Simple Contact Manager

A lightweight full-stack web app for managing contacts, built with Node.js, Express, and Azure SQL Database. No frontend framework — just vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Stack

• Backend: Node.js, Express 5
• Database: Azure SQL Database (via mssql)
• Auth: Server-side sessions (express-session) with bcrypt password hashing
• Frontend: Vanilla JS, Inter font, plain CSS with custom properties

Getting started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• An Azure SQL Database instance
• The following tables created in your database (see Database schema)

Setup

1. Clone the repo and install dependencies:

   npm install

2. Create a .env file in the project root:

   PORT=3000
   DB_SERVER=your-server.database.windows.net
   DB_DATABASE=SimpleContactManager
   DB_USER=your-db-user
   DB_PASSWORD=your-db-password
   DB_PORT=1433
   SESSION_SECRET=replace-with-a-long-random-string
   

3. Create your first user:

   node create-user.js <username> <password>

4. Start the server:

   npm start

   The app will be available at http://localhost:3000.

Database schema

Run these in your Azure SQL database before starting the app.

CREATE TABLE Contacts (
  Id        INT IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY,
  FirstName NVARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
  LastName  NVARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
  Email     NVARCHAR(255) NULL,
  Phone     NVARCHAR(50)  NULL,
  CreatedAt DATETIME      DEFAULT GETUTCDATE(),
  UpdatedAt DATETIME      DEFAULT GETUTCDATE()
);

CREATE TABLE Users (
  Id           INT IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY,
  Username     NVARCHAR(100) NOT NULL UNIQUE,
  PasswordHash NVARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
  CreatedAt    DATETIME      DEFAULT GETUTCDATE()
);

API endpoints

All endpoints require an active session (login first).

Method	Path	Description
GET	/api/contacts	List all contacts
POST	/api/contacts	Create a contact
PUT	/api/contacts/:id	Update a contact
DELETE	/api/contacts/:id	Delete a contact

Project structure

server.js          # Express server, auth routes, contacts API
db.js              # Azure SQL connection pool
create-user.js     # One-time script to add a user
public/
  index.html       # Main contacts page (requires login)
  login.html       # Login page
  app.js           # Frontend logic
  styles.css       # Styles (CSS variables, no framework)