Backend Generator CLI

Now supporting AI powered code snippet generation! 🚀

Backend Generator CLI is a simple yet powerful command-line tool that helps you quickly scaffold a well-structured backend project. With built-in best practices and customizable code snippets, this tool is designed to streamline your development workflow and help you focus on what matters: building your application.

Key Features

• Instant Backend Setup: Generate a clean, well-organized backend project structure with a single command.
• Best Practices Built-in: The generated project follows industry-standard best practices for scalable backend development.
• Custom Code Snippets: Insert predefined code snippets such as API error handling, file uploading, and more using simple CLI commands.
• AI-powered Custom Code Snippets: Generate customizable code snippets using Generative AI with simple CLI commands.
• Modular and Extensible: The tool allows you to customize and expand the project structure to meet your specific needs.

Index

• Installation
• Commands
  • 1. run create-project
  • 2. run generate-snippet
  • 3. run generate-ai-snippet
• Full User Journey Example
• Future Enhancements
• License

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Installation

To install the CLI globally, use npm:

npm install -g backend-generator-cli

After installation, you will have access to two main commands: create-project to generate the backend structure and generate-snippet to inject code snippets.

Commands

1. run create-project

Generate a new backend project with a pre-configured folder structure:

run create-project

This command will create a new backend project structure in your current directory. Here's what the generated structure looks like:

.
├── src/
│   ├── controllers/      # Controllers for handling requests and responses
│   ├── db/               # Database connection and configuration
│   ├── middlewares/      # Middlewares for handling validation and request processing
│   ├── models/           # Data models (e.g., Mongoose models, SQL models)
│   ├── routes/           # API route definitions
│   ├── utils/            # Utility functions and helpers
│   ├── app.js            # Main app setup and configuration
│   ├── constants.js      # Application-wide constants
│   └── index.js          # Entry point of the backend server
├── .env.sample           # Sample environment configuration
├── .gitignore            # Git ignore file for version control
├── .prettierignore       # Prettier ignore file
├── .prettierrc           # Prettier configuration
├── package.json          # Project dependencies and scripts
└── README.md             # Documentation

This structure is clean, easy to navigate, and ready to be extended with your own business logic and data models.

2. run generate-snippet <snippet-name>

Generate and inject predefined code snippets into your project. Snippets are placed in individual files in your current working directory.

Example:

run generate-snippet multer-file-upload

This command will create a new file multer-file-upload.js in the current working directory, containing a pre-configured snippet for handling file uploads using multer.

Available Snippets

1. async-ops-handler: Handles asynchronous operations with error handling.

   Code Snippet:

    const asyncHandler = (requestHandler) => {
        return (req, res, next) => {
            Promise
            .resolve(requestHandler(req, res, next))
            .catch((err) => next(err))
        }
    }
   
    export { asyncHandler }

2. custom-api-error: Standardizes error responses for your API.

   Code Snippet:

   class ApiError extends Error{
        constructor(
            statusCode,
            message= "Something went wrong",
            errors=[],
            stack=""
        ){
            super(message);
            this.statusCode = statusCode;
            this.message = message;
            this.data = null;
            this.errors = errors;
            
            if(stack){
                this.stack = stack;
            }else{
                Error.captureStackTrace(this, this.constructor);
            }
        }
    }
   
    export { ApiError }

3. custom-api-response: Standardizes successful API responses.

   Code Snippet:

    class ApiResponse{
        constructor(statusCode, message="success", data){
            this.statusCode = statusCode;
            this.message = message;
            this.data = data;
            this.success = statusCode < 400;
        }
    }
   
    export {ApiResponse}

4. multer-file-upload: Sets up a file upload service using multer.

   Code Snippet:

   import multer from "multer";
   
    const storage = multer.diskStorage({
    destination: function(req, file, cb){
        cb(null, './public/temp');
    },
    filename: function(req, file, cb){
        cb(null, file.originalname);
    }
    });
   
    export const upload = multer({ storage });

3. run generate-ai-snippet <snippetName>

With the new AI-powered code generation feature, you can generate customized code snippets. For instance, to generate a code snippet for a specific backend functionality, you can run:

run generate-ai-snippet <snippetName>

Example:

run generate-ai-snippet login-controller

This will generate a code snippet for login-controller using AI that looks like :

Generated Code Snippet for login-controller:

const User = require('../models/User');
const bcrypt = require('bcrypt');
const jwt = require('jsonwebtoken');

module.exports.login = async (req, res) => {
  try {
    const { email, password } = req.body;

    const user = await User.findOne({ email });
    if (!user) {
      return res.status(401).json({ message: 'Invalid credentials' });
    }

    const isMatch = await bcrypt.compare(password, user.password);
    if (!isMatch) {
      return res.status(401).json({ message: 'Invalid credentials' });
    }

    const token = jwt.sign({ userId: user._id }, process.env.JWT_SECRET, { expiresIn: '1h' });
    res.json({ token, user: { _id: user._id, name: user.name, email: user.email } });
  } catch (err) {
    console.error(err);
    res.status(500).json({ message: 'Server error' });        
  }
};

The code snippet is generated successfuly and may require some modifications to fit your use case.

Full User Journey Example

Here’s a complete example of a user journey, from project setup to injecting code snippets into the project.

Step 1: Install the CLI Globally

First, install the tool using npm:

npm install -g backend-generator-cli

Step 2: Create a New Backend Project

Navigate to your desired directory and run the following command to generate the project structure:

run create-project

This will create a new backend project with the following structure:

.
├── src/
│   ├── controllers/
│   ├── db/
│   ├── middlewares/
│   ├── models/
│   ├── routes/
│   ├── utils/
│   ├── app.js
│   ├── constants.js
│   └── index.js
├── .env.sample
├── .gitignore
├── .prettierignore
├── .prettierrc
├── package.json
└── README.md

Step 3: Move to the src/utils Directory

Change your working directory to the src/utils folder:

cd src
cd utils

You are now inside the utils folder where you will generate the file upload handler snippet.

Step 4: Add a Snippet to Handle File Uploads

Next, add a multer file upload handler by running the following command:

run generate-snippet multer-file-upload

This command will create a new file called multer-file-upload.js in the src/utils directory, which is now your current working directory. The content of this file will look like this:

import multer from 'multer';

const storage = multer.diskStorage({
  destination: function (req, file, cb) {
    cb(null, './public/temp');
  },
  filename: function (req, file, cb) {
    cb(null, file.originalname);
  }
});

export const upload = multer({ storage });

Step 5: Use the Snippet in Your Project

Now that the file upload handler has been generated in the utils folder, you can import and use it in your application. For instance, in src/routes/uploadRoute.js:

import express from 'express';
import { upload } from '../utils/multer-file-upload';

const router = express.Router();

router.post('/upload', upload.single('file'), (req, res) => {
  res.send('File uploaded successfully');
});

export default router;

Make sure that your main app.js or index.js includes this route:

import express from 'express';
import uploadRoute from './routes/uploadRoute';

const app = express();

app.use('/api', uploadRoute);

app.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Server is running on port 3000');
});

Step 6: Continue Building

Continue building your application by adding your business logic, routes, controllers, and any other necessary components. Feel free to generate additional snippets like custom-api-error and async-ops-handler as needed.

This flow demonstrates how you can set up your backend project structure and utilize the code snippets generated by backend-generator-cli to accelerate your development.

Future Enhancements

• Add more predefined snippets for common backend use cases.
• Add a controller to get the most in-demand snippets.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more details.

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Made with ❤️ by Pranav Barthwal

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