er4

Yet another personal site rebuild project, this time to learn the ins and outs of:

• React.js
• React Redux
• Babel.js
• Webpack
• CSS Modules
• PostCSS
• Express
• Knex.js

Prerequisites

You will need the following software properly installed on your computer:

• Git
• Node.js (with NPM)

Installation

• git clone git@github.com:evrowe/er4.git this repository
• change into the new directory
• npm install

Running / Development

The development server assumes that NODE_ENV=development means that the server(s) will run in development mode. You can set this in your terminal, in your .profile or .zshrc or .bashrc whatever dang file you use to set up your terminal session.

The node server will run at localhost:3000; the webpack hot reload server runs at localhost:4200, and will automatically proxy API requests to the node server.

To start up:

• npm run server:dev starts the node server in development mode, using nodemon to auto restart when files change. Very useful.
• npm run server:webpack starts the webpack server. Modules will hot reload when they update.
• Visit the app at http://localhost:4200.

Environment Variables

The server requires a local .env file at the root with the following variables set:

• COOKIE_SECRET
• GITHUB_CLIENT_ID
• GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET

Production

Run the app in production mode for better Express performance when you want to deploy to a real server. Only I should ever need this but meh.

• npm run build builds a production-ready artifact of the UI application.
• npm run start boots the server in production mode, serves the UI and back-end

Further Reading / Useful Links

• Development Browser Extensions
  • React Dev Tools
  • Redux Dev Tools

Useful Information

Nginx Config

There are some great guides for configuring nginx to run the server in prod. They don't mention the fact that there's a fairly important header config you need to set to ensure that secure cookies work properly:

proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto https;

I don't yet know enough about nginx to know why specifically this makes a difference, but secure cookies won't work correctly when proxying to a node back-end without it.

Totally Rad To-Dos

UI

• Set up React app
• Update site design
• Implement data layer with Redux
• Create secure dashboard (github login)
• Create blog post listing on dashboard
• Create blog post authoring/editing page
• Set up S3 bucket uploads for images

Back End

• Create barebones API for serving legacy blog post static JSON files
• Get a postgres database running
• Write interface to postgres with Knex.js
• CRUD API for blog posts
• Migrate legacy blog posts to back-end

Server

• Set up/configure Droplet
• Serve node app via nginx
• HTTPS via letsencrypt
• Dockerize server setup for ease of deployment (future times)