In this tutorial, we are going to create a simple pagination program in Node JS and Mongo DB. For the sake of simplicity, we will be using the Express framework. If you prefer a video tutorial over a textual tutorial, then you can follow the video tutorial below:
Video tutorial
Pagination – Node JS, Mongo DB, Express
Mongo DB data
First, we are going to fill the data in Mongo DB. You can apply this tutorial to your own collections and documents. Or you can import the following (at the end) JSON file in your database using Mongo DB compass. You need to create a database named “pagination_nodejs_mongodb” before importing the file.
Setup the project
Create an empty new folder and enter it with the following commands from Terminal:
mkdir pagination-nodejs-mongodb
cd pagination-nodejs-mongodb
Once in the folder, you can install the required modules by running the following commands:
The express framework is used to create web applications and APIs, and we will be creating an API to fetch the data for pagination. HTTP module will be used to start the server at a specific port. Mongo DB module will be used to connect and interact with the Mongo DB database. And finally, EJS will be used to render HTML files.
Create a file named “server.js” and write the following code in it:
// initialize express framework
var express = require("express");
var app = express();
// create http server
var http = require("http").createServer(app);
// start the server
http.listen(3000, function () {
console.log("Server started at port 3000");
});
Run the following command to start the server.
nodemon server.js
This will start the server at port 3000. If you open your terminal, you will see the above message.
Pagination
Now you need to include the Mongo DB module, write the following lines before line 8.
// include mongo DB module
var mongodb = require("mongodb");
var mongoClient = mongodb.MongoClient;
var ObjectId = mongodb.ObjectId;
Then you can connect with the Mongo DB server. You need to write the following lines inside http.listen function callback (2nd parameter):
// connect with mongo DB server and database
mongoClient.connect("mongodb://localhost:27017", {
useUnifiedTopology: true
}, function (error, client) {
var database = client.db("pagination_nodejs_mongodb");
console.log("Database connected.");
});
If you check your terminal now, you will see a second message that your database has been connected. Now we need to create a GET route which when accessed will display 2 users per page from the users collection data. So paste the following lines after the database is connected:
// create a GET HTTP route
app.get("/", async function (request, result) {
// number of records you want to show per page
const perPage = 2
// total number of records from database
const total = await database.collection("users").countDocuments()
// Calculating number of pagination links required
const pages = Math.ceil(total / perPage)
// get current page number
const pageNumber = parseInt(request.query.page || 1)
// get records to skip
const startFrom = (pageNumber - 1) * perPage
// get data from mongo DB using pagination
var users = await database.collection("users").find({})
.sort({ "id": -1 })
.skip(startFrom)
.limit(perPage)
.toArray();
// render an HTML page with number of pages, and users data
result.render("index", {
"pages": pages,
"users": users
});
});
Comments have been added with each line for an explanation. To display the HTML file, we need to tell the Express framework that we will be using the EJS engine. Write the following line before the http.listen function:
// set the view engine as EJS for displaying HTML files
app.set("view engine", "ejs");
Create a folder named “views” at the root of your project. Inside the views folder, create a file named “index.ejs”. Following will be the content of “index.ejs” file:
<table>
<tr>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Age</th>
</tr>
<tbody>
<% for (var a = 0; a < users.length; a++) { %>
<tr>
<td><%= users[a].name %></td>
<td><%= users[a].age %></td>
</tr>
<% } %>
</tbody>
</table>
<ul class="pagination">
<% for (var a = 1; a <= pages; a++) { %>
<li>
<a href="?page=<%= a; %>">
<%= a; %>
</a>
</li>
<% } %>
</ul>
You can run the project from browser by accessing the URL: http://localhost:3000/ and you will see 2 pages on first page along with pagination links at the bottom. On clicking the other page link, you will see further records.
In this article, we are going to introduce you to a project “File transfer web app” we created in Node JS and Mongo DB. It is a file transferring web app that allows you to send files to your colleagues, friends, clients, etc.
Features
Free
Premium
Login and registration
Yes
Yes
Upload files
Yes
Yes
Download files
Yes
Yes
Delete files
Yes
Yes
Share Files publicly via link
Yes
Yes
Email verification
No
Yes
Reset password
No
Yes
Create folders
No
Yes
Private file sharing
No
Yes
Rename files & folders
No
Yes
Move files
No
Yes
Search files
No
Yes
Stripe and PayPal
No
Yes
Blog integration
No
Yes
Image compression
No
Yes
Demo
1. Upload files
You can upload any type of file (image, e-book, executable, iso), the system will NOT prevent you from uploading any certain type of file. Uploaded files are in original quality (no compression is done), and they can be deleted at any time by the uploader.
