Test Driven Development With Node, Postgres, and Knex (Red/Green/Refactor)

The post outlines a test-first workflow for building a RESTful API with Node, Express, Knex, and PostgreSQL. It covers project setup, database configuration, migrations, seed files, and Mocha/Chai test setup before moving into route implementation.

Reading notes

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• Sets up separate development and test databases with Knex configuration for different environments.
• Uses migrations to create a shows table with fields for name, channel, genre, rating, and explicit content.
• Uses seed files to populate development and test databases with the same initial rows.
• Configures Mocha, Chai, and Chai HTTP for route testing, and prefixes routes with /api/v1.
• Shows the red/green/refactor cycle by writing a failing test, then adding a query and route until it passes.
• Builds GET all shows, GET one show, POST, PUT, and DELETE routes for the shows resource.
• Uses beforeEach and afterEach to roll back migrations and reseed the database so tests stay isolated.
• Prevents updating the id field and adds a test for that case.
• Notes that error handling is still incomplete for missing fields and deleting absent rows.