Node.js Backend Architecture Typescript Project

A complete project to build a blogging platform like Medium, and FreeCodeCamp

Note: This is the latest (version 2) of the project. If you are using version 1 then checkout the branch version-1

Project Highlights

1. Node.js
2. Express.js
3. Typescript
4. Mongoose
5. Redis
6. Mongodb
7. Joi
8. Unit Tests & Integration Tests
9. Docker
10. JWT

About The Project

This project is designed for a production ready environment. It can handle the scale and complexity of a very demanding application. This project is being used by companies like MindOrks, AfterAcademy, and CuriousJr. Apps/Websites having 10+ million usebase.

It is suitable for Web Apps, Mobile Apps, and other API services.

About The Author

You can connect with us here:

• Website
• Twitter
• YouTube Channel

Project Instructions

We will learn and build the backend application for a blogging platform. The main focus will be to create a maintainable and highly testable architecture.
Following are the features of this project:

• This backend is written in Typescript: The type safety at build time and having intellisense for it in the IDE like vscode is unparalleled to productivity. I have found production bug reduced to a significant amount since most of the code vulnerabilities are identified during the build phase itself.
• Separation of concern principle: Each component has been given a particular role. The role of the components is mutually exclusive. This makes the project easy to be unit tested.
• Feature encapsulation: The files or components that are related to a particular feature have been grouped unless those components are required in multiple features. This enhances the ability to share code across projects.
• Centralised Error handling: I have created a framework where all the errors are handled centrally. This reduces the ambiguity in the development when the project grows larger.
• Centralised Response handling: Similar to Error handling we have a response handling framework. This makes it very convenient to apply a common API response pattern.
• Mongodb is used through Mongoose: Mongodb fits very well to the node.js application. Being NoSQL, fast, and scalable makes it ideal for modern web applications.
• Redis Memcache: I have used the redis server for caching the items which does not change frequently. It will boost the performance of our system.
• Async execution: I have used async/await for the promises and made sure to use the non-blocking version of all the functions with few exceptions.
• Docker compose has been configured: I have created the Dockerfile to provide the easy deployability without any setup and configurations.
• Unit test is favored: The tests have been written to test the functions and routes without the need of the database server. Integration tests has also been done but the unit test is favored.
• A pure backend project: I have experienced that when a backend is developed clubbed with a frontend then in the future it becomes really difficult to scale. We would want to create a separate backend project that servers many websites and mobile apps.

3RE Architecture: Router, RouteHandler, ResponseHandler, ErrorHandler

Project Outline: Blogging Platform

Request-Response Handling Schematic Diagram

Learn the concepts used in this project

• Design Node.js Backend Architecture like a Pro
• The video guide to build and run this project
• Implement JSON Web Token (JWT) Authentication using AccessToken and RefreshToken
• TypeScript Tutorial For Beginners
• From JavaScript to TypeScript

How to build and run this project

vscode is the recommended editor - dark theme

Get the repo

# clone repository recursively
git clone https://github.com/afteracademy/nodejs-backend-architecture-typescript.git

Run Docker Compose

• Install Docker and Docker Compose. Find Instructions Here.

# install and start docker containers
docker-compose up --build

• You will be able to access the api from http://localhost:3000

Run Tests

docker exec -t blogs-tester npm run test

If having any issue

• Make sure 3000 port is not occupied else change PORT in .env file.
• Make sure 27017 port is not occupied else change DB_PORT in .env file.
• Make sure 6379 port is not occupied else change REDIS_PORT in .env file.

Run on the local machine

Change the following hosts in the .env and .env.test

• DB_HOST=localhost
• REDIS_HOST=localhost

Best way to run this project is to use the vscode Run and Debug button. Scripts are available for debugging and template generation on vscode.

• Install node.js and npm on your local machine.

# From the root of the project executes
$ npm install

Stop the app and tester docker container

$ docker compose stop tester
$ docker compose stop app 

Run the app

# production mode
$ npm start
or
# watch mode
$ npm run watch

Test

# unit and integration tests
$ npm test

API DOC

Learn Backend Development From Our Videos

• Introduction to Web Backend Development for Beginners
• Backend System Design for Startups
• Practical Javascript for Beginners