2. Create folders
To organize your files, you can create folders and upload files to that folder. For example, you can create a folder named “College data” and in that folder create further sub-folders “Assignments”, “Thesis”, “Projects” and upload relevant files in each folder separately. You can go for an infinite level of sub-folders, this project can handle that.
3. Shareable link (public)
You can share files via a publicly shareable link. Anyone with the link can access your file with or without creating an account. You can also remove the shareable links so they won’t be accessible to the public anymore. There is no expiry time for the shareable link, it will remain accessible as long as it is deleted by the owner.
4. Share by E-mail (private)
You can share files via E-mail address if the receiver already has an account in the system. To share files privately, the receiver must have a registered and verified account. Files shared via E-mail will not be accessible by any other person, even if someone tries to get them from the server directory.
5. Move files & folders
You can move files from one folder to another with all sub-folders in it. When a file is moved to a new location, all publicly shareable links will lose access to that file. This is another way of removing access to shared links.
6. Rename files & folders
The name of the file is automatically set when the file is uploaded, but you can always rename the file. There is no restriction on setting the name of the file, you can even type special characters (!@#$%^&*) in it.
7. Search
You can search all files and folders uploaded by you or shared by others by their name with you. This allows you to quickly find the files uploaded by you or shared with you by your friends or colleagues.
8. Download counts
Files shared via a public link can be downloaded by anyone if he/she has the link. They do not need to register or log in to an account to download that file. While you are logged in can see the number of times that file is downloaded.
9. Recycle bin or trash can
When you delete a file, it automatically goes into the recycle bin or trash can. From where you can restore a file if you have deleted it by mistake or you can delete it permanently. Trashed files will not take your space. But when you try to restore it, you must have enough space in your account.
10. Backup
Your users will be able to take a backup of all of their files with a single click.
11. Business model
You can also make money with this project. You can allow users to upload files up to some GBs for free. After that, you can ask them to pay to upload more data. For example, you can allow users to upload up to 1 GB of files, and put the price of $1 per extra GB. I have added the Stripe and PayPal payment methods that allow you to quickly get money without integrating these payment methods for your convenience.
You just have to change the API keys for Stripe and PayPal and sit back and wait for payments. When someone makes a payment, it will automatically be added to your account and he will automatically get more data to upload. You can allocate a fixed amount from that income to increase your hosting’s hard drives. So your investment in this project will be just $10, which is the price of this project. Future investments will be received from your users.
12. Blog integration
Initially, this project was just a file transfer web app. But since you are not restricted to add more features. Now you can share the latest news and articles on your website. Simply go to the admin panel and add blog posts and it will automatically start seeing them on the user side. You can also edit or remove posts from your blog anytime you want.
13. Image compression
Now, you can compress your images to reduce their size without losing the quality. When the size is reduced, you will automatically be able to upload more images because you will be using less storage. A test run indicates that an image of 3.2 MB can be reduced to just 890 KB without having to lose too much quality. Check out our tutorial on image compression in Node JS.
14. Security
Your files will not be accessible by any person other than you or the people you have shared with. Even if someone finds the directory where you have stored all your files, he will still be unable to list or view the files.
15. Data volume
There is no limit on the volume of data uploaded in this system. You can upload as much larger files as your server allows, and you can upload as many files as needed. You can also create infinite levels of folders and sub-folders.
Free version:
This file transfer web app project comes in a freemium model. This means you can download the free version with basic functionality. To get the advanced features, you can buy it’s premium version.
A questionnaire web app is a website that allows users to answer questions based on the best of their knowledge in a limited time. The user who answered the most questions right comes 1st, then 2nd, and 3rd. Users also have the capability to ban another user. The user having the highest negative votes will be banned from that contest and will appear in the next contest.
Demo:
We offer 2 versions of this project. One is free and has fewer functions, and one is pro and has all the functions.
The social networking site is a project developed in Node JS, and Mongo DB. It has all the functionality that you need to build a social network for your local community.
A social networking service is an online platform that people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. Social networking services vary in format and the number of features.
The social networking site is a project developed in Node JS and Mongo DB. It has all the functionality that you need to build a social network for your local community. Node JS is becoming a rising programming language for backend servers, it is fast and easy to learn. If you know Javascript, you already know Node JS.
On the other hand, Mongo DB is quickly becoming a standard for creating schema-less applications where the structure of your database is not important. It is widely being used in large systems to scale easily.
This project has a basic version that allows you to download the code for free and set it up in your local system. In the source files, a file named “How to install.txt” will guide you on how you can set up the project in your system. But if you are still facing a problem, you can always contact me.
