ALogRocket BLOG CRUD REST API with Node.js, Express, and PostgreSQL May 23, 2022 - 12 min read Editor’s note: This post was updated on 06 June 2022 to reflect updates to the pgAdmin client. For a modern web developer, knowing how to work with APIs to facilitate communication between software systems is paramount. In this tutorial, we'll Jearn how to create a CRUD RESTful API in a Node.js environment that runs on an. Express server and uses a PostgreSQL database. We'll also walk through connecting an Express server with PostgreSQL using node-postgres. Our API will be able to handle the HTTP request methods that correspond to the PostgreSQL database from which the API gets its data. You’ll also learn how to install PostgreSQL and work with it through the command-line interface. Our goal is to allow CRUD operations, cet , post , pur ,and péLeTe , on the API, which will run the corresponding database commands. To do so, we'll set up a route for each endpoint and a function for each query. ‘We'll cover the following in detail: + What is a RESTful API? + What isa CRUD API? * What is Express? + What is PostgreSQL? + What is node-postgres?+ Creating a PostgreSQL database + PostgreSQL command prompt + Creating a role in Postgres + Creating a database in Postgres + Creating a table in Postgres + Setting up an Express server + Connecting to a Postgres database from Nodes + Creating routes for CRUD operations + Exporting CRUD functions in a REST API + Setting up CRUD functions in a REST API To follow along with this tutorial, you‘ll need: + Familiarity with the JavaScript syntax and fundamentals + Basic knowledge of working with the command line + Nodes and npm installed ‘The complete code for the tutorial is available on this GitHub repo. Let’s get started! What is a RESTful API? Representational State Transfer (REST) defines a set of standards for web services. An API is an interface that software programs use to communicate with each other. Therefore, a RESTful API is an API that conforms to the REST architectural style and constraints. REST systems are stateless, scalable, cacheable, and have a uniform interface. What is a CRUD API? When building an API, you want your model to provide four basic functionalities. It should be able to create, read, update, and delete resources. This set of essential operations is commonly referred to as CRUD.RESTful APIs most commonly utilize HTTP requests. Four of the most common HTTP methods in a REST environment are cet, post , pur ,and veLere , which are the methods by which a developer can create a CRUD system. + create :Usethe HTTP post method to create a resource in a REST environment + Read : Use the cer method to read a resource, retrieving data without altering it + Update : Use the put method to update a resource * velete :Use the pe.ete method to remove a resource from the system What is Express? According to the official Express documentation, Express is a fast, un- opinionated, minimalist web framework for Nodes. Express is one of the most popular frameworks for Node,js. In fact, the E in MERN, MEVN, and MEAN stack stands for Express. Although Express is minimalist, it is also very flexible, leading to the development of various Express middlewares that you can use to address almost any task or problem imaginable. What is PostgreSQL? PostgreSQL, commonly referred to as Postgres, is a free, open source relational database management system. You might be familiar with a few other similar database systems, like MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, or MariaDB, which compete with PostgreSQL. PostgreSQL is a robust relational database that has been around since 1997 and is available on all major operating systems, Linux, Windows, and macOS. Since PostgreSQL is known for stability, extensibility, and standards compliance, it’s a popular choice for developers and companies.It’s also possible to create a Node.js RESTful CRUD API using Sequelize. Sequelize is a promise-based Node.js ORM for for Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite, and Microsoft SQL Server. For more on how to use Sequelize in a Node.js REST API, check out the video tutorial below: Building an API in Node.js with Express and S... What is node-postgres? node-postgres, or pg, is anonblocking PostgreSQL. client for Nodes. Essentially, node-postgres is a collection of Node.js modules for interfacing with a PostgreSQL database. Among the many features node-postgres supports include callbacks, promises, async/await, connection pooling, prepared statements, cursors, rich type parsing, and C/C++ bindings. Creating a PostgreSQL databaseWe'll begin this tutorial by installing PostgreSQL, creating a new user, creating a database, and initializing a table with a schema and some data. Installation If you're using Windows, download a Windows installer of PostgreSQL. If you're using a Mac, this tutorial assumes you have Homebrew installed on your computer as a package manager for installing new programs. If you don’t, simply