Ascent Essentials Backend

Environment Configuration

Create environmental variables or define them in a .env file in the project root.

VARIABLE	DEFAULT	DESCRIPTION
PORT	3000	The port on wich the server will run
MONGODB_URL	mongodb://localhost:27017	The URL to the MongoDB database
JWT_SECRET	"a-really-(in)secure-secret-key"	The secret key for JWT

Note: To generate a jwt secret key, You can use the node's in-built package called crypto to create random strings:

node
require("crypto").randomBytes(35).toString("hex")

Running the Server

To run the server locally, follow these steps:

1. Clone the repository.
2. Install dependencies with npm install.
3. Build with npm run build.
4. Start the server with npm start or npm run dev for development mode.

API Endpoints

Explore the available endpoints by running the server in dev mode (npm run dev) and visiting the localhost:3000/api-docs route. This documentation is auto-generated through comments in the code.

Authentication & Authorization

This server implements Bearer token authentication. To access protected endpoints, follow these steps:

1. Obtain a valid access token through the authentication flow (user login);

2. Include the obtained access token in the request by adding a new header:

   • Key: Authorization
   • Value: Bearer <your-access-token>

   Replace <your-access-token> with the actual access token obtained during the authentication process.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you find any issues or have suggestions, please open an issue or submit a pull request.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License.