Contact-Management-API (Node.js, Express, MongoDB, JWT)

A secure RESTful API for managing personal contacts with user authentication, built using Node.js, Express, MongoDB (Mongoose), and JWT. It supports user registration/login and full CRUD for contacts, with ownership-based authorization to ensure each user can access only their own data.

Features :

-> User authentication with JWT (login, protected routes)

-> Secure password hashing with bcrypt

Contacts CRUD:

-> Create, read (list and by id), update, delete

-> Scoped to the authenticated user via user_id

-> Centralized error handling

-> Clean route separation and middleware-driven auth

Tech Stack

-> Runtime: Node.js, Express

-> Database: MongoDB with Mongoose

-> Auth: JSON Web Tokens (JWT), bcrypt

-> Utilities: express-async-handler, dotenvFeatures

-> User authentication with JWT (login, protected routes)

-> Secure password hashing with bcrypt

Project Structure

/config

-> dbConnection.js — MongoDB connection

/controllers

-> userController.js — register, login, current user

-> contactController.js — contacts CRUD with ownership checks

/middlewares

-> verifyTokenHandler.js — JWT validation, attaches req.user

-> errorHandler.js — centralized error formatter

/models

-> user-model.js — User schema (username, email, password)

-> contact-model.js — Contact schema (user_id, name, email, contact)

/routes

-> userRoute.js — /api/users

-> contactRoute.js — /api/contacts (protected)

index.js — App entrypoint, middleware and routes wiring

Getting Started

Prerequisites

-> Node.js >= 16

-> MongoDB instance (local or cloud)

-> npm or yarn

Installation

1. Clone the repository

-> git clone your-repo-url

-> cd repo-name

2. Install dependencies

-> npm init

3. Configure environment variables

-> Create a .env file in the project root:

-> PORT=3000

-> MONGO_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/contacts_db

-> ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET=your-very-strong-secret