Setup your own Mock RESTful API fast with JSON Server

By Helitha Rupasinghe

In this article, we'll use JSON Server, a Node Module that enables you to quickly develop an example REST API in 30 seconds.

Refer to this website here to learn how to install Node.JS if you haven't already.

Getting started

Start our new project by creating it in visual studio code with the file structure inside of your backend folder.

Mock API
 |- db.json
 |- server.js
 |- package.json
 |- package-lock.json
 |- node_modules

You can now add the following command below to install json-server with output on my machine.

// Install the JSON Server
npm install json-server

We must set the database as the router, construct the server, utilise the default middlewares for server.js port, and then listen. Running the start script will restore our previous functionality, but we now have much more flexibility.

const jsonServer = require('json-server');
const server = jsonServer.create();
const router = jsonServer.router('db.json');
const middlewares = jsonServer.defaults();
const port = process.env.PORT || 3000;

// Set default middlewares + default router
server.use(middlewares);
server.use(router);

// listen to port
server.listen(port, () => {
    console.log(`JSON Server is running on ${port}`)
});

Create a database with some data for your `db.json` file.

{
    "quotes":[
        { "quote": "Kindness is the only service that will stand the storm of life and not wash out.", "author": "Abraham Lincoln"},
        { "quote": "Long Before being nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy", "author": "Barack Obama"},
        { "quote": "99% of failures come from people who make excuses.", "author": "George Washington"},
        { "quote": "Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.", "author": "Thomas Jefferson"},
        { "quote": "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.", "author": "John Quincy Adams"},
        { "quote": "The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.", "author": "James Madison"},
        { "quote": "If tyranny and oppression come to this land it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.", "author": "James Madison"},
        { "quote": "A little flattery will support a man through great fatigue", "author": "James Monroe"},
        { "quote": "Try and fail, but don’t fail to try.", "author": "John Quincy Adams"},
        { "quote": "Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.", "author": "Andrew Jackson "},
        { "quote": "It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn't.", "author": "Martin Van Buren"},
        { "quote": "There is nothing more corrupting, nothing more destructive of the noblest and finest feelings of our nature, than the exercise of unlimited power.", "author": "William Henry Harrison"},
        { "quote": "It is not strange… to mistake change for progress", "author": "Millard Fillmore"},
        { "quote": "You don’t know what you can miss before you try.", "author": "Franklin Pierce"},
        { "quote": "Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today.", "author": "Abraham Lincoln"},
        { "quote": "I mean to make myself a man, and if I succeed in that, I shall succeed in everything else.", "author": "James Garfield"},
        { "quote": "Great lives never go out; they go on.", "author": "Benjamin Harrison"},
        { "quote": "It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.", "author": "Theodore Roosevelt"},
        { "quote": "Be patient and calm; no one can catch a fish with anger.", "author": "Herbert Hoover"},
        { "quote": "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.", "author": "Franklin D. Roosevelt"},
        { "quote": "The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.", "author": "Dwight D. Eisenhower"},
        { "quote": "It's amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.", "author": "Harry S. Truman"},
        { "quote": "Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.", "author": "John F. Kennedy"},
        { "quote": "Testing oneself is best when done alone.", "author": "Jimmy Carter"},
        { "quote": "Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.", "author": "John F. Kennedy"},
        { "quote": "Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, leave the rest to God.", "author": "Ronald Reagan"},
        { "quote": "I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them.", "author": "George H.W. Bush"},
        { "quote": "We all do better when we work together. Our differences do matter, but our common humanity matters more.", "author": "Bill Clinton"},
        { "quote": "A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it.", "author": "George W. Bush"},
        { "quote": "If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress", "author": "Barack Obama"},
        { "quote": "When somebody challenges you, fight back. Be brutal, be tough.", "author": "Donald J Trump"},
        { "quote": "If I don't run for president, we'll all be OK.", "author": "Joe Biden"},
        { "quote": "Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time.", "author": "Barack Obama"}
    ]
}

Run JSON Server

Open JSON Server, then launch your localhost database.

npx json-server --watch db.json

Requests can now be sent to `http://localhost:3000/quotes` and will return :

Heroku Deployment | 3 Step Deployment

1. Create an account on heroku.
2. Install the Heroku CLI on your computer
3. Connect the Heroku CLI to your account by writing the following command in your terminal and follow the instructions on the command line:

heroku login

Then start a remote Heroku project, which is similar to starting a GitHub git repository. With a random name, a project will be created on Heroku as a result. You must provide your own name, such as "Heroku create project-name," if you want to name your programme.

heroku create my-cool-project

Push your app to Heroku:

git push heroku master

Visit your newly created app by opening it via heroku.

heroku open

For debugging if something went wrong:

heroku logs --tail

Check It Out! 🔥

Conclusion

Thank you for reading, and let's connect!

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