MEAN Stack (MongoDB, Express, Angular, Node.js)

The MEAN stack is an end-to-end framework for building cloud-native fullstack JavaScript applications. It consists of four primary open-source components:

• MongoDB: A document database used by the back-end to store data as JSON documents.
• Express (Express.js): A back-end web application framework running on Node.js.
• Angular: A front-end web application framework that runs in the browser to provide a dynamic UI.
• Node.js: A JavaScript runtime environment used to implement the application back-end.

To set up the project for local development using yarn, clone the repository, configure your environment variables from the example file, install dependencies, and start the development server.

git clone https://github.com/linnovate/mean
cd mean
cp .env.example .env
yarn
yarn start

Before installing the MEAN stack, ensure you have the following tools installed on your system:

• git
• node.js
• npm (included with Node.js) or yarn
• mongodb

You can run the stack using Docker Compose.

Requirement: Ensure your Docker version is 19.03.0+.

git clone https://github.com/linnovate/mean
cd mean
cp .env.example .env
docker-compose up -d

The server/index.js file serves as the entrypoint for the application. It orchestrates the loading of configuration, the Express application instance, and the Mongoose database connection.

Important: The config module must be imported before any other module to ensure environment variables and settings are correctly applied across the application.

When run directly (not required as a module), the server starts listening on the port specified in config.port.

// To start the server directly via node:
node server/index.js

// Or if importing into another script:
const app = require('./server/index');

The application is bootstrapped using platformBrowserDynamic() which initializes the Angular platform in the browser. It loads the root module, AppModule, to start the application lifecycle. If the environment.production flag is set to true, enableProdMode() is called to enable production optimizations (such as disabling double-check change detection).

import { enableProdMode } from '@angular/core';
import { platformBrowserDynamic } from '@angular/platform-browser-dynamic';
import { AppModule } from './app/app.module';
import { environment } from './environments/environment';

if (environment.production) {
  enableProdMode();
}

platformBrowserDynamic()
  .bootstrapModule(AppModule)
  .catch(err => console.log(err));

The environment.prod.ts file defines the configuration object used when the application is built for production. Currently, it sets the production flag to true.

export const environment = {
  production: true,
};

The environment object in src/environments/environment.ts defines the application's runtime configuration. By default, it is configured for non-production environments.

export const environment = {
  production: false,
};

The src/app/shared/guards/index.ts file serves as the public entry point for all routing guards in the application. It re-exports the contents of ./auth.guard. Use this entry point to import guards for use in your application's routing configuration.

import { AuthGuard } from './shared/guards';

The server/index.js file exports the initialized Express app instance. This allows the application to be imported into other modules, such as testing frameworks (e.g., Mocha) or integration scripts, without automatically starting the network listener.

const app = require('./server/index');
// 'app' is the Express application instance configured in ./config/express