Includes an API and a frontend written in React with Material UI! How exciting.
You can access and use the API either through the frontend or by making your own HTTP requests to the API. Either method is fine, use what works best for you.
You will need Node.js v.12 or newer and NPM v.6.14 or newer.
You can check both by running node --version and npm --version. If you need to update your npm installation I suggest NVM.
Once your Node.js and NPM are in order, run npm install in the root of the project to install the necessary packages.
To start the API, run npm start in your terminal in the root of the project.
Reference the terminal for any errors or messages.
The API uses Express.js for routing and MongoDB/Mongoose for a database. Both will start automatically.
API documentation is available at http://localhost:3000/etc/docs once the API is running.
You will need to start the API first. If you do not, things will not work.
To start the frontend, run npm run frontend in a new terminal in the root of the project
(yes, you will need two terminals to run the frontend and the API).
The frontend is written in React, using the Material UI library, and is bundled and served using Webpack and Babel. It accesses the API using Axios.
Navigate to http://localhost:8080 to access the frontend.
The project layout is pretty self-explanatory - Mongoose/MongoDB schemas go in models, Express routes go in routes.
If you add your own, make sure to import them in server.js. You can also fiddle with the way Babel and Webpack work by editing their configuration files.