Environment Setup

Configure environment variables and dependencies for StockAPI

Overview

StockAPI requires specific environment variables and Node.js dependencies to function properly. This guide will walk you through setting up your development environment.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20 or higher
• npm (Node Package Manager)
• A MongoDB Atlas account (for database connection)
• A Resend account (for email functionality)

Environment Variables

StockAPI uses the following environment variables that must be configured before running the application:

1. Create .env file

   Create a .env file in the root directory of your project:

   touch .env
   
2. Add required variables

   Add the following environment variables to your .env file:

   .env

   # Application Configuration
   APP_NAME="Your App Name"
   PORT=3000
   
   # MongoDB Connection
   MONGO_URI="mongodb+srv://username:[e-mail]/database"
   
   # JWT Authentication
   JWT_SECRET="your-secret-key-here"
   
   # Email Configuration
   EMAIL_USER="[e-mail]"
   EMAIL_PASS="your-email-password-or-app-key"
   
   # Resend API (for email sending)
   RESEND_API_KEY="re_your_api_key_here"
   
3. Configure each variable

   Variable Descriptions

   Variable	Description	Example
   APP_NAME	Subject line for emails sent by the API	"Stock Management System"
   PORT	Port number where the server will run	3000
   MONGO_URI	MongoDB Atlas connection string	See Database Connection
   JWT_SECRET	Secret key for JWT token generation	"my-super-secret-key-123"
   EMAIL_USER	Email address to receive contact form messages	"[e-mail]"
   EMAIL_PASS	Password or app-specific key for email account	"your-app-password"
   RESEND_API_KEY	API key from Resend.com	"re_123abc..."

Never commit your .env file to version control. Make sure .env is listed in your .gitignore file to prevent accidentally exposing sensitive credentials.

Installing Dependencies

StockAPI uses several npm packages that need to be installed before running the application.

1. Install production dependencies

   Run the following command to install all required dependencies:

   npm install
   

   This will install the following packages:

Core Dependencies

The application uses the following npm packages (from package.json):

package.json

{
  "dependencies": {
    "bcryptjs": "^3.0.2",
    "body-parser": "^2.2.0",
    "cors": "^2.8.5",
    "dotenv": "^17.2.3",
    "express": "^5.1.0",
    "jsonwebtoken": "^9.0.2",
    "mongoose": "^8.19.2",
    "nodemailer": "^7.0.10",
    "resend": "^6.4.2"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "nodemon": "^3.1.10"
  }
}

Package Purposes

• express: Web framework for building the API
• mongoose: MongoDB object modeling for Node.js
• dotenv: Loads environment variables from .env file
• jsonwebtoken: JWT token generation and validation for authentication
• bcryptjs: Password hashing for secure user credential storage
• body-parser: Middleware for parsing incoming request bodies
• cors: Middleware for handling Cross-Origin Resource Sharing
• nodemailer: Email sending functionality
• resend: Modern email API service integration
• nodemon (dev): Automatically restarts server during development

Running the Application

Once your environment is configured and dependencies are installed, you can start the application:

Production

npm start

If everything is configured correctly, you should see:

✅ Conexión a MongoDB Atlas establecida correctamente
✅ Servidor funcionando en el puerto 3000

The application will not start if it cannot connect to MongoDB. Make sure your MONGO_URI is correctly configured before running the app.

Troubleshooting

Port Already in Use

If port 3000 is already in use, change the PORT variable in your .env file:

PORT=3001

Missing Dependencies

If you encounter module not found errors, ensure all dependencies are installed:

rm -rf node_modules package-lock.json
npm install

Environment Variables Not Loading

Make sure:

• Your .env file is in the root directory
• There are no spaces around the = sign in your .env file
• You restart the server after changing environment variables

Next Steps

• Database Connection - Set up MongoDB Atlas
• Docker Deployment - Deploy using Docker containers