Deploying a Node.js Express application to Elastic Beanstalk

Create a repository with the eb init command.

~/nodejs-example-express-rds$ eb init --platform node.js --region <region>

This command creates a configuration file in a folder named .elasticbeanstalk that specifies settings for creating environments for your application, and creates an Elastic Beanstalk application named after the current folder.

Create an environment running a sample application with the eb create command.

~/nodejs-example-express-rds$ eb create --sample nodejs-example-express-rds

This command creates a load-balanced environment with the default settings for the Node.js platform and the following resources:

When environment creation completes, use the eb open command to open the environment's URL in the default browser.

~/nodejs-example-express-rds$ eb open

Run the express command. This generates package.json, app.js, and a few directories.

~/nodejs-example-express-rds$ express

When prompted, type y if you want to continue.

Set up local dependencies.

~/nodejs-example-express-rds$ npm install

(Optional) Verify the web app server starts up.

~/nodejs-example-express-rds$ npm start

You should see output similar to the following:

> nodejs@0.0.0 start /home/local/user/node-express
> node ./bin/www

The server runs on port 3000 by default. To test it, run curl http://localhost:3000 in another terminal, or open a browser on the local computer and enter URL address http://localhost:3000.

Press Ctrl+C to stop the server.

Deploy the changes to your Elastic Beanstalk environment with the eb deploy command.

~/nodejs-example-express-rds$ eb deploy

Once the environment is green and ready, refresh the URL to verify it worked. You should see a web page that says Welcome to Express.

Add a second configuration file in the .ebextensions folder with the following content:

nodejs-example-express-rds/.ebextensions/staticfiles.config

option_settings:
    aws:elasticbeanstalk:environment:proxy:staticfiles:
        /stylesheets: public/stylesheets

This setting configures the proxy server to serve files in the public folder at the /public path of the application. Serving files statically from the proxy server reduces the load on your application. For more information, see Static files earlier in this chapter.

(Optional) To confirm that static mappings are configured correctly, comment out the static mapping configuration in nodejs-example-express-rds/app.js. This removes the mapping from the node application.

//  app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public'))); 

The static file mappings in the staticfiles.config file from the previous step should still load the stylesheet successfully, even after you comment this line out. To verify that the static file mappings are loaded through the proxy static file configuration, rather than the express application, remove the values following option_settings:. After it has been removed from both the static file configuration and the node application, the stylesheet will fail to load.

Remember to reset the contents of both the nodejs-example-express-rds/app.js and staticfiles.config when you're done testing.

Add nodejs-example-express-rds/routes/hike.js. Type the following:

exports.index = function(req, res) {
 res.render('hike', {title: 'My Hiking Log'});
};

exports.add_hike = function(req, res) {
};

Update nodejs-example-express-rds/app.js to include three new lines.

First, add the following line to add a require for this route:

var hike = require('./routes/hike');

Your file should look similar to the following snippet:

var express = require('express');
var path = require('path');
var hike = require('./routes/hike');

Then, add the following two lines to nodejs-example-express-rds/app.js after var app = express();

app.get('/hikes', hike.index);
app.post('/add_hike', hike.add_hike);

Your file should look similar to the following snippet:

var app = express();
app.get('/hikes', hike.index);
app.post('/add_hike', hike.add_hike);

Copy nodejs-example-express-rds/views/index.jade to nodejs-example-express-rds/views/hike.jade.

~/nodejs-example-express-rds$ cp views/index.jade views/hike.jade

Deploy the changes with the eb deploy command.

~/nodejs-example-express-rds$ eb deploy

Your environment will be updated after a few minutes. After your environment is green and ready, verify it worked by refreshing your browser and appending hikes at the end of the URL (e.g., http://node-express-env-syypntcz2q.elasticbeanstalk.com/hikes).

You should see a web page titled My Hiking Log.

To create an RDS for MySQL database coupled to your Elastic Beanstalk environment, follow the instructions in the Adding a database topic included later in this chapter. Adding a database instance takes about 10 minutes.

Update the dependencies section in the package.json with the following contents:

"dependencies": {
    "async": "^3.2.4",
    "express": "4.18.2",
    "jade": "1.11.0",
    "mysql": "2.18.1",
    "node-uuid": "^1.4.8",
    "body-parser": "^1.20.1",
    "method-override": "^3.0.0",
    "morgan": "^1.10.0",
    "errorhandler": "^1.5.1"
  }

Run npm install.

~/nodejs-example-express-rds$ npm install

Update app.js to connect to the database, create a table, and insert a single default hiking log. Every time this app is deployed it will drop the previous hikes table and recreate it.

