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Lukas Gaucas
Lukas Gaucas

Posted on • Updated on

MERN CRUD on HEROKU #102 – simply & easy !

NOTE : This article assumes you are already into MERN stack;
beginners may subscribe and come back later then ready to deploy their MERN stack.


Consider a project structure :

├─Project-root (current working directory, cwd)
├───/server/... (React as View)
├───/client/... (Express + MongoDB as Control + Model respectively)
└───.vscode, etc. (optional)
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Steps to follow :

1) Considering the Project-root or any name of choice as our cwd we currently opened our terminal on at running the following :

cd client && npm run build
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2) Copy-paste /build(built) file from /client to /server on your GUI

3) NOTE : Currently we are in the /server : add the following code to your index.js :

const main = async () => {
// (*)
// other .use() mounts 
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'build')));
// ...
app.get('/your-get-route-to-match-axios-call-in-React', async (req, res)=>{

    try{
    /*
       Assuming you are already opened client for db. at (*) position (see above)
       const client = await MongoClient.connect(your_MongoDB_connectionURL);
       const db = client.db(your_database_name);

    */
        let feedback = await db.collection(your_collection_name).find({}).toArray();
        res.status(200).json(feedback);
    }
    catch(e){
        res.send(`<h1>404</h1>`);
    }
})
}
main()
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I also do consider you have package.json in your /server (I will exclude most important parts) :

// ...
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node ."
  },
// ...
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In case for dot (.) followed in front the node command within package.json , it does correspond to the value of "main" (entry) path ;


Last but not least I assume you have optional (not must) of Procfile in your /server directory . I suggested (more precisely – prepared) contents of package.json so Procfile would appear optional (as default) i.e. default value of web for HTTP is :

web: npm start
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4) Lastly , deploy your MERN stack via GitHub integration (or CLI if persisted [link to the guide 101]) : once deployed through Heroku dashboard , press the link to see the app rendered ...

Possible issue met :

  • if you see no error for heroku log --tail , but it says Cannot Get / , all it means : you must update environmental variables on Heroku app settings, the one(s) you added to your .env using dotenv npm package or any relevant | (HINT : those should be of your MongoDB database credentials specifically)

References :

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