click on the link and follow the instructions. Open up the Terminal and install postgresql with brew : brew install postgresql You may see instructions on the web reading brew install postgres instead of postgresql ; both options will install PostgreSQL on your computer. After the installation is complete, we'll want to get postgresql up and running, which we can do with services start : brew services start postgresql ==> Successfully started postgresql’ (label: homebrew.mxcl. postgresql) If at any point you want to stop the postgresql service, you can run brew services stop postgresql . With PostgreSQL installed, next, we'll connect to the postgres command line where we can run SQL commands. PostgreSQL command promptpsql is the PostgreSQL interactive terminal. Running psqi will connect you toa PostgreSQL host. Running psql --help will give you more information about the available options for connecting with psqi : -host=HosTName : The database server host or socket directory; the default is local socket + -p: --port=porr : The database server port; the default is s432 * -U: --username=USERNAME : The database username; the default is your_username + “ws --no-password : Never prompt for password eos -password : Force password prompt, which should happen automatically We'll connect to the default postgres database with the default login information and no option flags: psql postgres You'll see that we’ve entered into a new connection. We’ re now inside psql in the postgres database. The prompt ends witha # to denote that we're logged in as the superuser, or root: postgres=# Commands within psqi start witha backslash \ . ‘To test our first command, we can check what database, user, and port we’ve connected to using the \conninfo command. postgres-# \conninfo You are connected to database “postgres” as user "your_username" via socket in “/emp" at port "5432".‘The reference table below includes a few common commands that we’ ll use throughout this tutori + \q:Exit psqi connection + \c : Connect to a new database + \gt : List all tables + \du : List all roles + \list : List databases Let’s create a new database and user so we're not using the default accounts, which have superuser privileges. Creating a role in Postgres First, we'll create a role called me and give it a password of password .Arole can function as a user or a group. In this case, we'll use it as a user: postgres=# CREATE ROLE me WITH LOGIN PASSWORD ‘password’; We want me tobe able to create a database: postgres=# ALTER ROLE me CREATEDB; Youcanrun \du to list all roles and users: me | Create DB 1a postgres | Superuser, Create role, Create 0B | (} Now, we want to create a database from the me user. Exit from the default session with \q for quit:postgres=# \q We're back in our computer’s default terminal connection. Now, we’ll connect postgres with me : psql -d postgres -U me Instead of postgres-# , our prompt now shows postgres-> , meaning we're no longer logged in as a superuser. Creating a database in Postgres We can create a database with the SQL command as follows: postgres=> CREATE DATABASE api; Use the \list command to see the available databases: Name | Owner =| Encoding | Collate | Ctype =| api | me | uTF8 | en_us.UTF-8 | en_us.UTF-8 | Let’s connect to the new api database with me using the \c connect command: postgres=> \c api You are now connected to database "api" as user "me". api=> Our prompt now shows that we’re connected to api . Creating a table in PostgresFinally, inthe psq1 command prompt, we'll create a table called users with three fields, two varcuar types, and an auto-incrementing priMary KEY I api=> CREATE TABLE users ( ID SERIAL PRIMARY KEY, ame VARCHAR(3@), email VARCHAR(30) v3 Make sure not to use the backtick * character when creating and working with tables in PostgreSQL. While backticks are allowed in MySQL, they’re not valid in PostgreSQL. Also ensure that you do not have a trailing comma in the create TABLE command. Let’s add some data to work with by adding two entries to users : INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES (‘Jerry', ‘[email protected]'), (‘George’, ‘[email protected]'); Let’s make sure that the information above was correctly added by getting all entries in users : api=> SELECT * FROM users; id | name | email 1 | Jerry | [email protected] 2 | George | [email protected] Now, we have a user, database, table, and some data. We can begin building our Node,js RESTful API to connect to this data, stored in a PostgreSQL database.At this point, we’re finished with all of our PostgreSQL tasks, and we can begin setting up our Nodes app and Express server. Setting up an Express server To set up a Nodes app and Express server, first create a directory for the project to live in: mkdir node-api-postgres cd node-api-postgres Youcaneither run npm init -y tocreatea package. json file, or copy the code below intoa package. json file: "name": "node-api-postgres”, "version": "1.0.0", “description”: “RESTful API with Node.js, Express, and