/**
 * Module dependencies.
 */

 const express = require('express')
 , routes = require('./routes')
 , hike = require('./routes/hike')
 , http = require('http')
 , path = require('path')
 , mysql = require('mysql')
 , async = require('async')
 , bodyParser = require('body-parser')
 , methodOverride = require('method-override')
 , morgan = require('morgan')
 , errorhandler = require('errorhandler');

const { connect } = require('http2');

const app = express()

app.set('views', __dirname + '/views')
app.set('view engine', 'jade')
app.use(methodOverride())
app.use(bodyParser.json())
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true }))
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')))


app.set('connection', mysql.createConnection({
host: process.env.RDS_HOSTNAME,
user: process.env.RDS_USERNAME,
password: process.env.RDS_PASSWORD,
port: process.env.RDS_PORT}));  

function init() {
 app.get('/', routes.index);
 app.get('/hikes', hike.index);
 app.post('/add_hike', hike.add_hike);
}

const client = app.get('connection');
async.series([
 function connect(callback) {
   client.connect(callback);
   console.log('Connected!');
 },
 function clear(callback) {
   client.query('DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS mynode_db', callback);
 },
 function create_db(callback) {
   client.query('CREATE DATABASE mynode_db', callback);
 },
 function use_db(callback) {
   client.query('USE mynode_db', callback);
 },
 function create_table(callback) {
    client.query('CREATE TABLE HIKES (' +
                        'ID VARCHAR(40), ' +
                        'HIKE_DATE DATE, ' +
                        'NAME VARCHAR(40), ' +
                        'DISTANCE VARCHAR(40), ' +
                        'LOCATION VARCHAR(40), ' +
                        'WEATHER VARCHAR(40), ' +
                        'PRIMARY KEY(ID))', callback);
 },
 function insert_default(callback) {
   const hike = {HIKE_DATE: new Date(), NAME: 'Hazard Stevens',
         LOCATION: 'Mt Rainier', DISTANCE: '4,027m vertical', WEATHER:'Bad', ID: '12345'};
   client.query('INSERT INTO HIKES set ?', hike, callback);
 }
], function (err, results) {
 if (err) {
   console.log('Exception initializing database.');
   throw err;
 } else {
   console.log('Database initialization complete.');
   init();
 }
});

module.exports = app

Add the following content to routes/hike.js. This will enable the routes to insert new hiking logs into the HIKES database.

const uuid = require('node-uuid');
exports.index = function(req, res) {
  res.app.get('connection').query( 'SELECT * FROM HIKES', function(err,
rows) {
    if (err) {
      res.send(err);
    } else {
      console.log(JSON.stringify(rows));
      res.render('hike', {title: 'My Hiking Log', hikes: rows});
  }});
};
exports.add_hike = function(req, res){
  const input = req.body.hike;
  const hike = { HIKE_DATE: new Date(), ID: uuid.v4(), NAME: input.NAME,
  LOCATION: input.LOCATION, DISTANCE: input.DISTANCE, WEATHER: input.WEATHER};
  console.log('Request to log hike:' + JSON.stringify(hike));
  req.app.get('connection').query('INSERT INTO HIKES set ?', hike, function(err) {
      if (err) {
        res.send(err);
      } else {
        res.redirect('/hikes');
      }
   });
};

Replace the content of routes/index.js with the following:

/*
 * GET home page.
 */

exports.index = function(req, res){
  res.render('index', { title: 'Express' });
};

Add the following jade template to views/hike.jade to provide the user interface for adding hiking logs.

extends layout

block content
  h1= title
  p Welcome to #{title}

  form(action="/add_hike", method="post")
    table(border="1")
      tr
        td Your Name
        td
          input(name="hike[NAME]", type="textbox")
      tr
        td Location
        td
          input(name="hike[LOCATION]", type="textbox")
      tr
        td Distance
        td
          input(name="hike[DISTANCE]", type="textbox")
      tr
        td Weather
        td
          input(name="hike[WEATHER]", type="radio", value="Good")
          | Good
          input(name="hike[WEATHER]", type="radio", value="Bad")
          | Bad
          input(name="hike[WEATHER]", type="radio", value="Seattle", checked)
          | Seattle
      tr
        td(colspan="2")
          input(type="submit", value="Record Hike")

  div
    h3 Hikes
    table(border="1")
      tr
        td Date
        td Name
        td Location
        td Distance
        td Weather
      each hike in hikes
        tr
          td #{hike.HIKE_DATE.toDateString()}
          td #{hike.NAME}
          td #{hike.LOCATION}
          td #{hike.DISTANCE}
          td #{hike.WEATHER}

Deploy the changes with the eb deploy command.

~/nodejs-example-express-rds$ eb deploy