Orion Boilerplate

A Node Boilerplate featuring:

• ExpressJS
• Sequelize
• React
• Redux
• Typescript 2.4
• Webpack deployment

Code structure

• Front end code is located under ./app; it builds a webpack bundle
• Backend code is located under ./server; it builds an expressJS server
• Test data that populates the database is located under ./data;

Requirements

Installing node modules

You have to run npm install from ./ and from ./app so as to install the dependencies of this project.

Running a local Postgres database

In order to run this projet locally, you need to have a local Postgres database populated with data that follows the schema which is expected by the backend. We installed and defined our local instance of Postgres as follows:

• First install Postgres locally:

  • On linux distributions:

  apt-get install postgresql-9.6
  

  • On MacOS (you have to have Homebrew installed first):

  brew install postgresql
  

• Then init the db as follows:

  • On linux distributions:

  initdb
  postgres -D /usr/local/var/postgres
  

  • On MacOS (you have to have Homebrew installed first):

  initdb /usr/local/var/postgres
  postgres -D /usr/local/var/postgres
  

Depending on your local settings, you might have to sudo these commands!

Use this to create a local database to which the app will connect:

createdb boilerplate
psql -d boilerplate

Finally, copy-paste this SQL script in order to init roles in the database:

CREATE ROLE root;
ALTER ROLE root WITH Superuser;
ALTER ROLE root WITH LOGIN;
ALTER ROLE "root" WITH PASSWORD 'root';

Building the different parts of the project

Generic build

Do not forget to generate the sequelize declaration files in the server with gulp deploy from ./. This command will populate your local Postgres instance with data; it will then use the current data and schemas in your Postgres instance in order to automatically generate typed files that are needed in this project (in the front-end as well as in the backend).

Manual build

• gulp deploy should already have built the server for you. In case you want to build it manually, you can run gulp clean && gulp build from ./server.
• A webpack bundle will be built when you start running the front end locally: no need to explicitely build it on your end.

Running the app locally

If you have already installed Postgres, simply start it using postgres -D /usr/local/var/postgres. Then start the local backend by running npm run start-server from ./ and finally start the local front-end by running cd app/ && npm start.