Overview

Building an e-Commerce Web Application using the following technologies:

e-Commerce Web App - Development Plan (12 Episodes)

Episode Title Description Tech Focus
1 Project Initialization & Setup Scaffold project using Express Generator, set up basic structure and CORS. Express JS, Express Generator, CORS
2 Product Model & MongoDB Setup Define Product schema, connect MongoDB, and build REST APIs for products. Mongoose, REST API
3 User Auth: Register, Login & JWT Create user auth with hashed passwords, JWT, cookies, and middleware. JWT, Cookies, Bcrypt
4 Shopping Cart System Build user cart with product population, add/remove functionality. Mongoose Population, Auth
5 Order Model & Checkout Flow Checkout process, order schema, update product stock, list user orders. Mongoose, REST API
6 Admin Panel & Authorization Role-based access, product and order management by admin users. Role-Based Auth, Middleware
7 Views with Handlebars Build UI with server-side rendering using Handlebars templates. Handlebars, Express
8 OAuth Integration (Google Login) Login with Google using Passport, sync with user auth system. OAuth 2.0, Passport.js
9 Secure Auth with JWT + Cookies Harden auth security, enable HTTP-only cookies, add CSRF protection. Secure Cookies, JWT
10 BaaS Integration (e.g., Firebase) Use Firebase/Supabase for image uploads, analytics, or hosting. Firebase/Supabase
11 Migration to NestJS Refactor app to NestJS for modular structure, scalability, maintainability. NestJS, Dependency Injection
12 Deployment & Final Polish Deploy app, configure env variables, optimize performance & security. Deployment, Security, Hosting

Technologies & Libraries Used

Category Technology / Library Description
Server Framework Express.js Lightweight web framework for Node.js
  Express Generator CLI tool to scaffold Express projects
  NestJS Modular, scalable Node.js framework for enterprise apps
Database MongoDB NoSQL document database
  Mongoose ODM for MongoDB in Node.js
  Mongoose Population Method to auto-populate related documents (e.g., cart products)
Authentication JWT (jsonwebtoken) JSON Web Token for user sessions
  cookie-parser Parse and manage cookies on the server
  bcrypt Password hashing for secure storage
  passport.js Middleware for OAuth strategies
  passport-google-oauth20 Google OAuth 2.0 strategy for Passport
Frontend (SSR) Handlebars (hbs) Templating engine for Express views
API Architecture REST API Standard API design pattern using HTTP verbs
Security & Utility CORS Enable Cross-Origin Resource Sharing
  helmet Secure Express apps by setting HTTP headers
  csurf CSRF protection middleware
File & Cloud Firebase / Supabase BaaS for file storage, authentication, analytics
Deployment Render / Heroku / Vercel Cloud platforms to deploy backend
  dotenv Load environment variables from .env file
  PM2 (optional) Process manager for Node.js in production
Testing & Debugging Postman API testing tool
  nodemon Live-reloading server for development