---
title: Blog API From Scratch
label: Blog API
order: 20
---

In this guide, we will be creating a Blog API from scratch.

Prerequisites:

- Node
- npm or yarn
- MongoDB server

## Initial Setup

Let's get started by creating a project in a blank directory

```sh
yarn init -y
```

We then will install Payload and Express

```sh
yarn add payload express
```

### Server

Create a file named `server.js` in the root folder with the following contents

```js
const express = require('express');
const app = express();

app.listen(3000, async () => {
	console.log('Express is now listening for incoming connections on port 3000.');
});
```

This is a basic Express application. Now let's pull in Payload and fill in the `init` parameters. `secret` and `mongoURL` can be changed as needed.

```js
const express = require('express');
const payload = require('payload'); // highlight-line

const app = express();

// highlight-start
payload.init({
  secret: 'SECRET_KEY',
  mongoURL: 'mongodb://localhost/payload-blog',
  express: app,
})
// highlight-end

app.listen(3000, async () => {
	console.log('Express is now listening for incoming connections on port 3000.');
});
```

### Payload Configuration

Next, let's get some basics put into our `payload.config.js` file

```js
module.exports = {
  serverURL: 'http://localhost:3000',
  collections: [],
}
```

#### Collections

We'll need a few different collections for our blog:

- Posts
- Categories
- Tags

The Posts will have the ability to have a single category and multiple tags

Let's create a `collections` directory and create a `.js` file for each

```js:title=Posts.js
module.exports = {
  slug: 'posts',
  labels: {
    singular: 'Post',
    plural: 'Posts',
  },
  admin: {
    useAsTitle: 'title',
  },
  fields: [
    {
      name: 'title',
      label: 'Title',
      type: 'text'
    },
    {
      name: 'content',
      label: 'Content',
      type: 'textarea',
    },
    {
      name: 'category',
      label: 'Category',
      type: 'relationship',
      relationTo: 'categories', // Categories Slug // highlight-line
    },
    {
      name: 'tags',
      label: 'Tags',
      type: 'relationship',
      relationTo: 'tags', // Tags Slug // highlight-line
      hasMany: true, // Allow multiple tags per post
    },
  ]
};
```

```js:title=Categories.js
module.exports = {
  slug: 'categories',
  labels: {
    singular: 'Category',
    plural: 'Categories',
  },
  admin: {
    useAsTitle: 'name',
  },
  fields: [
    {
      name: 'name',
      label: 'Name',
      type: 'text',
    },
  ],
};
```

```js:title=Tags.js
module.exports = {
  slug: 'tags',
  labels: {
    singular: 'Tag',
    plural: 'Tags',
  },
  admin: {
    useAsTitle: 'name',
  },
  fields: [
    {
      name: 'name',
      label: 'Name',
      type: 'text',
    },
  ],
};
```

Once these are created, we can pull them into the `collections` array in our `payload.config.js`

```js:title=payload.config.js
const Admins = require('./collections/Admins');
// highlight-start
const Posts = require('./collections/Posts');
const Categories = require('./collections/Categories');
const Tags = require('./collections/Tags');
// highlight-end

module.exports = {
  serverURL: 'http://localhost:3000',
  admin: {
    user: 'admins',
  },
  collections: [
    Admins,
    // highlight-start
    Posts,
    Categories,
    Tags
    // highlight-end
  ],
}
```

### Create Content

**TODO: Should a guide like this use the Admin interface or `curl`?**

Navigate to the admin interface at `http://localhost:3000/admin` and create your first user.

Then create some Categories, Tags, and a Post.

Let's use `curl` to quickly create some data. The following commands will create 2 tags and 1 category.

```sh
curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST -d '{"name": "JavaScript"}' http://localhost:3000/api/tags
curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST -d '{"name": "TypeScript"}' http://localhost:3000/api/tags
curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST -d '{"name": "Code"}' http://localhost:3000/api/categories
```

We'll then make a request to create a Post, this will inclue a relationship to the category and tags created previously.

TODO: Somehow retrieve tag and category IDs then include them in a request to create a Post

Once complete, navigate to `http://localhost:3000/api/posts`, and you should see something similar to the following:

```js
{
  "docs": [
    {
      "tags": [
        {
          "name": "TypeScript",
          "createdAt": "2020-11-13T11:48:05.993Z",
          "updatedAt": "2020-11-13T11:48:05.993Z",
          "id": "5fae72758315da656fb3a8f0"
        },
        {
          "name": "JavaScript",
          "createdAt": "2020-11-13T11:48:00.064Z",
          "updatedAt": "2020-11-13T11:48:00.064Z",
          "id": "5fae72708315da656fb3a8ef"
        }
      ],
      "title": "My Title",
      "content": "This is some content",
      "category": {
        "name": "Code",
        "createdAt": "2020-11-13T11:48:10.351Z",
        "updatedAt": "2020-11-13T11:48:36.358Z",
        "id": "5fae727a8315da656fb3a8f1"
      },
      "createdAt": "2020-11-13T11:50:14.312Z",
      "updatedAt": "2020-11-13T11:50:14.312Z",
      "id": "5fae72f68e314b67609e05d1"
    }
  ],
  "totalDocs": 1,
  "limit": 10,
  "totalPages": 1,
  "page": 1,
  "pagingCounter": 1,
  "hasPrevPage": false,
  "hasNextPage": false,
  "prevPage": null,
  "nextPage": null
}
```