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This repository has code to create a web app that is pre-configured with the MEAN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, AngularJS, Node.js). We use IBM Cloud services to host our application; the IBM Cloud Developer Tools CLI to run and debug locally; and lastly provide native commands to deploy to Kubernetes or Cloud Foundry.

By running this code, you'll understand how to:

• Build an application that uses MongoDB, Express.js, AngularJS, and Node.js.
• Create an application for monitoring and distributed tracing using App Metrics.
• Deploy an application using the IBM Cloud Developer Tools CLI or natively with Kubernetes or Cloud Foundry.

1. The user views the AngularJS web app with a browser.
2. With both components written in Node.js, the AngularJS front end communicates with the Express back end via RESTful APIs.
3. The back-end Express application uses the Mongo database for storing and retrieving data.
4. Back-end results are communicated back to the the front end.
5. Front-end results are rendered in a human readable format to the user.

• IBM Cloud: Provides a computing platform that includes a catalog of cloud services which can be integrated with PaaS and IaaS to build business applications.
• Kubernetes Cluster: Create and manage your own cloud infrastructure and use Kubernetes as your container orchestration engine.
• MongoDB: Fully featured NoSQL server that is horizontally scalable to meet your enterprise class database service needs.
• Express: Most popular and minimalistic web framework for creating API and Web server.
• AngularJS: JavaScript library for building user interfaces.

• Node.js: An open-source JavaScript run-time environment for executing server-side JavaScript code.
• Containers: Virtual software objects that include all the elements that an app needs to run.
• Cloud native: Cloud native is an approach to building and running applications that exploits the advantages of the cloud computing delivery model.

As an alternative to the steps below, you can create this project as a starter kit on IBM Cloud, which automatically provisions required services, and injects service credentials into a custom fork of this pattern.

Install the latest version of the IBM Cloud Developer Tools CLI.

• For macOS and Linux, run the following command:

  curl -sL https://ibm.biz/idt-installer | bash
  

• For Windows 10 Pro, run the following command in a PowerShell prompt as Admistrator:

  [Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = "Tls12"; iex(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://ibm.biz/idt-win-installer')
  

NOTE: IDT builds and runs the project using Docker containers, the recommended approach for cloud native development. However, direct use of native tools (e.g. npm) is also supported. See the Appendix for more information.

The starter project supports the concept of dev mode and release mode. In dev mode, the starter app runs with dev dependencies installed and hot reload enabled for both the front-end and back-end aspects of the app. Dev mode is intended for use during app development. Release mode excludes dev dependencies and runs the app without hot reload. Release mode is intended for running in production. You can also verify the state of your locally running application using the Selenium UI test script included in the scripts directory.

1. Build the project with all dependencies, including dev dependencies, with the command:

   ibmcloud dev build --debug
   

   NOTE: Ensure a Docker daemon is running before issuing this command.

2. Run project unit tests with the command:

   ibmcloud dev test
   

3. Run the app in dev mode with command:

   ibmcloud dev shell run-dev &
   

   A web server will runs on port 3000 and the app itself runs on port 3100. The web server and app will automatically reload if changes are made to the source.

4. Run the app in interactive debug mode with command:

   ibmcloud dev debug
   

   The app listens on port 5858 for the debug client to attach to it, and on port 3000 for app requests.

1. Build the project:

   ibmcloud dev build
   

   This builds the project using Dockerfile-tools. Effectively equivalent to idt build --debug.

2. Run the project:

   ibmcloud dev run
   

   This runs the project using the release image built on the fly using Dockerfile. Hot reload is not available in the release image.

Whether you run in dev mode or release mode, you have the same default URLs available to you:

1. http://localhost:3000

   

2. http://localhost:3000/health

   

These projects are designed for deployment to IBM Cloud through the IBM Cloud Developer Tools CLI, to Kubernetes (public or private cloud) or Cloud Foundry (public cloud only).

