Deploy - Node/MongoDB

Objectives

• Deploy a Node/Express/MongoDB app to a production server using Heroku

• Use Atlas as the mongo database

Atlas

First, let's set our app up to use Atlas instead of our local mongo database.

DOCS

1. Create a an account here

2. Create a free tier cluster by following these instructions

   • NOTE: Step 3's screenshots haven't been updated so it may look a little different when you do it. Just make sure to choose the free tier.

   • TODO: Add notes about why you may pick one region over another.

3. Go to Securty > Network Access (from menu on left of page) to Whitelist your IP address

   • Whitelist your current IP address and also click the allow access from anywhere button

4. Go to Security > Database Access to add a user

   • NOTE: Make sure you know the password!!!

5. Connect your cluster:

   • Click "connect", then "connect your application"

   • choose the NodeJS driver for step 1

   • copy the connection string from step 2

   • paste the connection string into your app:

mongoose.connect(<your connection string> || 'mongodb://localhost/bountyhunters', {
    useNewUrlParser: true, 
    useUnifiedTopology: true,
    useFindAndModify: false
})

Done! You should see something like the following when you run your Node app locally:

Connected to MongoDb at bountyhunters-shard-00-02.dwmep.mongodb.net:27017

Protect your connection string

It's a good idea to make your connection string an environment variable, so go ahead and do that too!

mongoose.connect(process.env.MONGODB_URI || 'mongodb://localhost/bountyhunters', {
    useNewUrlParser: true, 
    useUnifiedTopology: true,
    useFindAndModify: false
})

Next, let's deploythe Node app to Heroku.

Deploying the app

• Create a Procfile in the root of your Node application

  • In terminal, run touch Procfile. Must be called with a capitol P

  • make sure it is named "Procfile" (no extention)

  • make sure your Procfile is in the same folder as your index.js file

  • in terminal type echo "web: node index.js" >> Procfile

• In your index.js file, where you get your server started, include the port number in your app.listen function. Example:

app.listen(process.env.PORT || 3000)

This ensures that when we set the PORT config variable, Heroku will run on it instead of the 3000 port (Heroku automatically includes a port that's public-facing).

• Add in your Node version

Note that you may need to specify the node version you're using. To find out what version of node you're using, type the following on your terminal (from anywhere):

node -v

Then, put the following into your package.json file:

"engines": {
    "node": "v11.13.0"
},

• Remove the Heroku-Postbuild script if you are launching a decoupled app and it's in your package.json.

"scripts": {
    "heroku-postbuild": "There is a bunch of commands here. You can remove this!"
},

• Your package.json file is crucial - when you deploy your application, Heroku will check the package.json file for all dependencies so be mindful to install any dependencies you may have installed globally. You can always check your package.json to see if you are missing anything.

• Before you create your app in Heroku, be sure your project is being tracked via a git repository.

• Create a Heroku app via the command line

heroku apps:create sitename

Where sitename is the name of your app. This will create a url like: http://sitename.herokuapp.com

• Commit and push all your data at this point (git push).

• To push to Heroku, enter the following command

git push heroku master

• In terminal after you deploy your app, type in heroku ps:scale web=1

  • this will scale a dyno up

• Go to the heroku website and add the MONGODB_URI to your config vars!