Node.js microservice architecture🤗
Tags: node, javascript, microservices
Published: 2023-01-10 10:51:01

Typical Node.js microservice architectures include the following components:

- `API Gateway`: This component acts as the entry point for all client requests. It is responsible for authenticating and routing requests to the appropriate microservice.
- `Microservices`: These are the individual services that make up the overall application. Each microservice is responsible for a specific piece of functionality and communicates with other services through API calls.
- `Load Balancer`: The load balancer is responsible for distributing incoming traffic across multiple instances of a microservice, ensuring that no single instance is overwhelmed with too many requests.
- `Service Discovery`: This component allows microservices to discover and communicate with each other. It can be implemented using a tool like Consul or Eureka.
- `Database`: Microservices typically use a separate database for storing data. This can include a variety of database types, such as SQL, NoSQL, or in-memory databases.
- `Message Broker`: A message broker is used to facilitate communication between microservices. It acts as a middleman that allows services to send and receive messages asynchronously, improving overall system scalability and reliability.
- `Monitoring and Logging`: To ensure that your microservices are running smoothly and to troubleshoot issues, it's important to set up monitoring and logging. These can include metrics collection and visualization, log aggregation and searching, and alerting.
- `Authentication & Authorization`: Microservices may use external systems to handle authentication and authorization. For example, OAuth, JWT, or OpenID Connect token-based authentication.

This is a high level diagram of a typical Node.js microservice architecture. you can imagine it as a distributed system that contains multiple individual services that communicate with each other and with clients through APIs and are deployed independently.

It can also be expanded or scaled horizontally, to handle more requests. Also, these services are loosely coupled, meaning that they can be developed, deployed, and managed independently of each other.

#### Microservice file structure:

- When it comes to organizing the file structure of a Node.js microservice, there are a few different ways you could go about it, but one common pattern is to use the following structure:
```
.
├── bin
│   └── www (or another name for the entry point of the app)
├── controllers
│   ├── index.js (or another name for the main controller file)
│   └── ... (other controller files)
├── models
│   ├── index.js (or another name for the main model file)
│   └── ... (other model files)
├── routes
│   ├── index.js (or another name for the main route file)
│   └── ... (other route files)
├── services
│   ├── index.js (or another name for the main services file)
│   └── ... (other service files)
├── utils
│   ├── index.js (or another name for the main utils file)
│   └── ... (other utils files)
├── views (if using a template engine)
│   └── ... (view templates)
├── .env (environment variable file)
├── .gitignore (file to specify files to ignore in git)
├── package.json (dependency and project information file)
├── README.md (file to describe the project)
└── app.js (or server.js, or index.js, main file to initiate the server)
```

- `bin`- This directory typically contains the entry point of the app, often called www or something similar. This is the file that starts the server.

- `controllers`- This directory contains the controller files, which handle incoming requests, call the necessary services and/or models to retrieve or update data, and then send appropriate responses back to the client.

- `models`- This directory contains the model files, which define the data structures and interact with the database to retrieve and update data.

- `routes`- This directory contains the route files, which define the different endpoints for the app and map them to the appropriate controllers.

- `services`- This directory contains the service files, which define business logic and manage the interaction between controllers and models.

- `utils`- This directory contains utility files that contain functionality that is useful across the app, such as helper functions or configuration settings.

- `views`- This directory contains the template files for the views, if you're using a template engine like handlebars or Pug

- `.env` - This file store some sensitive information like keys and secrets as well as some configs as environment variables.

- `.gitignore` - This file tells git which files and directories to ignore when committing code to a repository.

- `package.json` - This file stores the dependencies and scripts of your application.

- `README.md` - This file contains documentation that describes the purpose and usage of the app.

- `app.js, server.js or index.js` - This is the main file that initiates the server and loads the routes and other components of the app.

Note that you don't have to put all of the contents into different directories or files, especially when it's a small microservice, you could keep it simple. This is a suggested structure and it could be adjusted to better suit the specific needs.

Thanks..!!!