JULY 22, 2023

I am always striving to understand how to build backend APIs with all the necessary features for production. However, I often get stuck at the CI/CD step because I want everything to be perfect. I recognize that I need more practice in areas such as testing, scaling systems, understanding security, logging, implementing central logging, and real-time logs. There may be other areas that I am not even aware of yet, but I hope to plan for them through this post.

Project Overview: Build APIs Node.js from Zero to Production

Let's add some tools and technologies, specifically for a Node. js-based API project, to the roadmap for each step: Assume that we already have a sample project: https://github.com/hagopj13/node-express-boilerplate So we try to plan and deploy it to production

1. Project Planning:

   • Trello or Jira for project management and task tracking.
   • Lucidchart or Draw.io for visualizing API design and architecture. Demo: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16ioiwqpuDq2JYsUODmxfyUiS1D2hsu6j/view?usp=sharing (example)

2. API Design:

   • OpenAPI/Swagger for defining and documenting API specifications.
   • Postman or Insomnia for testing and interacting with the API during design.

3. Database Design and Setup:

   • MongoDB or PostgreSQL for database storage.
   • Mongoose or Sequelize as ORM/ODM for database interactions.

4. API Development:

   • Express.js as the web application framework for building the API.
   • Axios for making HTTP requests to external APIs or services.
   • Winston or Morgan for logging.

5. Documentation:

   • Swagger UI or ReDoc for interactive API documentation.

6. Testing:

   • Jest or Mocha for unit testing the API endpoints.
   • Supertest for integration testing.
   • Newman for running Postman collections as part of automated testing.

7. Security:

   • Helmet for setting HTTP headers to enhance security.
   • Passport.js for handling authentication strategies (e.g., JWT, OAuth).
   • Express Rate Limit for rate limiting.

8. Deployment:

   • Docker for containerization and easy deployment.

   • Kubernetes or Docker Swarm for container orchestration.

     Free SSL use Nginx and Certbot

     Deploy node-express-boilerplate by docker swarm (1 host)

     How to deploy node-express-boilerplate by docker swarm(3 hosts)

   • AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Heroku, or VPS for hosting the API.

9. Monitoring and Logging:

   • Prometheus and Grafana for monitoring and visualization.
   • Logstash and Elasticsearch for centralized logging.
   • Sentry or Rollbar for error tracking and monitoring.

10. Scalability and Load Testing:

    • Artillery or Locust for load testing the API.
    • Redis for caching to improve performance.

11. Security Auditing:

    • OWASP ZAP or Burp Suite for security testing and auditing.

12. Versioning and API Lifecycle:

    • Semantic Versioning for versioning the API.
    • GitHub or GitLab for version control.

13. Documentation and User Support:

    • GitHub Pages or GitLab Pages for hosting API documentation.

14. Release to Production:

    • Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines with Jenkins or GitLab CI/CD.

    https://about.gitlab.com/resources/ebook-fuel-growth-cicd/

    • CI/CD with GitHub Actions:

      • Create a .github/workflows directory in the root of the project.
      • Create a YAML file for the workflow, for example, ci-cd.yml.
      • Define the jobs and steps for the workflow.
      • Add the necessary environment variables and secrets.
      • Commit and push the changes to the GitHub repository.
      • Check the Actions tab in the repository to ensure the workflow runs successfully.

      For detailed steps, please refer to the GitHub Actions documentation.

      Demo: https://github.com/AnhtuanUit/api-magnews24h/blob/develop/.github/workflows/cd.yml

      Deploy API Magnews24h

15. Infrastructure as Code (IaC):

    Terraform:

    • Supported Cloud Providers: Terraform is cloud agnostic and supports multiple cloud providers, including AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, and more. It can also manage other infrastructure components like on-premises servers and third-party services.

    • Declarative Syntax: Terraform uses a declarative language for defining infrastructure as code. You describe the desired state of the infrastructure, and Terraform figures out the changes needed to achieve that state.

    • Resource Graph: Terraform builds a dependency graph of resources, enabling it to plan and execute changes in the correct order.

    • Community Modules: Terraform has a rich ecosystem of community-contributed modules, making it easy to reuse and share infrastructure configurations.

    • State Management: Terraform maintains a state file that keeps track of the deployed infrastructure, which helps in tracking changes and managing resources efficiently.

      Terraform deploy Node.js Project with Docker Swarm on Vultr Hosting Server