ClothingShop API

A Node.js + Express backend that powers the ClothingShop mobile application. It exposes REST endpoints for browsing products, managing user accounts, and keeping track of cart contents in a PostgreSQL database.

Features

• Product catalogue with optional gender-based filtering and keyword search.
• Email/password authentication with hashed credentials and JWT-based sessions.
• Persistent shopping cart per user with quantity management.
• Category listing for quick navigation in the client application.

Tech stack

• Node.js with Express
• PostgreSQL via the official pg driver
• bcryptjs for password hashing
• jsonwebtoken for issuing JWT access tokens

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• npm 9+
• Docker (optional, for running PostgreSQL locally via Docker Compose)

Getting started

1. Install dependencies

   npm install

2. Configure environment variables

   cp .env.example .env

   Update .env with the connection details for your PostgreSQL instance and choose a strong JWT_SECRET for token signing.

3. Start PostgreSQL

   • Quick start (recommended):

     docker compose up -d

     This launches a local PostgreSQL 16 container with the credentials that match the defaults found in .env.example (myuser / mypassword, database mydatabase).

   • Alternatively, point the app at any PostgreSQL instance and make sure the credentials in your .env file match the remote server.

4. Create the schema and seed data

   node setup-database.js

   The script drops and recreates the tables (users, categories, products, carts, cart_items) and inserts a small set of demo products and categories for local testing.

5. Start the development server

   node server.js

   By default the API listens on http://localhost:3000 (configurable via the PORT environment variable).

Environment configuration

Configuration is now driven via environment variables (loaded from .env during local development). The API recognises the following keys:

Variable	Description	Default
PORT	Port for the Express server.	3000
DATABASE_URL	Full PostgreSQL connection string. If provided it takes precedence over the individual DB_* settings.	none
DB_HOST	Database host for local/dev use.	localhost
DB_PORT	Database port.	5432
DB_USER	Database user.	myuser
DB_PASSWORD	Database password.	mypassword
DB_NAME	Database name.	mydatabase
DB_SSL	Set to true to enable SSL connections (uses rejectUnauthorized: false).	false
JWT_SECRET	Secret used for signing and verifying JWTs. Change this in production.	dev-secret-change-me

Production deployments should provide secure values for these variables via the hosting platform's secret management system instead of storing them in .env.

API reference

Method & Path	Description
GET /api/products?gender=male|female|unisex	List products, optionally filtered by gender.
GET /api/categories	Fetch all product categories.
GET /api/search?q=<term>	Search products by name or description.
POST /api/register	Create a new user account. Expects { "email": string, "password": string }.
POST /api/login	Authenticate a user. Returns { token } on success.
GET /api/profile	Get the authenticated user profile. Requires x-auth-token header.
GET /api/cart	Retrieve the authenticated user's cart. Requires x-auth-token.
POST /api/cart	Add/update an item in the cart. Body: { "productId": string, "quantity": number }. Requires x-auth-token.
PUT /api/cart/item/:productId	Set the quantity for a cart item. Body: { "quantity": number }. Requires x-auth-token.
DELETE /api/cart/item/:productId	Remove a product from the cart. Requires x-auth-token.

Project scripts

• npm install – install dependencies
• node setup-database.js – initialise or reset the database
• node server.js – start the API server
• npm test – run the Jest test suite against the API endpoints

Useful tips

• For local Android emulator testing, expose the API using the host machine's IP address or a tunnelling service such as ngrok.