ExerciseTracker_MERN

A MERN app for tracking exercises.

MERN

M - MongoDB - document based opensource database
E - Express - a web app framework for Node.js
R - React - A javascript front end library to build UI
N - Node.js - A javascript run-time env that executes javascript outside a browser (eg server)

Activate virtual env
pip install nodeenv
nodeenv -p

check node is installed by node -v

Create virtual env and activate:

python -m venv <env_name>
source <env_name>/bin/activate
deactivate (to deactivate env)

Set up mongo DB atlas
Install node in virtual env
```
pip install nodeenv
nodeenv -p
```
Create base REACT app:
```
npx create-react-app <project_name>
```
Create folder for backend and navigate into that
```
cd <backend_folder>
npm init -y
```
install dependencies (within the backend folder)
```
npm install express cors mongoose dotenv
```
install nodemon (so we do not have to restart node app manually when there are any file changes)
```
npm install nodemon
(sudo npm install -g nodemon to install globally)
```
create server file (eg server.js) within <backend_folder> and enter code for server
```
To run the server:
nodemon server
```
create .env folder in backend to capture all the environment variables (add the file to .gitignore)

create database schema:

Create a folder called models under <backup_folder>
Create .js files for the models in this folder

Create Routes by creating a folder routes within backend folder
- update server.js with the routing information
- update the files in 'oroutes' folder to perform routing
Create frontend
- within public folder > update index.html
- within src folder > update index.js, app.js
- app.js is the main file that app starts
```
to run the app:
navigate to main app folder
npm start
```
- install
```
npm install bootstrap
npm install react-router-dom
```
- create folder called components inside the same directory as app.js and add all the react components in it
- Enter code in the components for each module
- install
```
  npm install react-datepicker
  npm install axios
```