Planty API

The backend REST API for the Planty application — a plant tracking app that allows users to manage their personal plant collections. This API is built with Node.js and Express, backed by a MySQL database, and is deployed to Railway.

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Tech Stack

Package	Purpose
Express	Web framework and routing
mysql2	MySQL database driver
bcrypt	Password hashing and salting
jsonwebtoken	JWT-based authentication
dotenv	Environment variable management
cors	Cross-origin resource sharing (for Netlify frontend)
morgan	HTTP request logging
cookie-parser	Cookie parsing middleware

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Project Structure

planty-api/
├── app.js              # Express app setup, middleware, and route registration
├── db.js               # Shared MySQL connection with auto-reconnect logic
├── bin/
│   └── www             # Server entry point, reads PORT from environment
├── routes/
│   ├── users.js        # User authentication and CRUD endpoints
│   ├── plants.js       # Plant CRUD endpoints and user-plant associations
│   ├── health.js       # Health check endpoint
│   └── index.js        # Root route
└── .env                # Local environment variables (not committed to git)

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Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the project root (never commit this file):

DB_HOST=your_database_host
DB_USER=your_database_user
DB_PASSWORD=your_database_password
DB_NAME=planty
DB_PORT=3306
JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
PORT=8080

In production (Railway), these variables are set directly in the Railway dashboard. PORT is automatically provided by Railway at runtime.

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Running Locally

# Install dependencies
yarn install

# Start the server
yarn start

The server will run on http://localhost:8080 by default.

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API Endpoints

Health

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/health	Returns { status: "ok" } if the server is running

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Users — /users

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/users/	Get all users
GET	/users/:id	Get a specific user by ID
POST	/users/	Create (sign up) a new user
POST	/users/login	Log in and receive a JWT token
PUT	/users/:id	Update a user's details
DELETE	/users/:id	Delete a user by ID

Sign Up — POST /users/

{
  "name": "John Doe",
  "email": "user@example.com",
  "password": "plaintext_password"
}

Passwords are salted and hashed with bcrypt before being stored. Plain text passwords are never saved.

Login — POST /users/login

{
  "email": "user@example.com",
  "password": "plaintext_password"
}

Returns a JWT token (expires in 7 days) and the user's info (password excluded):

{
  "token": "eyJ...",
  "user": { "id": 1, "name": "John Doe", "email": "user@example.com", ... }
}

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Plants — /plants

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/plants/	Get all plants
GET	/plants/user?user_id=:id	Get all plants belonging to a specific user
GET	/plants/:id	Get a specific plant by ID
POST	/plants/	Create a new plant and link it to a user
PUT	/plants/:id	Update a plant's details
DELETE	/plants/:id	Delete a plant by ID

Create a Plant — POST /plants/

{
  "name": "Monstera",
  "species": "Monstera deliciosa",
  "watering_frequency_days": 7,
  "user_id": 1
}

Creating a plant also creates a record in users_to_plants, automatically linking the plant to the provided user.

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Authentication

Login returns a JWT token. The frontend (Planty on Netlify) should store this token and pass it as a Bearer token in the Authorization header for protected requests:

Authorization: Bearer <token>

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Deployment

• API: Deployed to Railway at https://planty-api-production.up.railway.app
• Database: MySQL instance also hosted on Railway
• Frontend: Deployed to Netlify at https://plantyv1.netlify.app

CORS is configured to allow requests from the Netlify frontend and localhost:3000 for local development.