Deploying Fake Back-End Server & DataBase Using JSON-SERVER, GitHub, and Heroku.

In this article, we will create and host a fake server that we can deal with it as a normal Back-End Server and use all the CRUD Operations using HTTP requests.

1.Creating the Fake Server.

You can download the final result HERE, Or follow along with me.

• Create a folder and name it fake-server.
• Open the terminal and init npm, and make the entry point server.js

npm init

• install json-server.

npm i json-server

• Add a start script.

package.json

{
  "name": "fake-server",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "fake server with fake database",
  "main": "server.js",
  "scripts": {  // <===
    "start": "node server.js" // <===
  },
  "author": "Youssef Zidan",
  "license": "ISC",
  "dependencies": {
    "json-server": "^0.16.3"
  }
}

• create .gitignore file and add node_modules. .gitignore

node_modules

• Create server.js file and paste the following

const jsonServer = require("json-server");
const server = jsonServer.create();
const router = jsonServer.router("db.json"); // <== Will be created later
const middlewares = jsonServer.defaults();
const port = process.env.PORT || 3200; // <== You can change the port

server.use(middlewares);
server.use(router);

server.listen(port);

• init git and publish your repo to GitHub

git init
git remote add origin https://github.com/<YourName>/<Repo-Name>.git
git add .
git push --set-upstream origin master

Download the final Repo from HERE

2. Creating the DataBase

• Create db.json file
• Fill in any data you like, I use Mockaroo to generate dummy data.

db.json

{
  "users": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "first_name": "Justina",
      "last_name": "Ginglell",
      "email": "[email protected]",
      "gender": "Female"
    },
    {
      "id": 2,
      "first_name": "Marion",
      "last_name": "Jenman",
      "email": "[email protected]",
      "gender": "Male"
    },
    {
      "id": 3,
      "first_name": "Alfy",
      "last_name": "Begin",
      "email": "[email protected]",
      "gender": "Female"
    },
    {
      "id": 4,
      "first_name": "Karney",
      "last_name": "Zanussii",
      "email": "[email protected]",
      "gender": "Male"
    },
    {
      "id": 5,
      "first_name": "Reid",
      "last_name": "Schapero",
      "email": "[email protected]",
      "gender": "Male"
    },
    {
      "id": 6,
      "first_name": "Dorine",
      "last_name": "Braybrookes",
      "email": "[email protected]",
      "gender": "Female"
    },
    {
      "id": 7,
      "first_name": "Sarena",
      "last_name": "Frape",
      "email": "[email protected]",
      "gender": "Female"
    },
    {
      "id": 8,
      "first_name": "Malva",
      "last_name": "Pierse",
      "email": "[email protected]",
      "gender": "Female"
    },
    {
      "id": 9,
      "first_name": "Rania",
      "last_name": "Dablin",
      "email": "[email protected]",
      "gender": "Female"
    },
    {
      "id": 10,
      "first_name": "Ingrim",
      "last_name": "Offen",
      "email": "[email protected]",
      "gender": "Male"
    }
  ]
}

• Push your work

git add .
git commit -m "creating the database"
git push

3. Creating the server

• Create account on Heroku
• Install the Heroku CLI on your computer
• Open the terminal and log in then follow the instructions

heroku login

• Create a project

heroku create fake-server

• Push your app to Heroku

git push heroku master

• Open your created app

heroku open

You will see something like this:

Now, You can access and modify resources via any HTTP method GET POST PUT PATCH DELETE OPTIONS

4. Creating a Pipeline.

A pipeline is simply a connection between your GitHub repo and your Heroku Project. So, Whenever you update your db.json for example and push your changes to a specific branch Heroku will be listening to this branch and build your app with the updated database.

• Open your dashboard on Heroku and choose your app.

• Navigate to Deploy tap and create a pipeline, Connect your GitHub with the fake-server repo

• Configure auto-deploy and choose the branch of the Pipeline

Now whenever you push the changes to the selected branch, the database will be updated and can be accessed via the same base API.