Project Directory Structure

├── .vscode
│   ├── settings.json
│   ├── tasks.json
│   └── launch.json
├── .templates
├── src
│   ├── server.ts
│   ├── app.ts
│   ├── config.ts
│   ├── auth
│   │   ├── apikey.ts
│   │   ├── authUtils.ts
│   │   ├── authentication.ts
│   │   ├── authorization.ts
│   │   └── schema.ts
│   ├── core
│   │   ├── ApiError.ts
│   │   ├── ApiResponse.ts
│   │   ├── JWT.ts
│   │   ├── Logger.ts
│   │   └── utils.ts
│   ├── cache
│   │   ├── index.ts
│   │   ├── keys.ts
│   │   ├── query.ts
│   │   └── repository
│   │       ├── BlogCache.ts
│   │       └── BlogsCache.ts
│   ├── database
│   │   ├── index.ts
│   │   ├── model
│   │   │   ├── ApiKey.ts
│   │   │   ├── Blog.ts
│   │   │   ├── Keystore.ts
│   │   │   ├── Role.ts
│   │   │   └── User.ts
│   │   └── repository
│   │       ├── ApiKeyRepo.ts
│   │       ├── BlogRepo.ts
│   │       ├── KeystoreRepo.ts
│   │       ├── RoleRepo.ts
│   │       └── UserRepo.ts
│   ├── helpers
│   │   ├── asyncHandler.ts
│   │   ├── permission.ts
│   │   ├── role.ts
│   │   ├── security.ts
│   │   ├── utils.ts
│   │   └── validator.ts
│   ├── routes
│   │   ├── access
│   │   │   ├── credential.ts
│   │   │   ├── login.ts
│   │   │   ├── logout.ts
│   │   │   ├── schema.ts
│   │   │   ├── signup.ts
│   │   │   ├── token.ts
│   │   │   └── utils.ts
│   │   ├── blog
│   │   │   ├── editor.ts
│   │   │   ├── index.ts
│   │   │   ├── schema.ts
│   │   │   └── writer.ts
│   │   ├── blogs
│   │   │   ├── index.ts
│   │   │   └── schema.ts
│   │   ├── index.ts
│   │   └── profile
│   │       ├── schema.ts
│   │       └── user.ts
│   └── types
│       └── app-request.d.ts
├── tests
│   ├── auth
│   │   ├── apikey
│   │   │   ├── mock.ts
│   │   │   └── unit.test.ts
│   │   ├── authUtils
│   │   │   ├── mock.ts
│   │   │   └── unit.test.ts
│   │   ├── authentication
│   │   │   ├── mock.ts
│   │   │   └── unit.test.ts
│   │   └── authorization
│   │       ├── mock.ts
│   │       └── unit.test.ts
│   ├── core
│   │   └── jwt
│   │       ├── mock.ts
│   │       └── unit.test.ts
│   ├── cache
│   │   └── mock.ts
│   ├── database
│   │   └── mock.ts
│   ├── routes
│   │   ├── access
│   │   │   ├── login
│   │   │   │   ├── integration.test.ts
│   │   │   │   ├── mock.ts
│   │   │   │   └── unit.test.ts
│   │   │   └── signup
│   │   │       ├── mock.ts
│   │   │       └── unit.test.ts
│   │   └── blog
│   │       ├── index
│   │       │   ├── mock.ts
│   │       │   └── unit.test.ts
│   │       └── writer
│   │           ├── mock.ts
│   │           └── unit.test.ts
│   └── setup.ts
├── addons
│   └── init-mongo.js
├── keys
│   ├── private.pem
│   └── public.pem
├── .env
├── .env.test
├── .gitignore
├── .dockerignore
├── .eslintrc
├── .eslintignore
├── .prettierrc
├── .prettierignore
├── .travis.yml
├── Dockerfile
├── docker-compose.yml
├── package-lock.json
├── package.json
├── jest.config.js
└── tsconfig.json

Directory Traversal for Signup API call

/src → server.ts → app.ts → /routes/index.ts → /auth/apikey.ts → schema.ts → /helpers/validator.ts → asyncHandler.ts → /routes/access/signup.ts → schema.ts → /helpers/validator.ts → asyncHandler.ts → /database/repository/UserRepo.ts → /database/model/User.ts → /core/ApiResponses.ts

API Examples

• Signup
  • Method and Headers

  POST /signup/basic HTTP/1.1
  Host: localhost:3000
  x-api-key: GCMUDiuY5a7WvyUNt9n3QztToSHzK7Uj
  Content-Type: application/json
  

  • Request Body

  {
      "name" : "Janishar Ali",
      "email": "ali@github.com",
      "password": "changeit",
      "profilePicUrl": "https://avatars1.githubusercontent.com/u/11065002?s=460&u=1e8e42bda7e6f579a2b216767b2ed986619bbf78&v=4"
  }
  

  • Response Body: 200

  {
    "statusCode": "10000",
    "message": "Signup Successful",
    "data": {
      "user": {
        "_id": "63a19e5ba2730d1599d46c0b",
        "name": "Janishar Ali",
        "roles": [
           {
             "_id": "63a197b39e07f859826e6626",
             "code": "LEARNER",
             "status": true
           }
          ],
        "profilePicUrl": "https://avatars1.githubusercontent.com/u/11065002?s=460&u=1e8e42bda7e6f579a2b216767b2ed986619bbf78&v=4"
      },
      "tokens": {
        "accessToken": "some_token",
        "refreshToken": "some_token"
      }
    }
  }
  

  • Response Body: 400

  {
    "statusCode": "10001",
    "message": "Bad Parameters"
  }
  

• Profile Private
  • Method and Headers

  GET /profile/my HTTP/1.1
  Host: localhost:3000
  x-api-key: GCMUDiuY5a7WvyUNt9n3QztToSHzK7Uj
  Content-Type: application/json
  Authorization: Bearer <your_token_received_from_signup_or_login>
  

  • Response Body: 200

  {
    "statusCode": "10000",
    "message": "success",
    "data": {
      "name": "Janishar Ali Anwar",
      "profilePicUrl": "https://avatars1.githubusercontent.com/u/11065002?s=460&u=1e8e42bda7e6f579a2b216767b2ed986619bbf78&v=4",
      "roles": [
        {
          "_id": "5e7b8acad7aded2407e078d7",
          "code": "LEARNER"
        },
        {
          "_id": "5e7b8c22d347fc2407c564a6",
          "code": "WRITER"
        },
        {
          "_id": "5e7b8c2ad347fc2407c564a7",
          "code": "EDITOR"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
  

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License

   Copyright (C) 2026 MINDORKS NEXTGEN PRIVATE LIMITED

   Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
   you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
   You may obtain a copy of the License at

       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
   distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
   WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
   See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
   limitations under the License.