nodejs

Node.js Backend Best Practices

Overview

Aspect	Recommendation
Runtime	Node.js 20+ LTS
Framework	Express or Fastify
Language	TypeScript
Validation	Zod
ORM	Prisma or Drizzle

---

Project Structure

src/
├── index.ts             # Entry point
├── app.ts               # Express app setup
├── config/
│   └── index.ts         # Configuration
├── routes/
│   ├── index.ts         # Route aggregator
│   └── users.ts         # User routes
├── controllers/
│   └── users.ts         # Request handlers
├── services/
│   └── users.ts         # Business logic
├── middleware/
│   ├── auth.ts
│   └── errorHandler.ts
├── utils/
│   └── errors.ts
└── types/
    └── index.ts

---

Express Setup

Application

// src/app.ts
import express from 'express'
import cors from 'cors'
import helmet from 'helmet'
import { errorHandler } from './middleware/errorHandler'
import routes from './routes'

const app = express()

// Security middleware
app.use(helmet())
app.use(cors({ origin: process.env.CORS_ORIGIN }))

// Body parsing
app.use(express.json())
app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true }))

// Routes
app.use('/api', routes)

// Error handling (must be last)
app.use(errorHandler)

export default app

Entry Point

// src/index.ts
import app from './app'
import { config } from './config'

const server = app.listen(config.port, () => {
  console.log(`Server running on port ${config.port}`)
})

// Graceful shutdown
process.on('SIGTERM', () => {
  console.log('SIGTERM received, shutting down gracefully')
  server.close(() => {
    console.log('Server closed')
    process.exit(0)
  })
})

---

Routes and Controllers

Route Definition

// src/routes/users.ts
import { Router } from 'express'
import { UserController } from '../controllers/users'
import { authenticate } from '../middleware/auth'
import { validate } from '../middleware/validate'
import { createUserSchema, updateUserSchema } from '../schemas/user'

const router = Router()
const controller = new UserController()

router.get('/', controller.getAll)
router.get('/:id', controller.getById)
router.post('/', validate(createUserSchema), controller.create)
router.patch('/:id', authenticate, validate(updateUserSchema), controller.update)
router.delete('/:id', authenticate, controller.delete)

export default router