Before deploying your MEAN app, you will need to sign in to IBM Cloud through the command line.

ibmcloud login

NOTE: As mentioned earlier, for deployments on other environments using native commands see Appendix.

To deploy the app to Cloud Foundry:

ibmcloud dev deploy

To deploy the app to Kubernetes:

ibmcloud dev deploy --target container

An interactive session will begin where you'll be prompted for a new or existing IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service cluster name. Once the cluster is validated and the Docker registry confirmed the app will be deployed to a Kubernetes cluster. The following output has been trimmed for readability.

The IBM cluster name for the deployment of this application will be: stevemar-cluster
Log in to the IBM Container Registry ...
Configuring with cluster 'stevemar-cluster' ...

Deployments:
NAME                     DESIRED   CURRENT   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
meanexample-deployment   1         1         1            0           3s
mongo-deployment         1         1         1            0           3s

Nodes:
NAME             STATUS    ROLES     AGE       VERSION
10.177.184.198   Ready     <none>    14m       v1.10.5+IKS

Your application is hosted at http://169.47.252.58:32281/

Now that we have a Dockerized version of our app running, before we push it to production we'll need to configure a managed Mongo database, this is a MEAN stack after all!

• Create a managed instance of MongoDB by searching for Compose for MongoDB in the Catalog
• Once created go to the Service credentials menu and create a new credential.
• Copy the uri to a text file, we'll need to parse the content out.
• From the uri we will need to extract the username, password, and mongo_url. The text is in the form of mongodb://{username}:{password}@{mongo_url}.

NOTE: Alternatively, you may install MongoDB natively. Refer to the install instructions.

Connecting to MongoDB is done in the file server/routers/mongo.js. It is controlled through environment variables. See the following sample set of credentials.

export MONGO_URL='portal-ssl1308-22.bmix-dal-yp-c4627161-a212-45bd-b0bd-62004a6e6f5c.421838044.composedb.com:54951'
export MONGO_USER='admin'
export MONGO_PASS='AFLLYADUNVAUKPNO'
export MONGO_DB_NAME='admin'

If you want to perform a quick test, try using the mongo CLI.

$ mongo --ssl --sslAllowInvalidCertificates $MONGO_URL -u $MONGO_USER -p $MONGO_PASS --authenticationDatabase $MONGO_DB_NAME
MongoDB shell version v4.0.1
connecting to: mongodb://portal-ssl1308-22.bmix-dal-yp-c4627161-a212-45bd-b0bd-62004a6e6f5c.421838044.composedb.com:54951/test
MongoDB server version: 3.4.10
mongos>

Navigate to your application, select the Runtimes menu and you'll be given an opportunity to enter environment variables.

Open values.yaml under the chart directory (e.g. mean-app/chart/meanexample/) and update the following section with the appropriate values.

services:
  mongo:
     url: {uri}
     dbName: {dbname}
     username: {username}
     password: {password}
     env: production

Open bindings.yaml under the chart directory to add Mongo references. Add the following entries at the end of the file if they are not present already.

  - name: MONGO_URL
    value: {{ .Values.services.mongo.url }}
  - name: MONGO_DB_NAME
    value: {{ .Values.services.mongo.name }}
  - name: MONGO_USER
    value: {{ .Values.services.mongo.username }}
  - name: MONGO_PASS
    value: {{ .Values.services.mongo.password }}
  - name: MONGO_CA
    value: {{ .Values.services.mongo.ca }}

• Node Programming Guide: Tutorial on Node.js app development.
• Adding a service to your app: Learn how to add a service to your cloud native app.

• Starter Kits: Enjoyed this application? Check out our Starter Kits.
• Architecture Center: Explore Architectures that provide flexible infrastructure solutions.

This code pattern is licensed under the Apache Software License, Version 2. Separate third party code objects invoked within this code pattern are licensed by their respective providers pursuant to their own separate licenses. Contributions are subject to the Developer Certificate of Origin, Version 1.1 (DCO) and the Apache Software License, Version 2.

Apache Software License (ASL) FAQ