Login and registration
In the basic version, you will avail of the authentication functionality that includes login and registration of the user. Passwords are encrypted before being stored in Mongo DB. The project uses JSON Web Token (JWT) for storing logged-in user’s information. JWT is used to transmit information securely between client and server. After logging in, the user will be able to update his profile picture and cover photo. Uploaded files are stored in the Node JS server using the “fs” module which stands for File System and the path of the uploaded file is stored in Mongo DB.
Post with caption, image, and video
Now come to the most important part of any social networking site, POSTS. What makes a social network great is the number of posts, so you should allow users to create posts, update their status, what they are doing, etc. The basic version can create posts using text, images, or video. Posts created by the user will only be viewed by his friends. When the post is created, the user will like the post, comment on a post, and reply to any comment. Posts can also be shared on your timeline, so you can pick any post you like and hit the “share” button, and will be displayed on your timeline as well.
When someone likes your post, comments on your post, or replies to your comment, a notification will be received on the left side of your home page. You can view a list of all notifications received and notification will be marked as read once opened.
Search
You can search people by their name, username, or email address. You can also search groups and pages as well by their name. This will create 3 tabs on the search page, first for users, second for pages, and third for groups.
Email verification
In terms of authentication, you will be able to verify the user by his email address during registration. When someone registers, an email will be sent to him with an instruction to verify their email address. Users who have not verified their emails will not be able to log in. This will help you know that the users you have on your site are actual users, not robots.
Reset password
This project also comes with the functionality to reset the password. This gives users the ability to reset their passwords if they have forgotten. When someone types his email to reset the password, the system will check if the email exists then it will send an email with a link to reset the password. When that link is opened it will confirm that it is the valid link and show the field to enter a new password.
Create friends
You can create friends by searching for people by their name, and then send them a friend request. The other person will be able to respond to that request, he can either decline or accept the request. Once accepted, you both will be able to view each other’s posts in your timeline.
Create pages
You can create pages by entering the page name, cover photo, and a short description of the page. Then you will be able to add posts to that page as well. When someone searches for that page, he will be able to view all the posts on that page. Users will be able to like the page, and once liked they will be able to view the page’s posts in their timeline as well.
Create groups
This pro version also allows you to create groups by entering the group’s name, cover photo, and a short description of the group. Once the group is created, people will be able to see it in their search results, they will send a request to join the group. Only you (admin) will be able to decline or accept the group request. Once accepted, the user will become a member of that group. Members are allowed to add posts in that group and all the other members will be able to view it in their timeline.
Realtime chat
One of the most demanding functions of a social network is chat. You make friends chat with them, in this version you will be able to have a real-time secure chat between 2 friends. We have used Sockets for real-time communication, all the messages are also being stored in Mongo DB.
People who viewed your profile
It also has a functionality where you can see a list of all people you have viewed your profile. When someone visits someone’s profile, we are storing his record in Mongo DB along with the current date and time. Then the other person will see a list of people who viewed his profile along with the time that person visited your profile recently.
Since you are creating posts, you must be able to edit and delete posts. You can edit your own created posts and you can also delete your created posts as well. Once the post is updated, it will be updated on all social networks. Although it is Mongo DB (non-relational) still manages to update the post’s document in all places. The same goes for delete, once the post is deleted, it will be deleted all over the social network.
It also has a functionality that we call “load more”. It allows you to load more posts without having to reload the page. When the social network is opened, the first 30 posts will be fetched and displayed in the browser. When the user scrolls to the bottom, a button is displayed at the bottom of the page which when clicked will fetch the next 30 posts. You can change the number of posts as you wish.
You can send images and videos in a chat with your friends. All attachments sent are being stored in the Node JS file system. You can also preview the files before sending them. Images and videos are not being compressed, so you can send high-quality images without having to worry that the system will reduce the quality of images, it will not reduce the quality of images or videos.
Share posts
You will be able to share posts in your timeline, pages you have created, and the groups you have joined.
You will be able to view a list of all people you have liked and shared your post. This is helpful for a social network where you want to know who has liked and shared your post.
This project has 15 major features that are essential for this social network:
Message encryption.
Customer support.
Ban & delete the user.
Filter bad or abusive words.
Adult image validation.
Ban the post.
24-hour stories
Audio files
Events
YouTube links
Advertisement (boost post)
Emoji comments
Like, dislike, and comments on stories
People nearby
Group chat
Let’s view each in detail.
