Setting up Backend project

Lesson 1: Setting Up Your Equity Project

Welcome to the first lesson in the development section of our equity project course! Throughout these sessions, we'll set up two crucial parts of our equity project: the backend and the frontend. We'll adhere to a standard development cycle process and leverage GitHub Copilot to assist us whenever possible.

Key Points:

  • Course Objective: Showcase GitHub Copilot capabilities.
  • Focus: Simplified version of a real equity management project.

  • Technology Stack:

    • Backend: Node.js, Express.js, MongoDB with Mongoose, Docker.
    • Frontend: React.js.

Project Setup

Backend

We'll start by setting up the backend using Node.js and its ecosystem. We'll use NPM as our package manager, Express.js to define REST APIs and routers, and MongoDB (via Mongoose) to manage our data storage within Docker.

  1. Initial Setup and Package Management:

    • Create an NPM project.
    • Generate a package.json file.
    • Use GitHub Copilot to assist with dependencies.

Frontend

The frontend of the project will primarily use React.js, enabling a dynamic and responsive user interface.

Starting with Visual Studio Code (VS Code)

In this section, we'll open our project in VS Code and go step-by-step through the project creation process, utilizing GitHub Copilot to assist us.

Key Setup Steps:

  1. Project Creation with NPM:

    • Run the necessary commands in the terminal to initialize your project.
    • Note that running commands via GitHub Copilot is not yet possible, so a basic understanding of the tools and ecosystem is necessary.

  2. Installing Dependencies Using GitHub Copilot:

    • Open your package.json file.
    • Use the key combination (Cmd + E on Mac) to invoke GitHub Copilot suggestions.
    • For example, you might see something like this:
    • Accept and install the suggested dependencies by running npm install.

Moving Forward

With our initial setup in place and dependencies installed, we're ready to delve deeper into building out the backend and frontend components of our equity project. Stay tuned for the subsequent lessons where we'll continue to explore and leverage GitHub Copilot's capabilities to streamline our development process.

Happy coding!