keep adding “Easy to understand” and rela…


This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Samar Mohan

Introduction

There are so many ways to structure a Node.js and Express API and each one has its own pros and cons. In this post I'll detail the two main ways, MVC and modules.

Note: I'm not going to keep adding "Easy to understand" and related pros becausethis is all based on opinion, pick one and stick to it!

The structures

Modules

Inspired by Django's apps

One way to structure an app is with modules. Each module contains all the code for a certain part of the app like auth or posts. Each folder will have the controllers, routes, entities, and middleware.

image
An example of the auth module is above. You structure the auth module your own way, this is just mine. You could use an MVC pattern inside the module and some people may want to strip out the middleware and entities.

Pros:

  • Easy to work on a certain feature, everything is in one place.

Cons:

  • You may not want everything bundled up like that.
  • You'll have to use fileName.typeOfFile.extension instead of just fileName.extension.

MVC

Used in Phoenix, Rails, and ASP.NET Core

This is by far the most common way to structure a backend project and many popular frameworks use it. You have your controllers (logic, handling requests), views (ui), and models (database schemas, business logic).

image
An example of MVC in action. The auth controller will have the register, login, and logout methods. The model will have the database entity fields, and the view will be what the end user sees.

Pros:

  • You know how everything interacts

Cons:

  • Multiple folders
  • Repetitive
  • You need to understand the why behind MVC

Thanks for reading! I hope this cleared up some things for you.


This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Samar Mohan


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