1) Message encryption on chat
First, is the encryption for chat messages. When you are having a chat with your friend, instead of saving the messages in plain text, we have added the functionality to encode the message during sending and decoding the message during receiving. Thus, making the chat encrypted. The below screenshot shows how messages will be stored in the database. So only the receiver can see the message correctly.
You can check our tutorial on encryption and decryption from here.
2) Customer support
The second is customer support. If users are having a problem with any function or want to ask something, they can contact your social network’s customer support. It can be accessed from the left sidebar. Users can create a new ticket, a ticket is a problem that the user is facing. They can enter their problem, they can also attach an image or video as well to demonstrate the problem.
Created tickets will be displayed on the admin panel in a list. Admin can open any ticket from the list to respond to the corresponding user. Both admin and users can add a comment using the WYSIWYG editor, which helps them to apply styles to their comments. Users and admin can view all the comments from the other person.
The user will receive a notification that a new comment has been added to his ticket and he can respond to admin. Admin can also close the ticket when the issue is resolved. Once the ticket is closed, no-one will be able to add comments on that ticket. The user can also delete the ticket if he wants.
3) Ban & delete user
The third is banning and deleting the user. Banning means that the admin can ban any user he wants, the user’s data will remains to be stored in the database, but the user will not be able to access the system. Once banned, the user will automatically be logged out and when he tries to log in, he will be displayed an error message that he is banned. Admin can unban the user and the user will be able to login now. Admin can also delete the user from the system.
4) Filter bad/abusive words
The fourth is filtering bad words. When the user adds a new post, its content will be checked, and made sure that there are no abusive words in it. If there is any such word, then an error will be displayed and the post will not be saved. The same validation is applied when the post is edited.
5) Adult image validation
The fifth is adult image validation. When the user adds a new post and attaches an image to it, that image is checked and made sure that it must not contain any adult content. If it is an adult image, an error will be displayed and the post will not be saved. Normal images will be uploaded as they were before. The same validation is applied when the post is edited. But if you still do not like any post’s image, you can remove it from the admin panel and it will be removed from the system.
6) Ban post
The sixth is banning the post. When a user posts anything and you find it offensive, instead of deleting it, you can ban the post. So the post will not be removed from the system but it will not be visible to other users. During banning the post, you have to enter the reason to ban. This reason will be visible to the user. The user will get a notification that his post has been banned and he will also see the reason why it is banned. Admin can unban the post and the post will now be visible for everyone.
7) 24 hour stories
You will be able to upload stories that will remain for 24 hours. The stories will be displayed to you and your friends only. After 24 hours, the stories will automatically get deleted using a cron job. You can also delete the story before 24 hours as well. Users will also be able to view all the friends who have seen his story.
8) Audio files
You can upload audio files with the post. You will see the waves of the audio file as well. We are using a library called “wavesurfer” for this.
9) Events
Events are used to inform people about upcoming occasions or festivals. You can create your own events. Or you can mark other’s events if you are going to them.
10) YouTube links
To embed a YouTube video in your post, you simply need to copy the YouTube video URL and paste it into the YouTube pop-up. YouTube videos will be embedded in the post.
11) Advertisement (boost post)
Users can boost their posts by paying a small fee ($1 per day). Boosted posts will be labeled as “Sponsored”. The payment method will be Stripe, so users can pay with their debit or credit card. The boosted post will be displayed on the newsfeed, inbox, groups, and pages.
12) Emoji comments
You can add emojis and smileys while posting a comment. They will be saved in Mongo DB and displayed as emojis.
13) Like, dislike, and comments on stories
You can like, dislike, and add comments to a story shared by your friends. Users can see how many likes and comments they have received on their stories.
14) People nearby
A separate page where you can see a list of all people living in your current city. You can send them a friend request and make your friend circle a little bit bigger.
15) Group chat
You can create groups and each group will have its own QR code. Anyone can scan the QR code and join the group and start chatting.
So these are the 15 major functions we added to the social network project. It is developed in Node JS and Mongo DB.
User can create an account using his first name, last name, email and password. Passwords can encrypted so even if your database gets hacked, user’s passwords will not be revealed.
Upload Video
User can upload videos. To upload, he needs to provide a thumbnail of the video as well. Thumbnail will be displayed on home screen, history and search pages. Video will only be played from video detail page. User also needs to enter video title, description, tags, categories and playlist (if any). After video is uploaded, he will be redirected to video edit page where he can edit all these details any time he wants.
I am using a Node JS package called “get-video-duration” to automatically get the duration of video and save it in database. This helps in displaying the duration of video so user will know how long the video is.
My Videos
User can see all his uploaded videos and from there he can edit or delete videos as well.
