Using the Database? - URL Shortener Microservice project

JavaScript
1

I’m working on the URL Shortener project, but I’m having trouble connecting with the database. I’m not really sure if it’s connected properly or not.

Long story short: Is there a way to test if the database is connected properly?

This is what I have so far. I’m kindof stuck on Steps 8 and 9:

Step 1: Go to mLabs and create a database. Get the MongoDB URI.

Step 2: Put the MongoDB URI into the .env file:
MONGO_URI=mongodb://(user)(password)@(number).mlab.com:(number)/url_shortener_database

Step 3: In the server.js, require the necessary packages:

var mongo = require('mongodb');
var mongoose = require('mongoose');
mongoose.connect(process.env.MONGO_URI);

Step 4: Create a model or Schema to submit to the database…

var urlSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
      orig_url: { type: String, required: true },
      short_url: Number
  });
var URL = mongoose.model('URL', urlSchema);

Step 5: When the user posts the URL:

app.post("/api/shorturl/new", function (req, res) {
  (Step 6)
  (Step 7)
  (Step 8)
  (Step 9)
});

Step 6: It uses a Regex and removes the HTTPS.

Step 7: And then checks the DNS if it’s a valid website.

Step 8: Go into the database and check that the URL has not already been submitted.

Step 9: If it’s a new URL, submit the URL to the database and return with the ID value.

URL Shortener Microservice:

2

I only have a second. As to checking if mongoose is running properly, connect returns a promise, so I often do something like:

mongoose.connect(process.env.MONGODB)
.then(
  () => {
    console.log("mongo opened:", process.env.MONGODB)
    runningMongo = true
    confirmRunning()
  },
  err => {
    console.error("### error starting mongo:", process.env.MONGODB)
    console.error(err)
  }
)

I also do the same for the server, so I use:

// starting app and DB

let runningExpress = false
let runningMongo = false

const confirmRunning = () => {
  if (runningExpress && runningMongo && process.env.MODE === 'DEV') {
    console.log("\n*** Server and DB now running. You can confirm it by checking url:\n")
    console.log(process.env.SERVER_URL + ":" + process.env.PORT + "/test")
    console.log("")
  }
}

const message = () => (
  "<h1>Server</h1>" +
  "<h2>Server running: " + true +
  "<h2>Database running: " + runningMongo +
  "<h2>Happy hunting!<h2/>"
)
// test route
app.get("/test", (req, res) => {
  res.send(message())
})

// start app
app.listen(process.env.PORT)
.on('listening', () => {
  console.log("server listening on port:", process.env.PORT)
  runningExpress = true
  confirmRunning()
})
.on('error', (err) => {
  console.error("### error opening port:", process.env.PORT)
  console.error(err)
})

// start mongo
mongoose.connect(process.env.MONGODB)
.then(
  () => {
    console.log("mongo opened:", process.env.MONGODB)
    runningMongo = true
    confirmRunning()
  },
  err => {
    console.error("### error starting mongo:", process.env.MONGODB)
    console.error(err)
  }
)
1 Like
3

That worked, thank you!

At first it wasn’t connecting to the database, so I compared this one with the one from the lessons. I’d forgot to add a user to the new database, so it was throwing Error 18.