PostgreSQL", main": "index.js", "license": "MIT" We'll want to install Express for the server and node-postgres to connect to PostgreSQL: npm i express pg Now, we have our dependencies loaded into node_modules and package.4son . Create an index. js file, which we'll use as the entry point for our server. At the top, we'll require the express module, the built-in body-parser middleware, and we'll set our app and port variables:const express = require(‘express') const bodyParser = require('body-parser’) const app = express() const port = 3000 app.use(bodyParser.json()) app.use( bodyParser.urlencoded ({ extended: true, » ‘We'll tell a route to look fora cet request on the root / URL and return some JSON: app.get("/', (request, response) => { response. json({ info: 'Node.js, Express, and Postgres API' }) » Now, set the app to listen on the port you set: app.listen(port, () => { console. log(*App running on port ${port}.”) » From the command line, we can start the server by hitting index.js : node index.js App running on port 3000. Goto http://localhost:3¢e@ in the URL bar of your browser, and you'll see the JSON we set earlier:jode.js, Express, and Postgres API" The Express server is running now, but it’s only sending some static JSON data that we created. The next step is to connect to PostgreSQL from Node,js to be able to make dynamic queries. Connecting to a Postgres database using a Client Apopular client for accessing Postgres databases is the pgAdmin client. The pgAdmin application is available for various platforms. If you want to have a graphical user interface for your Postgres databases, you can go to the download page and download the necessary package. Creating and querying your database using pgAdmin is simple. You need to click on the Object option available on the top menu, select Create, and choose Database to create a new connection. All the databases are available on the side menu. You can query or run SQL queries efficiently by selecting the proper database: Connecting to a Postgres database from Node.js We'll use the node-postgres module to create a pool of connections. Therefore, we don’t have to open and close a client each time we make a query. A popular option for production pooling would be to use pgBouncer , a lightweight connection pooler for PostgreSQL.Create a file called queries.js and set up the configuration of your PostgreSQL connection: const Pool = require('pg').Pool. const pool = new Pool({ user: ‘me’, host: ‘localhost', database: ‘api’, password: ‘password’, port: 5432, » Ina production environment, you would want to put your configuration details in a separate file with restrictive permissions so that it is not accessible from version control. But, for the simplicity of this tutorial, we'll keep it in the same file as the queries. The aim of this tutorial is to allow CRUD operations, cet , post , pur ,and DELETE on the API, which will run the corresponding database commands. To do so, we'll set up a route for each endpoint and a function corresponding to each query. Creating routes for CRUD operations We'll create six functions for six routes, as shown below. First, create all the functions for each route. Then, export the functions so they’re accessible: © GET: / | displayHome() * GET: /users | getUsers() * GET: /users/:id | getUserBytd() * Post: /users | createUser() © PUT: /users/:id | updateUser() + DELETE : /users/:id | deleteuser()In index.js ,we made an app.get() for the root endpoint with a function in it. Now, in queries. js , we'll create endpoints that will display all users, display a single user, create a new user, update an existing user, and delete a user. GET all users Our first endpoint will bea cer request. We can put the raw SQl. that will touch the api database inside the pool.query() .We'll setect all users and order by ID. const getUsers = (request, response) => { pool.query('SELECT * FROM users ORDER BY id ASC’, (error, results) => { if (error) { ‘throw error ? response. status (200). json(results. rows) » GET a single user by ID For our /users/:id request, we'll get the custom id parameter by the URL and use a WHERE clause to display the result. In the SQL query, we're looking for id-$1 . Inthis instance, $1 is a numbered placeholder that PostgreSQL uses natively instead of the > placeholder that you may recognize from other variations of SQconst getUserById = (request, response) => { const id = parselnt(request.params. id) pool.query('SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = $1°, [id], (error, results) => ( if (error) { ‘throw error + response. status(200). json(results. rows) » POST anew user The API will take a cer and post request to the /users endpoint. Inthe Post request, we'll add a new user. In this function, we’re extracting the sane and enail properties from the request body and inserting the values with insert : const createUser = request, response) => { const { name, email } = request. body pool.query( "INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES ($1, $2) RETURNING *", [name, email], (error, results) => { if (error) { ‘throw error + response. status (201).send("User added with ID: ${results.rows[@].id}") » PUT updated data in an existing user‘The /users/:id endpoint will also take two HTTP requests, the cet we created for getusertyid anda pur to modify an existing user. For this query, we'll combine what we learned in cet and post touse the urvate clause. It’s worth noting that put is idempotent, meaning the exact same call can be made over and over and will produce the same result. pur is different than post , in which the exact same call repeated will continuously make new users with the same data: const updateUser = (request, response) => { const id = parsetnt(request.params. id) const { name, enail } = request.body pool. query( “UPDATE users SET name = $1, email = $2 WHERE id = $3", [nane, email, id], (error, results) => ( if (error) { throw error + response. status(200).send(*User modified with 1D: ${id}") DELETE auser Finally, we'll use the vetete clause on /users/:id to delete a specific user by ID. This call is very similar to our getusersyr4() function:const deleteUser = (request, response) => { const id = parselnt(request.params. id) pool.query( DELETE FROM users WHERE id = $1", [id], (error, results) => { if (error) ( ‘throw error } response. status(200).send(*User deleted with ID: ${id}") » Exporting CRUD functions in a REST API To access these functions from index. js , we’ll need to export them. We can do so With module.exports , creating an object of functions. Since we’re using the ES6 syntax, we can write getUsers instead of getUsers:getUsers and soon: module.exports = { getusers, getUserById, createUser, updateuser, deleteUser, Our complete queries. is file is beloconst Pool = require(‘pg').Pool const pool = new Pool({ user: ‘me’, host: ‘localhost’, database: ‘api’, Password: ‘password", port: 5432, » const getUsers = (request, response) => { pool.query('SELECT * FROM users ORDER BY id ASC', (error, results) => { if (error) { ‘throw error + response. status (200). json(results. rows) » const getUserById = (request, response) => { const id = parseInt(request.parans.id) Setting up CRUD functions in a REST API Now that we have all of our queries, we need to pull them into the index. js file and make endpoint routes for all the query functions we created. ‘To get all the exported functions from queries. js , we'll require the file and assign it to a variable: const db = require(’./queries') Now, for each endpoint, we'll set the HTTP request method, the endpoint URL path, and the relevant function:app.get("/users', db.getUsers) app.get('/users/:id", db. getUserById) app.post(‘/users', db.createUser) app.put('/users/:id’, db.updateUser) app.delete('/users/:id', db.deleteUser) Below is our complete index.js file, the entry point of the API server: const express = require(‘express’) const bodyParser = require('body-parser') const app = express() const db = require(’./queries') const port = 3000 app.use(bodyParser.json()) app.use( bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true, » app.get('/', (request, response) => ( response. json({ info: ‘Node.js, Express, and Postgres API' }) » app.get("/users’, db.getUsers) app.get('/users/:id", db. getUserById) With just these two files, we have a server, database, and our API all set up. You can start up the server by hitting index.js again: node index. js ‘App running on port 3000.Now, if you go to http: //localhost:3000/users OF http://localhost:3000/users/1 , you’ ll see the JSON response of the two ceT requests. To test our post, put ,and vELeTe requests, we can use a tool like Postman or a VS Code extension like Thunder Client to send the HTTP requests. You can also use curl, acommand-line tool that is already available on your terminal. Using a Postman or Thunder Client tool makes it simple to query endpoints with different HTTP methods. Simply enter your URL, choose the specific HTTP method, insert JSON value if the endpoint is a PUT or POST route, and hit send: ‘The example above shows sending a post request to the specified route. The post option suggests that itis a post request. The URL beside the method is the API endpoint, and the JSON content is the data to be sent to the endpoint. You can hit the different routes similarly. Conclusion You should now have a functioning API server that runs on Nodes and is hooked up to an active PostgreSQL database. In this tutorial, we learned how to install and set up PostgreSQl. in the command line, create users, databases, and tables, and run SQL commands. We also learned how to create an Express server that can handle multiple HT'TP methods and use the pg module to connect to PostgreSQL from Nodejs. With this knowledge, you should be able to build on this API and utilize it for your own personal or professional development projects. Tania Rascia ind me online at tania.dev,finode postgresql Stop guessing why bugs happen with LogRocket Get started for free 77 