Use an external server uptime monitor

If you rely on an uptime monitor on your server, and your server crashes, it may not report that it has crashed. Using an external server uptime monitor however keeps you in the loop.

Best External Server Uptime Monitors

• Uptime Robot
• Pingdom
• Site 24x7

Change NODE_ENV=production on windows

Powershell use:

$env:NODE_ENV="production"

CMD use:
set NODE_ENV=production 

or for any environment use, make sure it's the npm package below and NOT the recent malware crossenv: e.g. 'typo squatting'
npm install --save -dev cross-env

Testing email campaigns on multiple devices

If you need to test emails and how they look on multiple devices, I recommend using Litmus. 

You should test how emails look on different devices because email html still uses tables, and webmail services strip out doctype, body, and head tags including inline css, meaning your fancy emails may look awful on some devices. Yes,you can resort to sending plain text emails,  but it'll definitely lack the panache you were seeking.

Free online UML websites

Best free UML online

Universal Modelling Language create plans and track the development cycle and can aid QA.
Both of these are free, and have all the features you want for a rich UML interface.

Umletino
Draw

Best paid UML 
Has github integration, and the price seems reasonable.  It's used by Google, Oracle, Cisco, Amazon etc

GenMyModel



Different approach
I personally, like repurposing 'mindmaps' just because they keep the plan simpler and it's fine if I'm doing something on my own without classes or rich details to keep track of.

https://app.mindmup.com
http://mindmapfree.com

Node.js email SMTP server

Haraka is an open source SMTP server written in Node.js which provides extremely high performance coupled with a flexible plugin system allowing Javascript programmers full access to change the behaviour of the server. It is used heavily in some high traffic sites inlcuding Craigslist that send 20million emails a day.

https://github.com/haraka/Haraka

10 useful middleware for a basic Express webapp

There was a time prior to Express 4.0 that most of the middleware listed was part of Express with  Connect, however this is now a separate project.  The following are basic middlewares dependencies to help wtih a basic webapp scaffold.


1. Connect 
npm install --save connect 
const connect = (require(connect));

This provides: 

basicAuth - basic access authorization for HTTPS and for easy development.

app.use(connect.bascAuth)(); 

body-parser  - parses json and urlencoded, for handling forms and AJAX request. You may have to install this separate as not part of Connect 3.0^ 

npm install --save body-parser 

app.use(require(bbody-parser)() );

compress - uses gzip to compress data good for slower mobile connections.

app.use(connect.compress);

directory - directory support for static files 
directory (app.use(connect.directory());

2. Formidable
npm install --save formidable

const formidable = require('formidable');

helpful for file uploads.

//example

app.post('/profiles/myPic', function(req, res) {

let form = new formidable.IncomingForm();

form.parse(req, function, fields, files) {

//...do something

res.redirect(303, '/file-uploaded');

  });

});

3. Cookie-parser
npm install --save cookie-parser
app.use(require(cookie-parser)(your secret goes here);
Easy for cookie management.

4. Express-session

npm install --save express-session

app.use(require(express-session)() );
Good for session IDs development only.

5. csurf
npm install --save csurf
app.use(require(csurf)());
Protects against Cross-site request forgery attacks.  Link after express-session.

6. errorhandler

npm install --save errorhandler
app.use(require(errorhandler)());

Good for development error handling

7. morgan

npm install --save morgan 
app.use(require(morgan)());

Logs all requests.

8. method-override 

npm install --save method-override 
app.use(require(method-override)());
Good for writing and testing APIs.

9. response-time 

npm install --save response-time
app.use(require(response-time)());

Helps performance tuning, gives response header an X-Response. 

10. vhost 

npm install --save vhost 
const vhost = require(vhost);
Helpful to manage subdomains in Express.