My Channel
A page from where user can set his profile image, his cover image, can see all his uploaded videos and also he can manage playlists from this page. User can add a playlist and it will be displayed on a list. From the list, he can delete any playlist if he no longer needs. If there is any video in that playlist, then user will see the thumbnail of that video. User will also see the number of videos he has in each playlist.
Home Page
On home page, you will see all uploaded videos by all users in descending order. So you will always see the latest videos on top. Each video in list will have title, duration, categories, the number of views it got and the date when it was uploaded.
Video Detail Page
On video detail page, you can the complete detail of that video. Based on cookies, video view is incremented by 1 when you visit that page. On this page, you will see the complete description of that video and also the user name and profile image who uploaded that video. You can subscribe to that channel if you want, and if you have already subscribed then you can remove that channel from your subscription as well. But you cannot subscribe your own channel.
You can like or dislike a video and you will see the counter incremented or decremented by 1. You can post a comment on a video. When you post a comment, a notification will be sent to the video creator so he knows that a new comment has been posted. Other users can reply to your comment and you will get a notification when someone replied to your comment.
On right side of this page, you will see a section at the top where you can place your Google Adsense code if you want. It will help you monetize your website. Below that, you will see a list of all videos under that playlist.
Search
If you click on any category or tag on video detail page, you will be redirected to a new page where all videos in that category or tag will be displayed. This will help you find the videos of your interest. It’s layout is similar to the one you see on home page.
Watch History
Another page that you can access from left sidebar is “History”. Here you can see a list of all videos that you have played. It will also show you the duration of each video you have viewed. So, for example, if a video is 10 minutes long and you watched 3 minutes 45 seconds of it, then you will see a progress bar that tells you that you your watched duration on this video is 3:45.
This will help you find the video in case you saw a video and now you want to see it again. You can delete the videos from watch history as well.
My Subscriptions
When you subscribe a channel, you will see the number gets incremented. But there should be a page where you can see all the channels you have subscribed and also an option to delete any channel from your subscription. You can see that page from left sidebar on each page.
Settings
User can update his first and last name, and he can also change his password as well if he wants.
Screenshots:
Source code:
Video-streaming-web-app-in-Node-JS-and-Mongo-DB
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Check out our single-page chat application developed in Vue JS, Node JS, and Mongo DB.
Create, Read, Update, Delete (CRUD) posts from admin panel
3 themes (Bootstrap, Clean Blog and Materialize CSS)
Comments and replies
Realtime post add, update and delete
Realtime comments and replies
File manager
Post views counter
File manager
File Manager allows you to manage all your uploaded files in one directory. You can simply go to the admin panel and then “File Manager” from the left sidebar. You can upload new files and you can delete existing files as well. On adding or updating a post, you can simply select the already uploaded file and it will be used in the blog post as featured image.
Views counter
Now you can check how many views your post has got. When someone opens your post, the view counter will be incremented and it can be seen on the post’s detail page.
We are constantly adding more features in this blog website with admin panel developed in Node JS and Mongo DB. Check out our single page chat application developed in Vue JS, Node JS and Mongo DB.
You can download MongoDB from their official site: https://www.mongodb.com/download-center and you need to select “Community server” if you are using it for localhost or small websites. For a very large company, I would recommend “Enterprise server”. Once downloaded, extract the zip file and you will see a folder named “mongodb”. Inside this folder, you will have another folder named “bin”.
Now open your terminal in that folder, you can use the following command:
cd "path to bin folder of mongodb"
Once you are inside the folder, you can start the MongoDB server using following command:
./mongod
If that didn’t work, try simple:
mongod
mongodb start the server
Connect with MongoDB
Once your MongoDB server is started, you can open the database by opening a new command terminal. You can either open a new terminal window (window + n) or new tab (window + t).
window = cmd in Mac OS
And in terminal window or tab, run the following command (make sure the MongoDB server is running from previous command):
./mongo
If that didn’t work, try simple:
mongo
connect database – MongoDB tutorials
Now you are in your database server. Here you can enter any MongoDB command to perform specific actions. By default, MongoDB server creates some databases for administrators and configurations. You can view all databases in the MongoDB server by running the following command:
show dbs
mongodb view all databases
To create a database, you just need to use the “use” command. Use command will create a database if not exists, and open the database if already exists. For example, to create a database for users, run the following command:
use users
In all the tutorials of this MongoDB series, we will be using “users” collection.
Now if you run the command “show dbs“, you will NOT see your “users” database. This is because it will be displayed only when there is at-least one document in it.
We will know more about documents and collections and how to add them in the next tutorial.