Replies to “CRUD REST API with Node,js, Express, and PostgreSQL” Phaiza Says: Reply August 19, 2020 at 10:08 pm thank you! Thankful Reader Says: Reply September 24, 2020 at 12:28 pm This is a wonderful article! Thank you for this! Roger Says: Reply) October 2, 2020 at 6:45 amthis is finally what i’ve been looking for. great start that can be easily expanded by the readers needs, Jodoinscott Says: Reply, October 6, 2020 at 4:19 pm Ineeded to use psql -d postgres -h localhost -U me to log in, otherwise I got psql: error: could not connect to server: FA'LAL: Peer authentication failed for user “me” Jodoinscott Says: Reply October 6, 2020 at 4:41 pm This is great! Exactly what I was looking for. Note there is an error in the POST code snippet. ‘results’ should be ‘result’. Jodoinscott Says: Reply October 6, 2020 at 4:50 pm Good point. Still true. Jodoinscott Says: Reply October 6, 2020 at 4:51 pm Great response. Thanks for the help! Yared Solomon Says: Reply November 5, 2020 at 11:02 pmThank you so much. this is all what i want Wetbadger Says: Reply January 29, 2021 at 11:51 am 1’m confused. Everything works except why would there be a json response on localhost:3000/users ? I don’t see anything there. Am I supposed have a users.html? Luis Montalvo Says: Reply February 3, 2021 at 10:39 pm Hi Tania, ‘Thanks very much for your very clear and concise example. I followed it closely. ‘There was only 1 problem I ran into, which is when creating a user, I could not get back the inserted 1D. J looked this up, and for PosrgreSQL, there is a different way in which the id i returned after an insert, as follows: const createUser = (request, response const { username, email } = request.body; { pool.query( “INSERT INTO users (username, email) VALUES ($1,$2) RETURNING id”, (username, email], (error, results) => { if (error) { throw error; 3 response.status(201).send(‘User added with ID:$f{results.rows[0].id}*); yi 3 ‘The key is in getting the SQL statement correctly, with the “RETURNING id” bit at the end. Hopefully this will help others if they find the same problem.Best, Luis Sentinel1909 Says: Reply July 18, 2021 at 11:27 pm OMG! Thankyou so much, was on the verge of tearing my hair out here... e Dehangusc Says: Reply February 8, 2021 at 4:54 pm yep! it took me awhile to figure it out. thanks Jord Says: Reply February 20, 2021 at 10:59 am Nice at first I thought it was the apostrophe formatting, I actually had the RETURNING id part but couldnt get the results.rows piece - thank you! Matt Says: Reply March 5, 2021 at 5:42 pm ‘Sweet tutorial! thanks for the work, it is very easy to follow and works like a charm @ Alex Says: Reply, March 10, 2021 at 4:58 pm Iseem to be getting this error when I run node index,js at the end: error: password authentication failed for user “testuser” Is there a fix for this?‘Adnan Lubis Says: Reply March 29, 2021 at 5:58 am Thanks Abhishek Amrut Kamble Says Replys March 31, 2024 at 10:29 pm thank you so much John Says: Reply June 12, 2021 at 11:25 pm I’ve copied the 2 files completely and when I try and localhost:3000/users it just spins forever. Any way to trace the error? ‘Simmons Says: Reply December 19, 2021 at 4:20 pm I’ve failed to INSERT entries via Srequest.body, I had to use Srequest.query and T’m stunned nobody else had this issue ‘The results.rows{0].id thing isn’t working for me either @ Pepper Says: Reply June 16, 2022 at 12:11 am Thank you! I had the issue with $request.body as well and changing it to Srequest.query fixed it. Not sure about results.rows[0] thing though, that one works on my machine. Vitaliy Says:December 30, 2021 at 8:55 am Reply Hil I find the text hetween the headlines “Installation” and “PostgreSQL. command prompt” to be misleading. I’m using Windows and it is unlear to me which of those passages are releveant to my OS and whether I have to run any brew-based or commands or similar ones in npm after downloading the Windows installer (and running it, obviously, though not mentioned) and passin on to the PostgreSQL command prompt section, Clarifications would be appreciated. Simo Says’ Reply March 17, 2022 at 6:14 am Very nice, Thank you so much ® lan Says: Reply June 10, 2022 at 8:03 pm How doI “hit index.js””? How do I run this? Parmeshwar Rathod Says: Reply June 25, 2022 at 5:40 am thanks alot man such great content Robert Werner Says Reply June 30, 2022 at 12:05 pm Tania, I ama very accomplished React & C# & Python software engineer but am working on my own project now. I was all set to have a Python back-end, like is at my work but then learned about Express,js. Thank you SO MUCH for your excellent, most comprehensive article. It served as the template for building the back-end of my ever evolving application.By the way, I’ve built both front-end and back-end with TypeScript so upgraded your Javascript code to TypeScript. Feel free to contact me and I will gladly share my code with you in case you want to update this article or follow-up with another, 12 Leave a Reply Enter your comment here.